Imagine you just recently had your 4th birthday & there’s a knock at the door. Who is it? A soldier who demands that you attend a residential school far from home. If your parents resisted, they were beaten & arrested.

After the residential school system was develop, it was mandatory for children as young as 4 to attend until they were 18 years old. Native children were prohibited from practicing their own culture or religion. School staff even went as far as bathing these kids in toxic chemicals to make them look more like Europeans.

Their long hair was cut & the breasts of young girls were binded to make them feel ashamed of their maturing bodies. You could only speak English or you would be harshly punished. Their tongues were repeatedly pierced with needles if they spoke anything other than English.

Other punishments included electrical shock, being put in cages, burning of hands, public strip searches in front of other children, & force feeding of one’s own vomit when they’re sick.

If any letters were written home, it was in English so parents did not even know how to read it. Both boys & girls were sexually abused & girls who got pregnant were forced to have an abortion & even pray for the forgiveness of their abusers.

Student deaths were so common that graveyards were usually part of the school’s architectural plans.

Upon returning home, these children were so lost that they were unable to communicate with their own families. That is why us Native Americans get so defensive when someone says, “Let it go, it happened in the past.”

This traumatic time in history should not be ignored. 🦅

🙏 In Memory of the 215 deceased children found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. May they find Peace.

https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/cultural-assimilation-of-native-americans