The Guise of Assimilation

By Co-Editor Margaret Drew

The discovery of children's bodies on the grounds of Canadian and U.S. "Indian Schools"  is bringing the beginnings of a reckoning of the cruelty inflicted upon native people by both governments.  U.S. history disguised the deliberate ripping apart of Native families as an attempt to assimilate the children.  The Europeans made no attempt to honor the culture of Native peoples nor "assimilate" into established the established cultures of the Americas upon contact.  As with other actions taken against Native peoples, this particular cruelty was another effort to eliminate Native peoples and their heritage.  Those who survived the "boarding schools" were highly traumatized.  The schools were more like prisons.  Children were sexually, emotionally, and physically abused.  They lived in filthy conditions and were forced to accept the religion of their captors.  Many died because of the abusive conditions, others died during escape attempts.  Both day and boarding schools were in existence until the 1960s.  During that decade the child welfare system continued the policy of separating Native children from their parents, this time by placing Native children in white foster homes,  Canadian Native people refer to this practice as The Sixties Scoop.  

Secretary of the Interior Deborah Haaland ordered an investigation into U.S. Indian schools.  In a Washington Post Op-Ed she wrote:  “Though it is uncomfortable to learn that the country you love is capable of committing such acts, the first step to justice is acknowledging these painful truths and gaining a full understanding of their impacts so that we can unravel the threads of trauma and injustice that linger.”  Recently the Presidents of the American and Canadian Bar Associations called for full funding of the investigation.  A resolution endorsing the same overwhelmingly recently passed the ABA House of Delegates.