We had a long thread about abuses in such schools in Canada; which ended (at least temporarily) with a question about abuses in the USA, to which someone else pointed out entirely reasonably that it was off topic for that thread.
So, a couple of years later, I’ve been reminded of that by coming across a Washington Post story about abuses in the USA; and don’t see any existing thread to post it in. (No, discobot, your suggestions are as usual entirely unuseful.) While much of the story focuses on sexual abuse and Catholic schools, other types of abuse and schools run by other groups are also discussed.
Articles like this just reinforce my loathing for religious orders. Whenever the religious right starts moaning about how persecuted they are, I just remember these sorts of stories.
The biggest problem wasn’t the sexual abuse, which didn’t happen everywhere and wasn’t officially condoned. The biggest problem was the cultural genocide which was the stated purpose of these schools.
Sadly this is a problem with many institutions charged with the care of children. It could be Olympic gymnastics or other sports, public schools, music programs, Scouts, etc., etc. I imagine some people are specifically attracted to those arenas because that’s where their victims are, but I imagine others are more opportunistic predators. What I do know is that we still haven’t heard about abuse stemming from drag queen story hours at public libraries.
Yep. In America the schools were not hotbeds of abuse. And we “meant well”
Well, yes but from the Ops cite- that was created under a U.S. government policy to strip Native American children of their identities. Of course that wasnt the original idea.
The Church didn’t run out and capture these kids and start abusing them. They were simply the low bidder in some cases during the US Government’s plan to “modernize the Indians”.
Now, the idea of the schools wasn’t so bad- teach them English, reading, writing etc, so they could get a more skilled job “in the real world”. Get them vaccinated, some healthcare, etc.
But then it turned into a sort of “Get rid of their language and backwards culture” with also -in some cases the kids were taken away by force. Like so many good ideas it went bad.
Yep.
The good idea government plan went pretty damn bad pretty fast. They just went too far. Schools, healthcare- fine- but forced indoctrination, etc- it just went bad.
Watch Reservation Dogs. It’s a great show. For some of the older characters, it depicts the experiences they had in such schools. It also has the Deer Lady give some abusers their comeuppance.
School itself, for many children has been a hotbed of many abuses for, well since it first began.
Corporal punishment is still handed out as a correction for some children. When I was a student paddling was still done. The Principal of my elementary school walked up and down the cafeteria with his “board of education” in hand. If you earned a paddling all they needed was the rule breaker, the paddler and a witness.
Before that,
Dunce caps were popular. Caning happened up until the early 20 century.
Rulers applied to the palms were considered really painful
Dentition could be a study hall or after school. Arbitrary times.
Embarrassing corner standing.
We had wall standing on the playground. You cause trouble out there you were assigned a period of minutes to go stand face to the wall.
If you were fighting you might have “sit” on the wall. Bent knees, back pressed to the wall.
Not even mentioning sexual harassment, and abuse. Actual rape.
There was systematic bullying. Teachers using other students in a wrong headed attempt to shame you into complying with the rules for whatever infraction.
What have we done to our children?
Native American children like all disenfranchised students have always been subjected the higher levels of all these
I always thought it funny, the rule was they couldn’t use their hand, but, yeah, great idea here, let’s get a piece of board and whip these children into good behavior. That oughta work real well.
The Principal of my highschool had a famous Razor Strap named Slash.
I knew no person in school who knew what a Razor Strap was. Of course we thought the most horrifying things.
The thing is Mr. Ingram never paddled, whipped or hit anyone. He was a kind, patient gentleman.
Same for the gym “coach” at our school. There are legions of now-adults who dreaded the tortures of gym class, and whose self esteem was nearly irreparably damaged by the sadistic fucks who ran them. It was not on the scale of what happened to Indian kids, but the damage to developing children was significant.
They weren’t forcibly taken from their homes, forcibly dressed in another culture’s clothes and forbidden to use their own, required to use a foreign language and beaten for using their own, required to go through the rituals of a foreign religion and forbidden to even acknowledge their own as a religion, told that everything their parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents had taught them was a batch of devilish lies, and if they died of their treatment buried without their families present.
Yes, I think we all know that children in general were sometimes hit in school (and I believe in some places still are). But no, children in general in the USA were not put through what these children were put through, and I think that a discussion of paddling in general is rather a distraction from the intent of the thread.
I went on a trip when I was 11 in 1987 to a Navajo reservation that could have been part of this subject. We went to help with a vacation Bible school class. I sat in a classroom with the Navajo students. I didn’t see any abuse but I was a visitor and didn’t ask any questions. Nevertheless there’s my regret for participating in that way.
By 1987, the worst of it was over. Most likely, the kids you were working with were Christians voluntarily (or at least, their parents were).
EDIT: And they probably weren’t cut off from their traditional culture, either. They were probably still encouraged to learn their own language, etc., and many Native Americans have found ways to reconcile their traditional religions with Christianity (and modern Christians have found much to learn from, too).
As do I, especially since I was a responder, not an initiator. Alaska Natives also went through a version of “Americanization” at boarding schools, taken (or sent) from villages to be educated in a more ‘civilized’ manner. There were positive results, according to studies that were made, but there was also the trauma of separation, and the difficulty of reintegrating back into their own culture and families. “How you gonna get 'em back on the farm, once they’ve seen Gay Paree.” In 1976, the state began building schools in rural areas that had 10 or more school-age children.
