Hundreds of boarding schools supported by the U.S. government for 150 years sought to forcefully assimilate Native American and Indigenous children into white society, a first-of-its-kind report from the Interior Department said.
As the United States begins to confront this chapter of its history, so does the Catholic Church. According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) — which has compiled what is generally regarded as the most comprehensive, albeit admittedly incomplete list of U.S. Indian boarding schools — at least 84 of the 367 identified schools were run by Catholic institutions through contracts with the U.S. government. A group of Catholic archivists researching the topic believe there were many more.
A system of what’s been called “Indian boarding schools” operated in the United States for 100 years, starting in the 1860s. Approximately 360 schools were largely funded by the U.S. government, and many were operated by religious organizations, including the Catholic Church, said Allison Spies, archives manager for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Edmonia Lewis, the first African American and Native American sculptor to achieve international recognition through works that reflected her Catholic faith and the dignity of people, is being commemorated on a new postage stamp.
Catholic leaders have joined their voices with members of the Navajo Nation in opposing the Aug. 26 scheduled execution of Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row.
An exchange between Catholic high school students and a Native American tribal leader in Washington Jan. 18 was vilified on social media the following day, but the immediate accusations the students showed racist behavior have been stepped back as more details of the entire situation have emerged.
A sad reality on a number of Native American reservations is the high suicide rate. That is especially true on the Rosebud Reservation in south central South Dakota.
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