ABSTRACT
In this chapter, a history of Indian boarding schools in the United States is provided. Having been mandated to attend, Indigenous children were forcibly taken, and sent to Christian and US government-run boarding schools during the nineteenth century, and into the twentieth century. The attempt was made by the American settler state to gradually eradicate Indigenous culture and identity, thereby creating ‘suitable’ Americans by assimilating and ‘civilising’ Indigenous children.
Whilst being recognised in a US government report as early as 1928, the deplorable conditions at Indian boarding schools – which included poor quality health and education, gross underfunding, and the exploitation of children as free labour – persisted, resulting in the starvation, disease, and premature deaths of Indigenous children. Furthermore, there were many Indigenous children who experienced forms of sexual, physical, emotional violence, and abuse at boarding schools. In terms of addressing the legacy effects, the author elucidates her development of the ‘Colliding Heartwork’ framework, which explains how Indigenous descendants of boarding and residential school survivors empathise through storytelling, and how they are impacted differently and intersect, creating a space where hearts meet to heal, talk, and share how they feel about the ongoing effects of colonialism.
