AFP, published on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 11:22 p.m.
Cut off from their families and their cultures, “tens of thousands” of children from indigenous communities in the United States were forcibly assimilated for 150 years into federally run residential schools, where they were victims of abuse. , according to a report released Wednesday.
« As the federal government drove the country westward, it exterminated, eradicated and assimilated Native Americans as well as the natives of Alaska and Hawaii, their languages, cultures, religions, traditional practices and even the history of our communities, » said Deb Haaland, the interior minister who manages Indian Affairs.
A member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe in New Mexico, Deb Haaland is the first Native American minister in United States history.
It presented a first report of a hundred pages on the « federal system of residential schools for Indians », a network of thousands of schools run by the government or religious institutions between 1819 and 1969 and which had « a dual purpose of cultural assimilation and spoliation of the territories of indigenous peoples », according to a press release.
« For more than a century, tens of thousands of children have been separated from their communities, » said Deb Haaland.
The minister had launched a major investigation in 2021 after the discovery in Canada of anonymous burials of indigenous children on the sites of former boarding schools run by the Catholic Church. Since then, more than a thousand graves have been identified by Canadian First Nations.
– Corporal punishment –
The « federal Indian boarding school system » totaled 408 schools located in 37 states and US territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and seven in Hawaii, the report compiled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs said.
He « deployed systematic, militarized methods of identity alteration in an attempt to assimilate through education » the children of these Native American communities, including giving them English-speaking names or cutting their hair.
Schools discouraged or prevented children from speaking their language and focused on technical education or manual labor « with job prospects often unrelated to the American industrial economy, further disrupting tribal economies, » according to the report.
In these establishments, the rule was often enforced through corporal punishment such as flogging, beating and shackling, solitary confinement and starvation, the report said, adding that older children were forced to punish the younger ones.
“Many children have never returned home, each of them is a missing member of the family”, recalled Ms. Haaland, visibly very moved by the evocation of this part of American history which is still felt. as « intergenerational trauma » by Indigenous communities.
Burial sites, identified or anonymous, were thus discovered near 53 boarding schools. About 19 of these facilities « account for more than 500 deaths of Native American, Alaskan and Hawaiian children, » according to the report.
– « Healing process » –
The office will continue its investigation to determine the total number of children having integrated these schools and the total number of burials in the country, then to identify the children buried on these sites, explained the minister in charge of Indian Affairs, Bryan Newland.
The authorities, who are continuing their investigation, expect to discover « thousands or tens of thousands » of victims, underlined Mr. Newland. « In addition to boarding schools, there were asylums, orphanages, dormitories and non-federal boarding schools. »
Deborah Parker, an official with the Native American organization NABS which investigates these residential schools, said she would continue to fight « until the United States is fully answerable for the genocide committed against Native American children ».
The National Congress of Native Americans (NCAI), the leading organization of tribal nations, hailed a report that « marks a new era of federal government accountability. »
But, he added in a statement, much remains to be done for « truth, justice and reconciliation ».
For Bryan Newland, « this report is not the end of the journey, it is the beginning » of a « healing process in this country ».
Deb Haaland said she had the support of President Joe Biden. « We have a government and a president who fully understands the duties of the United States to the Indian tribes, » she said.
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