Study Finds US Assimilated Native American Children From More Than 400 Federal Boarding Schools

A recent study, which is part of the country's Indian Boarding School Initiative, found that the United States forcibly assimilated Native American children from more than 400 federal boarding schools nationwide.

The program led to more than 50 associated burial sites, a figure that could grow exponentially as the research continues to unfold more details. The report, which was released on Wednesday by the Interior Department, expands the number of schools that have been known to have operated for more than a century.

Indian Boarding Schools

The schools started in the early 19th century and coincided with the removal of many tribes from their ancestral lands. The boarding schools' dark history, in which children were taken from their families and prohibited from speaking their Native American languages and abused, has been felt deeply across Indian Country and through several generations.

Many of the forcibly assimilated children in the schools never returned home to their families or tribes. The investigation into the controversy has discovered more than 500 deaths at 19 different schools. However, the Interior Department said the death toll would likely increase to the thousands or even tens of thousands, as per NPR.

The report said that many of the children were buried and left in unmarked or poorly maintained burial sites, far from their Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, the Native Hawaiian Community, and families. More often than not, hundreds or even thousands of miles was the distance between their final resting place and their homes.

Last year, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the federal Indian Boarding School Initiative that outlines some of the conditions that Native American children at the time endured. It also featured a list of the boarding schools in the country and identified more than 50 marked or unmarked burial sites.

According to CNN, the review found that from 1819 to 1969, there were 408 federal schools located in 37 different states. It also discovered that the greatest concentration of schools was found in what is now the state of Oklahoma which had 76 institutions. Arizona came second with 47, and New Mexico came third with 43.

Strictly Systematized Lifestyle

The children and teenagers brought to the schools were subject to "systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies" by the federal government. This included being given English names, getting haircuts, wearing military or other uniforms, and being banned from exercising their religions.

The rules that the government then used "were often enforced through punishment, including corporal punishment, such as solitary confinement." The list of consequences included flogging, withholding food, whipping, slapping, or cuffing,

The Indian Boarding Schools were mostly located at active or decommissioned military sites across the United States. The report added that every single day the children were inside was so strictly systematized that they had "little opportunity to exercise any power of choice."

The investigation also found that there was "rampant physical, sexual, and emotional abuse" and noted that disease, malnourishment, overcrowding, and lack of health care were problems within the schools. Some institutions were also found to have forced several children to sleep in one bed, CBS News reported.