December 22, 2024

A sad but true part of American history will be presented tomorrow, November 16th, at the Miami County Historical Museum. Professor of History at Haskell Indian Nations University, Eric Anderson, will talk about Native American boarding schools in the United States in the 19th and 20th century. The United States, at the urging of several denominations of the christian church, adopted an Indian boarding school policy expressly intended to make Indian children… non-Indian. Hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and the churches. At these schools the native children were taken to schools far away, where they were punished for speaking their native language, banned from acting in any way that might be seen to represent traditional or cultural practices, stripped of traditional clothing, hair and personal belongings and behaviors reflective of their native culture.

The presentation will begin at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon at the Miami County Historical Museum in Paola.