Like a lot of the details of the United States historical relations with the indigenous inhabitants of this land, the story of the Indian boarding school policy of the United States government has largely been written out of the history books. Yet, this was a major federal policy. And it had major impacts, positive and negative, on indigenous individuals, families, and communities. These impacts are still felt to this day. In retrospect, the policy was based on flawed thinking – despite the fact that it was clothed in at least the appearance of good intention. The flawed basis of the policy was that the all-out elimination of what is uniquely “Native,” and full-scale assimilation into the dominant society of the United States, was required in order to ensure the survival of individuals of Native descent. The policy was, at its core, a policy of cultural genocide. The negative impacts of the cultural genocide persist today. United States Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover (Pawnee) observed in 2000, when reflecting on the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ involvement in the policy: “The trauma of shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to the next, and manifests itself in the rampant alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence that plague Indian country. Many of our people live lives of unrelenting tragedy as Indian families suffer the ruin of lives by alcoholism, suicides made of shame and despair, and violent death at the hands of one another.”
Source: Native American Rights Fund. “Let All That Is Indian Within You Die!” Native American Rights Fund Legal Review 38 no. 2 (2013):1-20
