WASHINGTON, D.C. – For Indigenous people, few places evoke as much horror and anger as the Federal Indian Boarding Schools. For more than a century, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and placed into these boarding schools in an attempt to ‘assimilate’ the Indigenous people.
In the words of R.H. Pratt, the architect of the Indian Boarding School system in the U.S., the goal of the government’s program was to, “kill the Indian, and save the Man.”
This attempt to destroy Indigenous peoples’ culture ultimately failed, but in its wake, it left thousands of families damaged, either spiritually with the loss of their culture, or physically with the loss of their children.
On Dec. 9, President Joe Biden took another step in acknowledging the many injustices done to Indigenous people by creating a national monument in order to document and acknowledge the abuses committed at these boarding schools. This national monument is extremely significant, as it is located on the site of the first Federal Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
As the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument is located on an active U.S. military facility, known as the Carlisle Barracks, and the US Army War College, the President, the National Parks Service, and the U.S. Army are reportedly working to ensure the facility will allow regular visitors, with visitor services being set to open in the Spring of 2025.
Several Indigenous tribes, families, and nations are also reportedly being consulted to ensure that all those impacted by the school and the Indian Boarding School program at large are treated with the respect they deserve.
According to statistics, roughly 1,000 children would die in these boarding schools, where reports of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse were rampant, though the actual number of fatalities suffered by the Indigenous children who attended these schools is estimated to be far higher.
Around 7,800 children from roughly 140 Indigenous tribes were sent to the Carlisle Indian Boarding School from its opening in 1879 to its closure in 1918. The legacy as the first Indian Boarding School is one that must be acknowledged if the United States is ever to attempt to atone for its actions against Indigenous people during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
The proclamation made by President Biden establishing the national monument can be found here.
