My grandpa used to say, ‘Don’t forget these children.'
September 26, 2018 10:55 AM Subscribe
An untold number of indigenous children disappeared at US boarding schools. Tribal nations are raising the stakes in search of answers.
A coalition of Indigenous organizations — including the National Congress of American Indians, which represents 250 Indigenous nations, the International Indian Treaty Council, the Native American Rights Fund, and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition — has turned to the United Nations to demand that the U.S. government “provide a full accounting of the children taken into government custody under the U.S. Indian Boarding School Policy whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown.”
A coalition of Indigenous organizations — including the National Congress of American Indians, which represents 250 Indigenous nations, the International Indian Treaty Council, the Native American Rights Fund, and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition — has turned to the United Nations to demand that the U.S. government “provide a full accounting of the children taken into government custody under the U.S. Indian Boarding School Policy whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown.”
I fear it may be the same fate as children and women in Catholic Institutions in Ireland; dead and buried in unmarked graves. This included Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalen Laundries and Industrial Schools and orphanages. The Catholic Church and civil government have been much too close in Ireland for many years, so these things happened under the auspices of government sanctioned institutions. The level of abuse of all kinds, including deaths, is just coming out now. The RC Church in Ireland turned the brutal tactics of the English conquerors with their poor homes and cruelty inside on their own people once the English were driven out.
A book on this subject is , "The Adoption Machine: The Dark History of Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes and the Inside Story of how Tuam 800became a global scandal." It is by an adoptee born at one of these homes, Paul Jude Redmond. The Tuam 800 are the remains of 800 babies found in a cesspool at the Tuam Mother and Baby home in County Galway.
I believe this was also true in Canada where First Nation children were sent away to boarding schools and orphanages. There has been some effort there to address the years of abuse, but the damage has been done to many generations, just as to Native American children and families under various religious and government schemes to wipe out their culture, families, and heritage.
Also true of treatment of the indigenous people of Australia, children stolen, families split and terrible abuse because nobody cared about "disposable" people. The hideous heritage of the British Empire and all colonialism just keeps on giving and harming.
posted by mermayd at 11:44 AM on September 26, 2018 [6 favorites]
A book on this subject is , "The Adoption Machine: The Dark History of Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes and the Inside Story of how Tuam 800became a global scandal." It is by an adoptee born at one of these homes, Paul Jude Redmond. The Tuam 800 are the remains of 800 babies found in a cesspool at the Tuam Mother and Baby home in County Galway.
I believe this was also true in Canada where First Nation children were sent away to boarding schools and orphanages. There has been some effort there to address the years of abuse, but the damage has been done to many generations, just as to Native American children and families under various religious and government schemes to wipe out their culture, families, and heritage.
Also true of treatment of the indigenous people of Australia, children stolen, families split and terrible abuse because nobody cared about "disposable" people. The hideous heritage of the British Empire and all colonialism just keeps on giving and harming.
posted by mermayd at 11:44 AM on September 26, 2018 [6 favorites]
This shit is everywhere and people still refuse to believe it. It's one place where archaeologists can make a difference by providing "scientific" proof that breaks through peoples' complacency. Indigenous people, being the least empowered, may be last in line to break through the public consciousness. But there are many projects underway to counter fake history with unimpeachable physical evidence - a practice which shouldn't be necessary but somehow often is.
For example, the Tuam "home" in Ireland:
Once again, Ireland’s past had returned to haunt.
His voice trembling with passion, the prime minister, Enda Kenny, addressed the Irish legislature on what he called the “chamber of horrors” discovered in Tuam. In the “so-called good old days,” he said, Irish society “did not just hide away the dead bodies of tiny human beings.”
“We dug deep and we dug deeper still,” he said. “To bury our compassion, to bury our mercy, to bury our humanity itself.”
Or the Florida School for Boys:
The new report found that between 1900 and 1973, over 100 boys died at the Dozier school. The 1400-acre school was the site not only of a cemetery, but also of a number of unmarked graves. The investigation revealed that the school underreported deaths, including those that occurred for reasons like gunshot wounds and blunt trauma. Other deaths took place due to things like fire and influenza.
Many of the unmarked burial sites studied are thought to be of black students, who were segregated at the school. The team found that three times as many black students died and were buried at Dozier than white students, and that some of those boys were incarcerated for non-criminal charges like running away and incorrigibility. Black boys were less likely to be named in historical records, as well, reflecting the grim realities of reform school life in the segregated South.
Archaeologists are even having to get involved in the fight against Holocaust denial: .... archaeologists have met with resistance from a variety of sources as they have worked to expand our knowledge about these camps. One group of dissenters, predictably enough, is Holocaust deniers, who seem affronted by the gathering of physical evidence to describe atrocities they insist never occurred.
In Canada, I predict there will soon be a wave of archaeological studies documenting the missing and lost children from the Residential Schools which many Canadians still think were not all that bad (and other Indigenous concentration facilities around the world) - a process just starting. For example, the Secret Graves of the Brandon Residential School, archaeology and reconciliation, Researchers searching for child graves near abandoned Saskatchewan residential school, and in the States, Unmarked Graves at the Chemawa Indian School.
It's a chance for some little redemption for archaeology, a discipline with a dark past and very patchy allegiances in the present - Trowels for Truth, perhaps.
posted by Rumple at 11:46 AM on September 26, 2018 [18 favorites]
For example, the Tuam "home" in Ireland:
Once again, Ireland’s past had returned to haunt.
His voice trembling with passion, the prime minister, Enda Kenny, addressed the Irish legislature on what he called the “chamber of horrors” discovered in Tuam. In the “so-called good old days,” he said, Irish society “did not just hide away the dead bodies of tiny human beings.”
“We dug deep and we dug deeper still,” he said. “To bury our compassion, to bury our mercy, to bury our humanity itself.”
Or the Florida School for Boys:
The new report found that between 1900 and 1973, over 100 boys died at the Dozier school. The 1400-acre school was the site not only of a cemetery, but also of a number of unmarked graves. The investigation revealed that the school underreported deaths, including those that occurred for reasons like gunshot wounds and blunt trauma. Other deaths took place due to things like fire and influenza.
Many of the unmarked burial sites studied are thought to be of black students, who were segregated at the school. The team found that three times as many black students died and were buried at Dozier than white students, and that some of those boys were incarcerated for non-criminal charges like running away and incorrigibility. Black boys were less likely to be named in historical records, as well, reflecting the grim realities of reform school life in the segregated South.
Archaeologists are even having to get involved in the fight against Holocaust denial: .... archaeologists have met with resistance from a variety of sources as they have worked to expand our knowledge about these camps. One group of dissenters, predictably enough, is Holocaust deniers, who seem affronted by the gathering of physical evidence to describe atrocities they insist never occurred.
In Canada, I predict there will soon be a wave of archaeological studies documenting the missing and lost children from the Residential Schools which many Canadians still think were not all that bad (and other Indigenous concentration facilities around the world) - a process just starting. For example, the Secret Graves of the Brandon Residential School, archaeology and reconciliation, Researchers searching for child graves near abandoned Saskatchewan residential school, and in the States, Unmarked Graves at the Chemawa Indian School.
It's a chance for some little redemption for archaeology, a discipline with a dark past and very patchy allegiances in the present - Trowels for Truth, perhaps.
posted by Rumple at 11:46 AM on September 26, 2018 [18 favorites]
Many years ago, I worked for the Army and saw some of the paperwork on the Carlisle Indian School. There were only about 200 known graves on the property, but we suspected there were more, and even that seemed like too many.
posted by suelac at 12:02 PM on September 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by suelac at 12:02 PM on September 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
i mean. i've never seen a school that had any graves on the property, other than catholic schools on the grounds of active churches with parishoner burials. even one is too many.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:35 PM on September 26, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 1:35 PM on September 26, 2018 [7 favorites]
Exactly, what kind of school needs a fucking graveyard. From the Canadian TRC v.4:
The final report contains an entire volume dedicated to the children who died or went missing while attending residential schools. It also sheds light on the poor practices used at the schools to record the deaths, bury the dead, and inform the students' families.
It found that the government never established health and safety standards at its residential schools, and failed to enforce what minimal standards it had in place.
This failure was due to the government's "determination" to keep residential school costs low, the report said. It also resulted in "unnecessarily high death rates" at residential schools.
The commission found the following:
3,200 students died while attending residential schools from 1867 to 2000.
For 32 per cent of these deaths, the government and the schools did not record the name of the students who died.
For 49 per cent of these deaths, the government and the residential schools did not record the cause of death.
For 23 per cent of these deaths, the gender of the student was not recorded.
The majority of deaths took place before 1940. Prior to 1940, there were 1,150 deaths for which no name was provided. After 1940, there are 44 death reports that do not provide the student's name.
Many residential schools did not send the students’ bodies back to their home communities after they died. Instead, many were buried in cemeteries that have since been abandoned and are "vulnerable to accidental disturbance."
That's not mere carelessness, that's just racism.
This graph from TRC vo. 4 shows child mortality at Residential Schools 3 to 5 times as high as expected compared to non-Residential school children.
posted by Rumple at 1:56 PM on September 26, 2018 [13 favorites]
The final report contains an entire volume dedicated to the children who died or went missing while attending residential schools. It also sheds light on the poor practices used at the schools to record the deaths, bury the dead, and inform the students' families.
It found that the government never established health and safety standards at its residential schools, and failed to enforce what minimal standards it had in place.
This failure was due to the government's "determination" to keep residential school costs low, the report said. It also resulted in "unnecessarily high death rates" at residential schools.
The commission found the following:
3,200 students died while attending residential schools from 1867 to 2000.
For 32 per cent of these deaths, the government and the schools did not record the name of the students who died.
For 49 per cent of these deaths, the government and the residential schools did not record the cause of death.
For 23 per cent of these deaths, the gender of the student was not recorded.
The majority of deaths took place before 1940. Prior to 1940, there were 1,150 deaths for which no name was provided. After 1940, there are 44 death reports that do not provide the student's name.
Many residential schools did not send the students’ bodies back to their home communities after they died. Instead, many were buried in cemeteries that have since been abandoned and are "vulnerable to accidental disturbance."
That's not mere carelessness, that's just racism.
This graph from TRC vo. 4 shows child mortality at Residential Schools 3 to 5 times as high as expected compared to non-Residential school children.
posted by Rumple at 1:56 PM on September 26, 2018 [13 favorites]
My great-great grandma moved all over Kansas and Oklahoma during the mid to late 1800s and managed to avoid any of her children being sent to residential schools as far as I (and the Jesuits who've helped me look) have been able to determine. Unfortunately, her nieces and nephews weren't so lucky - many of them spent years at St. Mary's Mission residential school.
posted by elsietheeel at 2:39 PM on September 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by elsietheeel at 2:39 PM on September 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
My grandfather was sent to an Indian School in the U.S. I believe he graduated in 1916. It never occurred to me to ask him what school he attended while I had the chance. Maybe there's a reason he never really talked about it.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:40 PM on September 26, 2018
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:40 PM on September 26, 2018
"“It’s always worked for colonizers worldwide, you take the children and you break the family tie,” said Madonna Thunder Hawk"
So it goes in Australia, too. Reading this was like reading about the specialist boarding schools for indigenous kids over here, too. Everywhere the Empire went it's the same story. The steady, overt destruction of indigenous culture and the people who were there first, and then a century or two of bald faced denial.
The resilience of indigenous people is astounding. That they have as strong a connection to their past after generations of attempted genocide is a testament to how powerful that culture is.
posted by Jilder at 4:45 PM on September 26, 2018 [6 favorites]
So it goes in Australia, too. Reading this was like reading about the specialist boarding schools for indigenous kids over here, too. Everywhere the Empire went it's the same story. The steady, overt destruction of indigenous culture and the people who were there first, and then a century or two of bald faced denial.
The resilience of indigenous people is astounding. That they have as strong a connection to their past after generations of attempted genocide is a testament to how powerful that culture is.
posted by Jilder at 4:45 PM on September 26, 2018 [6 favorites]
Exactly, what kind of school needs a fucking graveyard. From the Canadian TRC v.4:
The final report contains an entire volume dedicated to the children who died or went missing while attending residential schools...
The commission found the following:
3,200 students died while attending residential schools from 1867 to 2000.
I had read the estimates at more like six thousand, but the exact figure will remain forever unknown, because who counts these things, tra-la-la. There are a lot of unmarked graves of children.
The residential schools are the bleakest bit of this country's history, and I suspect future generations will regard our general ignorance and complacency with a very dim view. History already has not been kind, and some of the terms used would be repurposed to even grimmer effect subsequently. In 1910, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott wrote to the British Columbia Indian Agent General, gently explaining the realities of kids dying of tuberculosis but how it was not a reason to alter the status quo:
And lest we think of this as ancient history, the last residential school closed in 1996. Jean Chretien was PM, apartheid was history and Mandela was President of the RSA, flip cell phones were widespread. and this country was still winding down its program of genocide through abduction and education.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:48 PM on September 26, 2018 [11 favorites]
The final report contains an entire volume dedicated to the children who died or went missing while attending residential schools...
The commission found the following:
3,200 students died while attending residential schools from 1867 to 2000.
I had read the estimates at more like six thousand, but the exact figure will remain forever unknown, because who counts these things, tra-la-la. There are a lot of unmarked graves of children.
The residential schools are the bleakest bit of this country's history, and I suspect future generations will regard our general ignorance and complacency with a very dim view. History already has not been kind, and some of the terms used would be repurposed to even grimmer effect subsequently. In 1910, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott wrote to the British Columbia Indian Agent General, gently explaining the realities of kids dying of tuberculosis but how it was not a reason to alter the status quo:
It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habituating so closely in the residential schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared toward a final solution of our Indian Problem.Emphasis mine, but Jesus Christ.
And lest we think of this as ancient history, the last residential school closed in 1996. Jean Chretien was PM, apartheid was history and Mandela was President of the RSA, flip cell phones were widespread. and this country was still winding down its program of genocide through abduction and education.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:48 PM on September 26, 2018 [11 favorites]
I was going to point out Rumple's links.
posted by PinkMoose at 5:54 PM on September 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by PinkMoose at 5:54 PM on September 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
There's a move to have a day of remembrance for the victims of residential schools made an official holiday in Canada. As far as I can tell, it's just a matter of pinning down a date that's acceptable to all parties. It's not nearly enough and it seems like an oddly tone deaf move, when many native reserves in the country don't have clean drinking water.
Canadians like to congratulate ourselves on the relative lack of racism here, but our treatment of First Nations people's has an awfully long way to go.
posted by peppermind at 6:01 PM on September 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
Canadians like to congratulate ourselves on the relative lack of racism here, but our treatment of First Nations people's has an awfully long way to go.
posted by peppermind at 6:01 PM on September 26, 2018 [3 favorites]
The horrific colonial tactic of stealing Indigenous children and imprisoning them in boarding schools was indeed widespread. Sept. 29 is Orange Shirt Day here in Canada, a day meant to honour survivors and remember those who did not survive.
At the end of that previous thread gusandrews points out that orange shirts have a different meaning in the US; Indigenous children were forced to wear them so they would be easily spotted if they tried to escape the boarding schools .
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:52 PM on September 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
At the end of that previous thread gusandrews points out that orange shirts have a different meaning in the US; Indigenous children were forced to wear them so they would be easily spotted if they tried to escape the boarding schools .
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:52 PM on September 26, 2018 [2 favorites]
Emphasis mine, but Jesus Christ.
Hitler famously got a lot of his ideas from the US Eugenics movement of the 1920s. I wonder if that particular turn of phrase came with them.
posted by acb at 3:47 AM on September 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
Hitler famously got a lot of his ideas from the US Eugenics movement of the 1920s. I wonder if that particular turn of phrase came with them.
posted by acb at 3:47 AM on September 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
That's not mere carelessness, that's just racism.
I personally call it genocide. It still floors me that genocide was going on in my country right up to when I was a young adult and really I only heard about it a year or two before the Truth and Reconciliation committee started.
posted by warriorqueen at 3:52 AM on September 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
I personally call it genocide. It still floors me that genocide was going on in my country right up to when I was a young adult and really I only heard about it a year or two before the Truth and Reconciliation committee started.
posted by warriorqueen at 3:52 AM on September 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
Attempted.
Attempted genocide.
Indigenous people are still here. They aren't part of the past. 1996, as ricochet biscuit pointed out. This is news, not history.
posted by Jilder at 5:30 AM on September 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
Attempted genocide.
Indigenous people are still here. They aren't part of the past. 1996, as ricochet biscuit pointed out. This is news, not history.
posted by Jilder at 5:30 AM on September 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
True! Attempted.
posted by warriorqueen at 7:21 AM on September 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by warriorqueen at 7:21 AM on September 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
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I don't know how much more I can take. I used to think humanity was basically good. Not so much anymore.
posted by cooker girl at 11:31 AM on September 26, 2018 [11 favorites]