While abuses at boarding schools have dominated the news in neighboring Canada for years, things are very different in the United States. But new findings about the extent of widespread abuse and physical violence against indigenous children in American boarding schools may change that.
It recently emerged that not nine hundred, but at least 3,100 Indigenous children died in American boarding schools between 1828 and 1970. The Washington Post reported. The newspaper investigated more than four hundred boarding schools that forcibly separated Native American children from their families. The newspaper’s findings confirm and clarify previous federal investigations into abuses at these boarding schools.
According to the newspaper, children mainly died from infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid fever, pneumonia or fever. The boarding schools were a breeding ground for these diseases due to poor hygiene and harsh living conditions. In addition, more than a hundred children died due to suicide, accidents or suspicious circumstances that could indicate abuse.
In neighboring Canada, the discussion has been going on for years, partly thanks to persistent campaigning by indigenous groups. The gradual closure of Canadian schools in the 1980s and 1990s was accompanied by lawsuits from indigenous former students. Then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in 2008, along with a $5 billion compensation settlement.
In 2015, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission published a landmark report: at least 4,100 Indigenous children in 130 Canadian boarding schools have disappeared or died. In Canada too, children suffered from an unhealthy living environment and were subjected to violence, sexual abuse and heavy labor.
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This is still a big deal in Canada. Indigenous groups set up search parties to find the graves of missing children and retrieve their bones. In 2021, this led to the discovery of mass graves of hundreds of children several times. In 2023, the Canadian state settled for 2.8 billion Canadian dollars with indigenous Canadians in a reparations case.
Oblivion
Conditions within American boarding schools were much the same as Canadian ones, says Vincent Veerbeek, PhD researcher at the University of Helsinki. Veerbeek says by telephone that the American boarding schools fell into oblivion after a silent closure in the early 1970s, unlike the Canadian schools, which remained the subject of discussion due to the lawsuits that followed.
An explanation for this is previous reforms at American boarding schools, says Veerbeek. “In 1928, a federal investigative committee also concluded that abuses were taking place there. Reforms were then introduced to bring those schools more up to the level of government schools for white children.” Moreover, in the United States, most of those schools fell under the authority of the federal government, and were therefore easier to monitor. Canada mainly outsourced its management to religious bodies. In 2022, Pope Francis apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church for what happened there.
According to Veerbeek, the fact that the discussion in American society is now taking off is mainly due to better political representation of indigenous voices. “In 2018, two Native Americans were elected to Congress for the first time. One of them, Deb Haaland, now takes a key position.” In 2020, Haaland became Secretary of the Interior, the first Native American in the history of the United States. She initiated the American investigation in 2021, following the discovery of the mass graves in Canada.
“Now you see that there is gradually more recognition,” says Veerbeek. President Joe Biden became the first American president to bid publicly in October 2024 his apologiesat the erection of a memorial in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Reparations
Historians suspect that the number of fatalities from the boarding school system is even higher. Veerbeek too. “If you look at the discoveries made in Canada in 2021, it is not inconceivable that the same thing will happen in the US. Many cemeteries have disappeared.” Moreover, the children are those with contagious diseases have been sent back home not yet included in the figures.
The American study, presented in 2022, was the first official recognition of boarding school abuses. For many indigenous victims, recognition is important, but not enough. Some have been in compensation lawsuits with the federal government for years.
Canada has spent billions on reparations and settlements with indigenous Canadians since 2009. Given what the Canadian investigation revealed, it was not in the interest of the American government to conduct a thorough investigation itself, Veerbeek thinks. He thinks that American reparations will take a long time. “Compared to three or four years ago, a lot has really been done to get the discussion started. For example, Biden’s apology in Carlisle is of great importance. But in terms of public awareness, a lot still needs to happen in the United States before something like this happens.”