HORRIBLE

Interior Department Report Reveals That More Than 500 Indigenous Children Died at U.S. Boarding Schools

The Interior Department found that over 400 boarding schools in the United States forcibly assimilated Indigenous students, with over 500 of them dying at just 19 of those schools.

A new report from the Interior Department reveals that over 400 boarding schools operating in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries worked to assimilate Indigenous children with military and identity-based methods, including changing students’ names, cutting off their hair, and barring linguistic and cultural practices. Schools used forms of corporal punishment, like solitary confinement and the withholding of food, to enforce rules. The report found that just 19 boarding schools were responsible for the deaths of over 500 children, but the Department expects that number to rise as they continue their investigation. Officials have also begun to identify marked and unmarked graves of the victims. Bryan Newland, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs, said that the report could allow the country “to reorient federal policies to support the revitalization of Tribal languages and cultural practices.”