This wasn’t education. It was erasure.
For over a century, the United States ran a network of Indian boarding schools designed to strip Native children of their language, culture, and identity. They called it “civilizing.” What it really was: a federally funded machine of cultural genocide.
This is the history they buried. We’re digging it up.
Welcome to Carlisle: Where Identity Went to Die
In 1879, the first federal Indian boarding school opened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Its founder, Richard Henry Pratt, didn’t mince words:
“Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
That wasn’t a metaphor. It was the mission.
Children were taken from their homes—sometimes by force, sometimes under threat. They were renamed, shaved, uniformed, and forbidden to speak their language. Their ceremonies were banned. Their families were cut off.
This wasn’t about learning. It was about erasing.
🧠 What They Taught: Obedience, Labor, and Silence
Forget math and science. These schools had a different curriculum:
• English only. Speaking your Native tongue? Punishable offense.
• Christianity only. Traditional beliefs? Forbidden.
• Manual labor. Boys farmed. Girls cleaned. “Education” was code for exploitation.
The goal wasn’t to uplift—it was to assimilate. To break the spirit and rebuild it in the image of white America.
🩸 What They Endured: Abuse Wasn’t the Exception—It Was the System
Behind the gates, it got darker:
• Beatings. For speaking your language. For resisting. For existing.
• Sexual abuse. Widespread. Covered up. Unpunished.
• Neglect. Malnutrition, disease, and death were common.
Thousands of children died. Many were buried in unmarked graves, far from home. No names. No closure. Just silence.
📊 The Scale: This Wasn’t a Side Project—It Was a National Operation
• Over 400 schools across the U.S.
• More than 100,000 Native children taken.
• At least 53 burial sites confirmed—and counting.
This wasn’t a glitch in the system. It was the system.
🧬 The Fallout: Generations of Silence, Shame, and Survival
When survivors returned home, they didn’t come back whole. Many had lost their language, their culture, their sense of self. Some couldn’t reconnect. Some didn’t try. Some passed the trauma down—quietly, unknowingly.
Entire languages vanished. Ceremonies were forgotten. Families fractured.
This wasn’t just cultural loss. It was cultural theft.
🧨 The Cover-Up: How America Buried the Evidence
For decades, the government and churches denied everything. Records were destroyed. Testimonies ignored. Apologies delayed—or never given.
Only recently, under pressure from Native communities, has the truth started to surface. The Department of the Interior confirmed the abuse, the deaths, the intent.
But acknowledgment isn’t justice. And justice is still waiting.
🔥 The Resistance: They Tried to Erase a People. It Didn’t Work.
Native families fought back. Some hid their children. Some taught language in secret. Some sued. Some survived.
Today, survivors are speaking. Tribes are rebuilding schools, reviving languages, and demanding accountability.
This isn’t just history. It’s resistance. Ongoing. Unapologetic.
🧠 The Echo: The System Didn’t Die. It Just Changed Clothes.
• Foster care. Native kids are still removed at disproportionate rates.
• Public schools. Native history is still erased—or twisted.
• Land rights. Sovereignty is still under attack.
The boarding school era may be over. But the mindset? Still alive and well.
🧭 Final Take: This Wasn’t a Tragedy. It Was a Strategy.
The U.S. didn’t just try to erase Native culture. It built an entire infrastructure to do it—funded by Congress, run by churches, and buried by silence.
But the silence is breaking.
We don’t just tell stories. We expose systems. We archive resistance. We roast the lies and amplify the truth.
This isn’t about guilt. It’s about clarity. And clarity is power.
Absolutely. So just dive in whenever you’re ready and we can keep things rolling from there.
This is so heartbreaking! 😥
oh my Lord!