WEBVTT - 199. Inherited Wounds : Indigenous Boarding School System 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.520 I have no delicious friends. And welcome to Who Did 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.079 What Now? The history podcast that is not your history 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.800 class with me your host Katie Charlewood, History Harlotte and 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.720 reader of books. You know, I really need to work 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.319 on my VoiceCare because, like I mean, I've got my 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.560 throat coat tea, you know, I have my little strep 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:40.479 souls and stuff. But my goodness, I really strained my 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.280 voice a lot. Like this time I was in Dublin 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:48.800 from my friend show The Fabulous, the Amazing, the Astounding 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:53.560 Doctor Zmiel Luise James. So I was there to see 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:57.760 her Kinky History the egg Planter, and my goodness, I 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.000 was thrilled to see her and so In and Chris 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.040 again and I got to meet Eggie the Eggplant and 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.759 it was it was a very fun time. Now Esmey 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:12.399 is so talented. Like we went to dinner and my 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.960 friend Shawna joined us, and it was such a good 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:21.160 show and so many mutuals were there, Like I even 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.399 got my own Panto moment where somebody went that's Katie 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.520 Charlwood and the first and percent and went, oh no 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.880 it isn't. I was just like, oh, yes, it is TDA. 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.559 Although someone at one point thought I was like doctor 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.880 Kate Lester, and I was like, listen, I'll take the compliment. 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:42.560 And then I said it to someone else and they 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:44.480 were like, well, I've never seen the two of you 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.000 in the same room at the same time. It's like, 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:50.600 ohs I just two historians with curly hair and regional accents. 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:57.280 Like yeah, but I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Katie, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.320 quite your jibbel jabbel in fact me, in fact you, 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.920 I will. But first we've got to get our source on. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:13.239 Our sources are my people. The Zoo by Luther standing Bear, 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:20.919 American Indian Stories by z It Calla, Saw Indian school 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:26.919 Days by Basil Johnston, Resistance and Renewal by Celia Haig Brown, 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:34.120 Building the Bravelton by Daniel Moretti, Legholts and buck Woodward, 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:40.720 Unspeakable by doctor Gwyn Atchid and Eileen Horn. Education and 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:49.960 Extinction by David Wallace Adams and I also and Boarding 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:56.919 School Healing dot Org. I was hitting comfortably good, then 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:04.200 let's begin. By the time the children reached the school grounds, 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.000 it was nightfall. They were led towards an open door 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:16.239 where bright lights flooded. The children trembled Exhausted, they lined up, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:21.280 their photos taken. Then they were stripped of their clothes 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:27.680 and any belonging that reminded them of home. At seven 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:33.240 years old, she kicked and screamed, scratching and clawing at 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.440 the hands that dragged her across the hard wooden boards. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.280 She fought as they carried her down the stairs. She 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.840 threw her body, convulsing, attempting to escape, but she was 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.920 still tied to the wooden chair, not so tight she 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:56.760 could barely feel her hands. The cold blades of the 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:02.080 scissors against her neck, the sharp soud as they gnawed 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:07.760 through her braids, hacking away is She fought against those blades. 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.960 Within moments, the braid that had taken years to grow 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:17.799 lay at her feet, a silent reminder that every child 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.760 brought through those doors was expected to leave something behind. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:26.960 It's July twenty twenty six, a time of recording and 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:31.600 time of release. Now. July twenty six is the two 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:36.800 hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Continental Congress approving the 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:43.159 Final Worlding on the Declaration of Independence. So it's also 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:49.839 Bipop Mental Health Awareness Month. And yes, I am aware 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.040 of the irony of this being shared by the human 0:04:53.080 --> 0:05:02.480 equivalent of a mayonnaise wonderbred sandwich. Which is why when 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:08.120 I talk about history, especially history relating to other nations 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:15.080 and cultures and ethnic groups, it's usually because white people 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:22.560 did some stuff, really, really any good. And it's like, 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:26.240 when I was doing the Black History Month, someone said 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.200 that it's not black history, it's white history regarding black people, 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:36.760 and they're not wrong. And this month I'm going to 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:41.200 be spending it talking about how the ussay the country, 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.920 the society, the culture, how it exists, how it came 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:46.800 to be. And I know I'm not going to be 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.080 able to cover everything, but it would be a disservice 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.920 to talk about the history of the country and not 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:56.359 cover the people used to get it there and the 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:01.960 effect that I had on them. So I'm going to 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:08.520 be discussing systemic abuse, racial violence, colonialism, racism. It is 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.640 not going to be pleasant, it's not going to be gentle. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:15.560 And if you think that this might be too much, 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.880 if you think this is going to be very difficult 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:19.440 for your listen now it's going to be too heavy, 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:24.680 I understand, and it might be time to exit stage 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.919 left and we will catch you next time, because today 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:37.960 I'm talking about inherited wounds, indigenous boarding schools, and historical trauma. 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.080 Throughout this episode, I'll probably be using many out of 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:51.200 date terms in quotes and such for historical accuracy when necessary. Again, 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:57.599 it's not pleasant, but we have to understand how people 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.880 were treated at the time, and I'm going to try 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:05.400 and be as considerate as I can. But I'm not 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.039 going to hide what history did, because there's enough people 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.760 trying to do that already. And you might be wondering 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.960 what is historical trauma? And I'm glad you asked, because 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:21.880 I will tell you. Historical trauma is a multi generational 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:26.160 trauma experienced by a specific cultural, racial, or ethnic group. 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.440 It is the build up of emotional and psychological wounding 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:37.520 of that group across generations, starting from massive population level 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:44.800 traumatic events like colonization, slavery, or genocide, and descendants may 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.320 exhibit trauma related symptoms without having lived through the original event. 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.520 It can manifest as survivor guilt, unresolved grief, and a 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:03.080 deep rooted distrust in authorities and institutions. And there are 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:08.480 other disparities like higher rates of depression and cardiovascular disease. 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.000 And we see this through so many cultures and groups, 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:19.440 Holocaust survivals, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Gottamore, the Nakba, 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.640 the Black community in the USA, the Trail of Tears, 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:29.800 and of course the indigenous boarding schools. Sometimes you'll see 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:35.320 them called the Indian boarding schools or residential schools. The 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:42.520 terms will move around depending on the era. The question 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:48.599 is how did government run boarding schools aimed at assimilation, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:55.920 reshape indigenous identity, family systems, and mental health across generations. 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:02.080 History doesn't exist in a vacuum, so let's slip into 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:07.680 some context. In the fifteenth century, several small European countries 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:11.680 decided they wanted more I mean, I say countries. A 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.680 lot of it was monarchies and empires. I'm actually going 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.240 to go back a little bit further. Actually, so the 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:24.400 medieval way, which predates this, people didn't swear fealty to land. 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.560 It was to a king, which is why a king 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.000 of one country, say England, would have ownership of parts 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:36.199 of France like Cali, because you weren't connected to the land, 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.240 you were connected to the ruler. And our idea of 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:46.200 geography is fairly new historically speaking, because geography is political, 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:52.520 like that's how the bodes exist. Areas would be like 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.480 under the control of different rulers, and it was the 0:09:55.559 --> 0:10:02.599 rulers who people had their allegiance to, not necessarily the country. 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.600 And in the early modern period these countries they knew 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.800 if our lands existed, and in a combination of fomo 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:19.040 and rivalry, they set out to discover lands, establish trade routes, 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.559 and fill up the privy pus because like a lot 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:27.200 of these countries were consistently fighting each other and as 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:31.720 such they needed money to fund all the wars, and 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.680 so they're very much into this idea of ownership convened 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.480 with the concept that religion mattered modern race. But we 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:43.000 will get to that another day. The Portuguese started colonizing 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.640 the American continent, as did the Spanish, the French, the Dutch, 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:52.800 and of course the British. Between them, they had alliances 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.280 and wars and trade deals, and it did provide us 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.280 with pirates, which is the fun part of all of 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:05.600 this history. However, the rest of it not really great. Otherwise. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:12.560 The Spanish were colonizing so well that England was impressed, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.880 and so they tried to colonize North America based on 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:23.320 what they called the Spanish model. The English established a 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.560 colony of Roanoke that mysteriously disappeared after being abandoned for 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:33.640 several years and no one actually looking for the colonists, 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:38.719 even though they had left a forwarding address. We know 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:44.720 where they went. They joined tribes, the one that it 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:49.320 was just over there, a tribe that mysteriously, you know, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.000 years later, had all of these blonde haired, blue eyed 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:57.080 children who were using European tools. And they're like, I 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:01.960 wonder how this happened. G whiz, rub those little gray 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:07.920 cells together and figure it out. So they tried other colonies. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.920 There was the cubid colony Newfoundland, which failed, and there 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:16.600 was also the Problem Colony in Maine, and then finally 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:22.520 the first permanent colony, Jamestown. Now, people who don't know 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.040 their history, they will try and tell you that this 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.960 was a flourishing colony from the get go and it 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:32.840 didn't have any issues whatsoever. But it struggled so much 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:37.120 so that the colonists resorted to cannibalizing a teenage girl. 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:42.640 And it wasn't as if they just you know, cooked 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.000 her and cot up. They found tooth marks, human tooth 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:52.360 marks on her skull, like they gnawed at her. They 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:57.959 probably sucked the marrow from her bones. The colonists were 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:03.680 also aided massively by the Powatan Confederacy. They provided food, 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.400 They showed them how to survive on the land, They 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.800 helped them with shelter, They traded with them, like, they 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:15.320 had a lot of help just to get through like 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.960 the first winter and things like. There was so much 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.240 help by the indigenous people because that's just what they did, 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:29.880 you know, And the settlers, yeah, took it off for granted, 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:36.480 because the settlers believed that they could claim land and 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:42.920 basically pushed out native people, thus causing tensions. This led 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:50.120 to disputes, arguments, and wars. When information returned home about 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.880 how the colony was doing so well, more money was 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:58.680 thrust into colonies by their various governments and rulers and businessmen. 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:07.079 More colonists became entitled. As a result, you had territorial 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.760 expansion with regions like New France, New Spain, New Netherlands, 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:15.920 New Sweden. There were Russian colonies and English colonies, and yeah, 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:21.840 a lot of the time they were also fighting each other. Eventually, 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.320 the thirteen British colonies unified and became the United States. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:31.600 Followed by the Revolutionary War or the War of Independence, 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:36.640 dependent on how you call it. There were a lot 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:41.200 of factors in this, you know, that led to this 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:46.720 War of Independence, this Revolutionary War, including the banning of 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:50.320 the Transatlantic slave trade, the fact that Britain wanted a 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.160 boundary line along the Appalachian Mountains to leave the Indigenous 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.360 people on one side and the British colonies on the other. 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:03.080 And you know, the colonies wanted to expand they wanted 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.880 to continue doing that. And you know, also that whole 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.280 thing about taxes. But they all played a part. But 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:14.520 like you find that certain people have a habit of 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.880 just screaming taxation with a representation, and it's like that's 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.360 not the whole story. That's like one third of this. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.560 But yeah, they weren't super into taxes either. Where the 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.640 United States formed and the Treaty of Paris signed in 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.400 seventeen eighty three, the Indigenous people were treated like persona 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:41.680 non grata and faced marginalization and displacement, ignored by the 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:47.080 new US government. Ignored by the US government. Their ancestral 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:51.880 homelands were claimed as spoils of war, with white settlement 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:58.640 pushing westward. So when I say ancestral, I mean ancestral, 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:05.760 like there's like Blackfoot remains going back at least eighteen 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.720 thousand years, so yeah, they've been there for a while. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.960 The aftermath of the war brought treaties and landlass. Because 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.800 many tribes had aligned with the British, the US treated 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:25.360 them like conquered enemies. Has caused the rapid expansion of 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:29.000 American territory and forced tribes to surrender huge tracks of 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:33.280 land through bullshit treaties that were not only coercive, but 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:39.760 were often backed on. Like they backtracked on these treaties, 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.440 they were worth the paper they were written in. The 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:48.960 displacement led to inter tribal wars and resistance, and then, 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:55.640 of course, the policies. Official US policies of assimilation and 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.880 forced removal were established, with treaties designed to try and 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:07.760 form indigenous economies into century European style agriculture. Say, the 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.520 federal government had no intention of letting Indigenous people continue 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.840 to live their lives according to their own cultures, spirituality 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:21.800 or economies. They had to be snuffed out and americanized. 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:31.399 This was about forcing assimilation. Kill the Indian, save the man. 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.800 The federal government wanted to strip Indigenous children of their 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.359 culture and heritage, but they needed to ensure that they 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.879 had little or nothing to return to. A series of 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:54.000 acts were passed. The Indian Removal Act of eighteen thirty 0:17:54.720 --> 0:18:02.160 authorized by President Andrew Jackson to negotiate with southern tribes 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:07.720 for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River, 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:14.360 which triggered the Trail of Tears. It was effectively a 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:21.160 death march. The Fourteenth Amendment of eighteen sixty eight stated 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:28.480 that anyone born on American soil was an American citizen. However, 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:35.879 this was deemed not to apply to the Indigenous people 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:42.600 of America. The DAWs Act of eighteen eighty seven dismantled 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:48.080 communal tribal land ownership, bringing it down into small allotments, 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.679 allowing the government to confiscate and sell over ninety million 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:59.119 acres of surplus tribal land to non native settlers. The 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.560 Curtiss Act of eighteen ninety eight abolished tribal courts and governments, 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:09.320 forcing tribes to comply with federal laws. It was divide 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:15.479 and conquer. Between all this, the European settlers had spread 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:20.560 disease amongst Indigenous people It is estimated that fifty five 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:25.919 to one hundred million Indigenous people lost their lives as 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:35.399 a result of contracting colonizer diseases. The federal government wanted 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:41.400 assimilation and so the utilized missionaries, which are typically at 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:47.240 the forefront of colonization. It is often used as like 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:55.680 a socially acceptable way of colonizing people. The Indian Civilization 0:19:55.920 --> 0:20:00.320 Fund Act was a ten thousand dollars annual fund to 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:06.080 subsidize missionaries operational costs on or near reservations, to teach 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:13.400 the three hours reading, writing, rithmetic, and to assimilate Native 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:20.320 Americans into Euro American society. So these were spread all 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:25.720 across the country into all of the reservations, and then 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.960 other establishments were built or established. This used to be 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.479 in army barracks, but the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:41.679 was established in eighteen seventy nine. It was off reservation 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:50.400 to ensure separation from culture and society. Such schools will 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.679 be set up across the country. The Indian Boarding school 0:20:53.720 --> 0:21:01.040 system systematically removed Indigenous youth from reservations to schools across 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:08.760 the country, schools where traditional clothing were forbidden, as was 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:14.720 the mother tongue, only English was spoken to ensure assimilation. 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:22.360 This system lasted more than a century and had devastating 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:28.320 effects on generations of Indigenous people. To clarify that number, 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:34.080 over five hundred and twenty six government funded and church 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:40.000 run Indian boarding schools operated across thirty eight states between 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:46.000 eighteen nineteen and in nineteen sixty. On the sixth of 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:50.040 October eighteen seventy nine, the first Indigenous children were brought 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.399 to the Carlisle School, many of whom were taken from 0:21:53.480 --> 0:22:01.600 families in the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kaiwa, and Lakota reservations. 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.520 Around seven eight hundred children from more than one hundred 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:09.720 and forty distinct cultures would attend the school over its 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:15.480 nearly forty year run. Children hauled there by boats and trains, 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:21.120 sometimes traveling for days with the military escorts. The goal 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:23.480 was to get them to unlearned it in his culture 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:30.199 and absorb Euro American culture. Children were often grouped with 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:34.440 others who had different religious beliefs and languages, forcing them 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:41.320 to rely on English to communicate. Children removed from their families, 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:46.200 their language taken, their traditional clothing replaced with wool military 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:50.520 style uniforms for the boys and high collared Victorian dresses 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:57.119 for the girls. They bathed in kerosene. Their family belongings 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:03.240 were removed. They couldn't keep jewelry, medicine bags, or ceremonial rattles. 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:11.000 The boys had their hair cut short and the girls 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:15.040 their hair. Their hair was chopped up to a bob. 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:19.520 And it is someone who's not exactly privy to Indigenous 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:22.840 cultures and practices. I mean, they're not a monolith sough 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:28.399 there's many, but hair cutting is often used as a 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:32.919 form of abuse and control, Like we see this across 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:41.240 you know, abusive relationships and and for the dehumanizing of victims, 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:44.200 like it was something that you see over and over again. 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:52.680 But it's even harsher when you understand how important hair 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:59.880 is too Indigenous people. I was listening to an interview 0:23:59.880 --> 0:24:06.239 of survivor and he explained that they only cut their 0:24:06.280 --> 0:24:10.480 hair when they suffered a great loss, like a parent 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:15.520 or grandparent dying, and so cutting off their hair was 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:21.640 used to bully the children into think that effectively, your 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:26.160 parents are dead. You know, you were dead to your parents. 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:29.880 They didn't love or want them anymore. They were cut 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:36.119 off from that. The children also lost their names to 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:40.840 wipe out their tribal identities, because instead of simply translating 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:46.760 a name into English like Zinkozo Win yellowbird, and womble 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:52.680 Kleska spotted ego, they changed to things like Peter, Henry 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:58.919 and Susan. They wanted to wipe out every part of 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:06.960 their indigenous culture. As a vocational school, on top of 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:13.280 the three as, the children were taught European trades like bricklaying, carpentry, cobbling, 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:17.840 and smithing, or at least the boys, well the girls 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:22.160 were trained in domestic work like sewing, laundry, and cooking. 0:25:24.359 --> 0:25:29.320 They marched in military precision, and they were forced to 0:25:29.359 --> 0:25:34.720 play American sports like They even created an American football 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:38.640 team to use as propaganda to show like, oh look 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:44.879 at how good they will a similating but punishments at 0:25:44.920 --> 0:25:48.400 Carlisle were often corporal punishment. I mean that was very 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:50.840 common for the day. Corporal punishment was the way of it, 0:25:50.960 --> 0:25:58.600 but you could receive a lashing hard labor dietary restrictions. 0:26:00.600 --> 0:26:03.240 Boys could be laid over a barrel and beaten with 0:26:03.280 --> 0:26:07.879 a whip. Children could be put in a box of 0:26:07.960 --> 0:26:12.600 shame or a box of sin, and they were forced 0:26:12.760 --> 0:26:22.399 into solitary confinement. Girls as young as eight or nine 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:27.199 would huddle into bed together in the hope that they 0:26:27.240 --> 0:26:32.360 would not get raped. In their beds. They would often 0:26:33.600 --> 0:26:36.119 hold their bladder to prevent themselves from going to the 0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:39.920 toilet because they were terrified that if they roamed any 0:26:39.960 --> 0:26:43.159 of the halls at night that they were going to 0:26:43.200 --> 0:26:50.400 get raped and molested and assaulted. Around two hundred children 0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:55.879 died and were buried on the cemetery on campus. You 0:26:55.920 --> 0:26:58.760 know what. Actually, there was one school I was reading 0:26:58.800 --> 0:27:02.960 about where a young boy he would leave at night 0:27:03.040 --> 0:27:06.240 and go into the forest on the grounds, like every 0:27:06.320 --> 0:27:08.240 night he would climb out and he would just go 0:27:08.320 --> 0:27:13.560 amongst the stars. When he was caught, they boarded up 0:27:13.560 --> 0:27:21.639 his window, denying him even moonlight. With the Carlisle School, 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:25.520 they really wanted to hammer home the assimilation and so 0:27:25.760 --> 0:27:30.480 created the outing system so that the indigenous children would 0:27:30.480 --> 0:27:33.840 stay with white families out with school terms so like 0:27:34.240 --> 0:27:39.480 the summer, thus keeping them away from their homelands and 0:27:39.600 --> 0:27:43.920 their culture. But it was also a way to use 0:27:43.960 --> 0:27:49.480 the children as free labor. The Carlile School was the 0:27:49.520 --> 0:27:54.280 only off reservation school built in the East all the 0:27:54.320 --> 0:28:00.199 rest of them were in the West. Now this was 0:28:00.200 --> 0:28:04.960 in Pennsylvania, and a lot, if not all, of the 0:28:05.080 --> 0:28:13.480 other schools based themselves on the Carlyle model. Richard Henry 0:28:13.480 --> 0:28:19.919 Pratt Connell Richard Henry Pratt set up the Carlile School 0:28:20.440 --> 0:28:27.159 on the same principle as a prison, and he is 0:28:27.240 --> 0:28:34.680 coded as saying the only good Indian is a dead one. 0:28:35.359 --> 0:28:38.360 Both in and out of the schools, the children were 0:28:38.360 --> 0:28:44.440 subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Food and medical 0:28:44.480 --> 0:28:48.680 attention was often used as a form of punishment, so 0:28:48.840 --> 0:28:54.680 kids got sick a lot. It's also like the way 0:28:54.680 --> 0:28:57.840 they're designed, because they're in dorms, you know, it's a 0:28:58.040 --> 0:29:03.880 perfect breeding ground for you know, illness and disease to spread. 0:29:05.640 --> 0:29:10.240 And so between the abuse and the lack of general care, 0:29:11.760 --> 0:29:19.360 disease was rife these schools. Children died of pneumonia, tuberculosis, trachoma, 0:29:20.200 --> 0:29:26.040 flew the measles. Parents were rarely informed if their children 0:29:26.200 --> 0:29:30.760 died at the school, and often their bodies were dumped 0:29:30.800 --> 0:29:37.400 in unmarked graves. Some would be lucky to have a 0:29:37.440 --> 0:29:42.480 marked grave, some would be lucky to have a coffin. 0:29:44.160 --> 0:29:49.920 There's an assumption that different forms of knowledge are bad 0:29:50.760 --> 0:29:59.560 or lesser, like the skill of oral storytelling, understanding spiritual practices, 0:30:00.440 --> 0:30:05.080 fluency and indigenous languages, and then of course land based 0:30:05.240 --> 0:30:10.800 knowledge systems. I'm trying to figure out if I can 0:30:10.800 --> 0:30:16.080 put this in a modern perspective. It's like demanding people 0:30:16.200 --> 0:30:20.520 know all of the capital cities of the world, but 0:30:20.920 --> 0:30:23.200 dismiss them for being able to know the right amount 0:30:23.200 --> 0:30:27.600 of ingredients to using a cake recipe by eye, or 0:30:28.800 --> 0:30:30.800 like you know, some people can look at a plant 0:30:31.160 --> 0:30:34.800 and just know what it is, Like they can look 0:30:34.800 --> 0:30:40.520 at the sky and understand that the weather's going to change, 0:30:40.800 --> 0:30:47.680 like people who know songs and stories and inherited skills, 0:30:50.040 --> 0:30:56.080 and it's all just stripped away. One of the things 0:30:56.120 --> 0:30:59.440 they would do is they would take photos of the children, 0:31:00.120 --> 0:31:03.800 like as they arrived with the long hair and in 0:31:03.840 --> 0:31:10.880 their moccasins and other gear, and then they would have 0:31:10.920 --> 0:31:17.800 a photo of them after they will headshield, little uniform on, 0:31:18.560 --> 0:31:22.760 and they would use these photos to just like promote 0:31:23.280 --> 0:31:27.840 just how good assimilation was going. Look, we can do it. Oh, 0:31:27.960 --> 0:31:39.400 and it's all it's like they're completely ignoring the trauma 0:31:39.800 --> 0:31:44.200 that they are putting these children through. There's this idea 0:31:44.360 --> 0:31:50.080 that you're helping when all you're doing is cutting down. 0:31:52.960 --> 0:31:59.000 And this trauma isn't individual, it's collective, it's community. It's 0:31:59.040 --> 0:32:04.440 all being attacked. And children at these schools, they were 0:32:04.520 --> 0:32:09.479 torn down to be rebuilt in the American way, and 0:32:09.680 --> 0:32:15.680 parents didn't have a choice. By eighteen ninety three, the 0:32:15.720 --> 0:32:21.760 threat of removing food like starving communities that was on 0:32:21.840 --> 0:32:25.280 the agenda, Like that was a tool they used, like 0:32:25.680 --> 0:32:30.280 the Secretary of the Interior could withhold rations and funding 0:32:30.320 --> 0:32:34.000 to Indigenous people if they did not allow their children 0:32:34.080 --> 0:32:38.760 to be taken from them. If you do not allow 0:32:38.840 --> 0:32:42.040 us to take your children from you and raise them 0:32:42.240 --> 0:32:46.240 in a different culture, with a different language, and to 0:32:46.320 --> 0:32:50.680 give them a different way of life, we're going to 0:32:50.720 --> 0:32:55.760 starve you. We're going to make sure you die out 0:32:56.360 --> 0:33:04.240 one way or the other. These communities were wholly reliant 0:33:04.240 --> 0:33:08.239 on rations because all the other options were taken. They 0:33:08.240 --> 0:33:12.600 were all taken from them. The manner of agriculture they did, 0:33:13.320 --> 0:33:17.320 the way that they hunted the indigenous hunting practices because 0:33:17.360 --> 0:33:22.800 a lot of it was migratory based, and because the 0:33:22.960 --> 0:33:28.840 US government hunted down the food source to ensure that 0:33:28.960 --> 0:33:34.680 Indigenous people would starve, to ensure that the indigenous people 0:33:34.720 --> 0:33:40.520 were reliant on the federal government. They did this deliberately. 0:33:42.320 --> 0:33:46.920 They did this so that they could control and abuse children. 0:33:49.680 --> 0:33:53.840 Some people resisted. They taught their children hide and seek 0:33:53.960 --> 0:34:00.000 games for when the colonizers came round to steal them. 0:34:00.720 --> 0:34:03.760 Many would hide their kids and men. I think it 0:34:03.800 --> 0:34:07.920 was the Hoping Nation. They were sent to Alcatraz for 0:34:08.120 --> 0:34:12.480 trying to stop their children being taken by the colonizers. 0:34:14.840 --> 0:34:19.320 Sometimes the army would come right if people were resisting. 0:34:22.760 --> 0:34:26.239 At the schools, children who resisted were bullied and abused. 0:34:28.200 --> 0:34:34.680 Some children would run away, and like, these are children 0:34:34.920 --> 0:34:40.080 who are miles upon miles away from home, Like there 0:34:40.120 --> 0:34:44.839 were Native people of Alaska and Hawaii that were in 0:34:44.840 --> 0:34:48.839 these schools. So they took them for him as far 0:34:48.960 --> 0:34:54.920 as they could. They're all over And when you remember 0:34:55.200 --> 0:35:00.919 you have all of these schools in the West and 0:35:01.160 --> 0:35:08.719 America as a land mass, it's fucking massive. It's huge, 0:35:09.600 --> 0:35:18.840 and these children are running desperate. There's one story I 0:35:18.880 --> 0:35:24.279 remember about a group of boys escaping because because the 0:35:24.320 --> 0:35:30.279