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https://theconversation.com/my-family-lived-the-horrors-of-native-american-boarding-schools-why-bidens-apology-doesnt-go-far-enough-242249>
"I am a direct descendant of family members that were forced as children to
attend either a U.S. government-operated or church-run Indian boarding school.
They include my mother, all four of my grandparents and the majority of my
great-grandparents.
On Oct. 25, 2024, Joe Biden, the first U.S. president to formally apologize for
the policy of sending Native American children to Indian boarding schools,
called it one of the most “horrific chapters” in U.S. history and “a mark of
shame.” But he did not call it a genocide.
Yet, over the past 10 years, many historians and Indigenous scholars have said
that what happened at the Indian boarding schools “meets the definition of
genocide.”
From the 19th to 20th century, children were physically removed from their
homes and separated from their families and communities, often without the
consent of their parents. The purpose of these schools was to strip Native
American children of their Indigenous names, languages, religions and cultural
practices.
The U.S. government operated the boarding schools directly or paid Christian
churches to run them. Historians and scholars have written about the history of
Indian boarding schools for decades. But, as Biden noted, “most Americans don’t
know about this history.”
As an Indigenous scholar who studies Indigenous history and the descendant of
Indian boarding school survivors, I know about the “horrific” history of Indian
boarding schools from both survivors and scholars who contend they were places
of genocide."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
