HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — In recognition of the tenacity of Native American tribes whose children were compelled to attend the school and hundreds of other cruel facilities, President Joe Biden intends to erect a national monument at a former Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania.
According to the White House, Biden will make the announcement at a conference of tribal leaders on Monday regarding the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument.
By 1918, the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School had educated over 10,000 students, including Olympian Jim Thorpe. They come from hundreds of tribes that were subjected to forced assimilation policies designed to civilize the children and eradicate Native American customs in order to better integrate into white civilization.
An estimated 187 Native American and Alaska Native children perished in the Carlisle institution, including from tuberculosis and other illnesses, and the children were frequently removed against their parents’ will.
The bodies of the children, who were interred on the school’s property, are still being returned to their native countries. Three children died in Carlisle, and their bones were disinterred and brought back to Montana’s Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in September.
An examination by the Interior Department found that government-funded Indian boarding schools that were in operation for more than 150 years caused the deaths of at least 973 Native American children.
Survivors of the schools recounted being beaten, having their hair chopped, and being punished for speaking their native tongues during a series of public listening sessions on reservations held by the Interior Department over the previous few years.
With the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, the program of forced assimilation came to an official halt. However, it wasn’t until the Biden administration that the government conducted a thorough investigation into the boarding school system.
In October, Biden expressed the U.S. government’s regret for the schools and the policies that enabled them.
No one step will sufficiently redress the harms caused by the boarding schools, according to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents were sent there against their will. However, she asserted that the administration’s efforts have had an impact and that the new memorial will educate the American people about the government’s detrimental actions.
According to a statement from Haaland, while this trauma is not new to Indigenous people, it is new to many others in our country.
Officials concluded that a total of $23.3 billion in inflation-adjusted federal spending was used to fund the schools, similar institutions, and other assimilation activities. As partners in the integration effort, the federal government provided funding to religious and private organizations that operated many of the schools.
With Monday’s announcement, Biden will create his eighth national monument. The U.S. Army and the National Park Service will oversee the 25-acre (10-hectare) property. The U.S. Army War College is currently located there.
Prior to Biden’s departure, conservation organizations and Native American tribes are advocating for additional monument designations.
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From Billings, Montana, Brown reported.
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