On this edition of Your Call, we’re discussing the roots of Indian boarding schools in the US, which were a model for Canada’s residential schools. The US hasn’t kept documentation of the true number of boarding schools, but historians believe there were more than 350 — twice as many as in Canada.
Researchers also believe there are similar burial sites at US boarding schools. Native communities are calling on the US to finally acknowledge its role in attempting to destroy Native cultures, languages, and families.
Guest:
Mary Annette Pember, citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe and national correspondent for Indian Country Today. Her mother Bernice was a survivor of the Saint Mary’s Catholic Indian Boarding School on the Ojibwe reservation in Odanah, Wisconsin.
Web Resources:
Indian Country Today, Mary Annette Pember: 'We won't forget about the children'
The Atlantic, Mary Annette Pember: Death by Civilization
Type Investigations, Mary Annette Pember: The Catholic Church Siphoned Away $30 Million Paid to Native People for Stolen Land
NPR: U.S. Boarding Schools Were The Blueprint For Indigenous Family Separation In Canada
The Washington Post, Deb Haaland: My grandparents were stolen from their families as children. We must learn about this history.
PBS, Sarah Elliott: Understanding the Origin of American Indian Boarding Schools
