The Shameful Legacy of Indigenous Residential Schools

Indigenous residential schools have a shameful legacy across the world and through several centuries, right up to the present day. They erased native cultures and religions, and aimed to ‘civilize’ indigenous people. And children attending these schools have also endured horrific conditions and abuse.

We look first at the history of indigenous residential schools in the United States. Over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Native American children resided at these schools and were subject to physical, mental, and sexual abuse.

In Peru, children of the Arakambut were sent to Catholic mission schools and taught Spanish.

In Australia, children as young as 4 years old were placed in dorms, taught menial labor and domestic tasks, and sent to work at 14.

Children of India’s 104 million Adivasis also attended indigenous residential schools. They began during British rule, and continued after Independence, as ashram schools. A 2012 investigation called these ashram schools poorly run and managed, and reports of starvation, ill treatment and inadequate teaching have been widespread.

Time Markers (mins: sec)

• 0:12 Sally General’s experience at Mush Hole

  2:22 defining ‘indigenous’

  3:47 collaboration with How Did We Not Know That? Podcast

  3:55 promo for How Did We Not Know That?

  4:48 recording from our closets; please donate!

  5:31 Native American boarding schools in the US

  6:43 mission of US boarding schools

  7:06 ‘Kill the Indian, Save the Man’

  8:00 early history of Native American education

  9:38 ‘Indian Residential Schools’ in the 19th-20th centuries

  10:05 erasing Native American identities

  11:30 horrific conditions at the schools

  12:27 the first US boarding school: Carlisle

  13:02 how the US government forced children into schools

  13:45 what happened to children after leaving schools

  14:20 laws allow Native Americans to determine education

  15:10 reckoning or resolution 

  15:36 Department of Interior investigation

  15:50 Lakota children’s remains returned to reservation

  16:48 residential schools in South America

  19:40 Australia boarding schools for indigenous

  20:20 studies on children attending boarding schools

  21:10 boarding schools for Adivasi in India

  21:54 British schools for tribal children in Andaman Islands

  23:12 Ashram schools for tribal children

  23:50 AV Thakkar’s views on tribal education

  25:28 conditions in the Ashram schools

  26:58 news clip on sexual abuse in tribal schools

  28:28 residential schools and resource extraction

  29:20 ‘banking model’ of education

  30:44 education and a consumer society

  31:55 funding from World Bank and UN

  33:20 common threads across regions and history

  33:53 legacy of colonialism on India tribal schools