Investigating The Tragic History Of Federal Indian Boarding Schools

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🗓️ 21 May 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Last year the remains of 215 children were found in unmarked graves on the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children in British Columbia. The news was shocking, but among Indigenous people of Canada and survivors of the country's boarding school system, it was not a surprise. For generations there had been stories of children taken away from their parents never to be heard from again. Those who did return told of neglect, abuse, and forced assimilation.

It's a brutal history that the United States and Canada share.

Shortly after the unmarked graves were found in Canada, US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland called for an investigation into US boarding schools. Her first report, released last week, identified more than 400 institutions operated or supported by the US government. At 53 of these schools, there are marked and unmarked burial sites with the remains of children who died there.

We hear stories from some of the survivors of the boarding schools and speak with Secretary Haaland about the ongoing investigation and a year-long listening tour to bear witness to survivors and facilitate healing.

This episode contains discussions of child abuse that some listeners may find disturbing.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I rise today to acknowledge and honor that 215 children who did not return home from
0:08.2	the Camelops Indian Residential School.
0:10.5	Saul Mamakwai is a member of Canada's King Fisher Lake First Nation, and he is also a member
0:16.3	of Ontario's provincial parliament.
0:19.2	Last year he managed to make himself heard over the shouts of anti-lockdown protesters
0:24.6	as he spoke with deep feeling on the floor of parliament about the discovery of the remains
0:29.2	of 215 children found in unmarked graves on the site of a former residential school for
0:34.7	Indigenous children in British Columbia.
0:37.1	Indigenous people across the country are hurting.
0:41.5	We are in pain, remembering all those who have lost in the destruction of what residential
0:50.6	schools has left behind.
0:53.3	When news of the discovered remains broke last year, many people were shocked.
0:58.0	But among the Indigenous people of Canada and survivors of the country's boarding school
1:01.6	system, it was no surprise.
1:04.3	For generations there had been stories.
1:07.1	Children taken away from their parents never to be heard from again.
1:11.1	And among those who did return, there were more stories of neglect and emotional and
1:15.8	physical abuse.
1:17.9	It is a great open secret that our children lie on these properties of former schools.
1:25.0	An open secret that Canadians can no longer look away from.
1:30.6	It is a brutal history that the United States and Canada share.
1:34.8	For more than a century, tens of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their
	...

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