Saving Sacred Lands

Author: Jocelyn P.

In the months after the announcement of the family separation policy introduced by the Trump administration, outrage and demands for immediately stopping this process were all over the news. And inevitably so, comparisons were made to past traumatic actions the US government has taken against outsider communities. Namely that of Native Americans. Indeed, family separation was too common to native communities during the late 1800s and early 1900s. With the Browning Ruling declaring that Native American parents were technically children themselves they could not determine where their children went to school (Peterson). This ruling left native families with no rights to keep their children. They had no say in when, where or how their children were educated, so the US government took it upon themselves to strip these children from their families and place them into boarding schools in order to “re-educate” them. The common phrase being “kill the Indiana, save the man”.

                These boarding school were in business to strip the children’s identities. They were meant to forcibly assimilate native children into American Christian society.  The condition in which they lived at these schools was horrible, however. The Browning ruling also stopped schools from just dismissing children if they were overflowing (Peterson). So, these schools were cramped and filled with “educators” who did not care about the children’s health and safety, both physical and mental. This generation of native children came from loving families, home cooked meals, being educated by their community. The boarding schools however put them in an environment that left them malnourished, as schools gave no effort to feed them appropriately (Peterson). Abuse ran rampant the goal was to rid the young generation of the “savagery”.

                Native boarding schools were not officially rid of until 1978 with the Indian Child Welfare Act that native parents gained the right to refuse their children be educated on off-reservation schools (Native American History and Culture). However today the trauma faced in those schools still lingers. The children who lived in them, now parents and grandparents, learned to hide and be ashamed of their culture. They were abused for speaking their native languages, so they stopped (Walker). And their children were not taught. Families were torn apart, only able to reconnect years later. Braydon White of the Aspen Institute writes about the account of a brother and sister who reconnected after years apart, only to find that the brother knew nothing about his heritage, just that he was native. Any and all knowledge he had of his native community had been lost because of the school. Another account of young people finally returning home but ashamed to be called native because they were indoctrinated with the idea that native people were “uncivilized and “not human” (White). The intergenerational trauma has a real impact with in the native community. Abuse survivors turned to alcohol and drugs in order to cope. And there’s also a cycle of abuse, left untreated abuse victims may express their feelings in further abuse toward their own family. And the native youth suicide rate in three times that of the national average. This shows a serious disparity in the mental health resources among the native population (Walker).

 Considering the current family separation issues facing migrant families, it shows that the US has not learn from its past atrocities. Accounts of abuse that migrant children are experiencing are now coming out. From a girl afraid to speak because she didn’t know Spanish, only her native tongue, and didn’t want to be hollered at like other children, to now multiple children dying because of neglect at these detention center. As the famous saying goes “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. And unfortunately, the US is repeating it. Let’s hope we stop before we further traumatize future generations.

Author Bio: Jocelyn P., is a student at IUPUI.




Sources:

Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools - American Indian Relief Council Is Now Northern Plains Reservation Aid, www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_boardingschools.

Peterson, Rebecca. The Impact of Historical Boarding Schools on Native American Families and Parenting Roles. University of Wisconsin, minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/66821/Peterson.pdf?sequence=8.

Walker, Taté. “The Horrifying Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools Hasn't Ended – Here's What You Need to Know.” Everyday Feminism, 12 Oct. 2015, everydayfeminism.com/2015/10/indian-boarding-school-legacy/.

White, Brayden Sonny. “Our Long History of Family Separation.” The Aspen Institute, 25 June 2018, www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/our-long-history-of-family-separation/.