How the US stole thousands of Native American children

Summary

The video by Vox highlights the harrowing history of Native American children being forcibly removed from their families by the US government to erase their identities and assimilate them into Western society. Beginning with boarding schools like the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, children were stripped of their cultural identity, despite horrific reports of abuse. In later years, the US shifted from boarding schools to adoption, further perpetuating cultural erasure by placing Native children into white homes, often without consent. Despite some legal protections like the Indian Child Welfare Act, the struggle for Native American rights and identity continues.

Highlights

• Native American children were taken from their families to be assimilated into Western culture, erasing their identities. 😢
• The U.S. government funded boarding schools to 'civilize' Native children, stripping them of their cultural heritage. 🎓
• The adoption movement continued the erasure, presenting Native children as 'unwanted' to promote adoption into white families. 🏠
• Many Native children suffered abuse and identity loss in these institutions, facing challenges even after legislation like the Indian Child Welfare Act. ⚖️
• The fight to protect Native American identity and culture continues amidst ongoing legislative and societal struggles. ✊

Key Takeaways

• The US historically aimed to erase Native American culture by targeting children through boarding schools and adoption. 😢
• Institutions like Carlisle Boarding School forced children to abandon their Native identities under the guise of education. 🎓
• Adoption practices furthered cultural erasure by placing Native children in non-Native homes without proper consent. 🏠
• Despite legal measures like the Indian Child Welfare Act, Native American communities still face significant challenges in preserving their identities. ⚖️
• The struggle for Native American rights and societal recognition persists as they work to reclaim and protect their cultural heritage. ✊

Overview

Vox exposes the dark chapter of American history where thousands of Native American children were torn away from their families in an effort to assimilate them into Western society, starting with the establishment of boarding schools in the late 19th century. These schools, like the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School, enforced cultural genocide by making children abandon their language, traditions, and identities. The aim was to 'save' them from their native culture, but it caused deep scars and trauma for generations.

The narrative explores how the assimilation tactics shifted from schools to adoption in the mid-20th century, where Native American children were marketed as 'unwanted' and placed into white families – often against the will of their birth families. This too was framed as a benevolent act, yet it was another facet of cultural erasure. Native families fought to retain their children and heritage, ultimately leading to the Indian Child Welfare Act, a crucial step towards giving tribes a legal voice.

Today, despite the legal framework provided by the Indian Child Welfare Act, Native American communities still face challenges in keeping their children and culture intact. Discrimination and misunderstandings persist, making it difficult to undo the legacy of past policies. Nonetheless, Native Americans continue to fight for recognition and autonomy, asserting their right to maintain their identities and cultural connections amidst ongoing pressures.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Adoption by White Families The chapter titled 'Adoption by White Families' explores the narrator's experiences being adopted by a white missionary couple. It describes the complexity of feelings associated with being taken in by a loving family who nonetheless approached the adoption with a savior mentality. The narrator reflects on the duality of gratitude for the love and life provided by the adoptive parents, while also acknowledging the underlying perception of being 'saved' from their own identity and background.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Historical Context of Native American Oppression The chapter discusses the removal of Native American children from their homes and the broader historical context of Native American oppression. It highlights personal accounts of children being taken from reservations, reflecting the systematic efforts to eradicate Native American culture by targeting the younger generation. This is part of the United States' long and brutal legacy of oppression against Native Americans.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Assimilation Experiment by Richard Henry Pratt The chapter discusses the historical attempts at eradicating Native Americans through colonization and forced relocation. Despite these efforts, Native Americans continued to resist, and their populations began to increase. This unexpected growth became a challenge for those who sought their destruction.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Establishment of Carlisle Indian Industrial School The chapter titled 'Establishment of Carlisle Indian Industrial School' discusses the origins and motivations behind the founding of the school. It highlights the context of American expansion and the search for solutions to absorb and assimilate Native American populations. Central to the chapter is Richard Henry Pratt, who played a pivotal role as he began his work with prisoners of war. Pratt's approach involved teaching them English, literacy skills, and labor, all the while enforcing military-style discipline and attire. This experiment laid the foundation for what would become the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Forced Assimilation and Cultural Erasure The chapter explores the historical development of forced assimilation and cultural erasure in Native American history, focusing on the establishment of the first off-reservation boarding school in 1879. The school was part of a government-funded project led by Pratt, whose motto was 'kill the Indian and save the man.' This highlights the attempt to strip Native American children of their cultural identity under the guise of 'civilizing' them. It serves as an example of broader policies aimed at eradicating indigenous cultures.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Abuse and Propaganda at Carlisle School The chapter titled 'Abuse and Propaganda at Carlisle School' reveals the harrowing experiences at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where Indigenous children were subjected to systematic cultural genocide under the guise of education. The children were forcibly removed from their families' reservations, often separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. Upon arrival at the school, they were stripped of their traditional clothing, had their hair cut short, were given new names, and were prohibited from speaking their native languages, all as part of an effort to assimilate them and erase their indigenous identities.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Expansion of Boarding Schools The chapter discusses the expansion of boarding schools within Western society and examines their impact on indigenous peoples. It highlights how these institutions aimed to strip away the tribal identity of indigenous children, portraying it as one of the most effective and insidious means by which the U.S. inflicted harm on these communities. The boarding schools specifically targeted children, seeking to make them feel ashamed of their Indian heritage and identity.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Consequences and Resistance The chapter "Consequences and Resistance" delves into the harrowing experiences associated with Indian boarding schools. It highlights the severe abuses faced by students, including mental, physical, and sexual abuse, forced manual labor, neglect, starvation, and even death. A personal account is mentioned, where the speaker's great grandfather attended Carlisle, an infamous boarding school, yet it remained a subject not discussed within the family. The chapter also touches on the manipulation of narratives by Colonel Pratt, the founder of Carlisle, who used propaganda through staged 'before-and-after' photographs to convincingly demonstrate the so-called 'success' of his assimilation experiment.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Emergence of Adoption as Assimilation Tactic The chapter discusses the intentional use of propaganda to promote the Carlisle model of education, which was designed to assimilate Native American children. This model led to the establishment of over 350 boarding schools across the United States. These institutions were part of a government strategy to assimilate Indigenous children, many of whom had never even seen a white man before being placed in these schools.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Native American Children in White Families The chapter discusses the forced assimilation of Native American children in the early 20th century. In 1900, about 20,000 Native American children were placed in schools designed to impose civilizational education according to white settlers' standards. By 1925, the number of enrolled students had tripled. Native families resisting the removal of their children faced severe punishments, such as imprisonment at Alcatraz or denial of food rations. Despite these harsh measures, some parents remained near these institutions, hoping to maintain a connection with their children.
• 06:30 - 07:30: Trauma and Loss of Identity The chapter titled 'Trauma and Loss of Identity' discusses the impact of forced assimilation on Native American students. Many children were separated from their families and stripped of their cultural identities, affecting their ability to communicate with family members. Some children never returned home, highlighting a deliberate strategy by the US government to disconnect Native Americans from their lands.
• 07:30 - 08:30: The Indian Child Welfare Act This chapter addresses the Indian Child Welfare Act, shedding light on historical injustices faced by Native American communities. It discusses the forced relocation of children to boarding schools as part of U.S. policies that infringed on their tribal lands, resulting in the loss of two-thirds of Native American lands within five decades. The narrative emphasizes the intentional nature of these actions and critiques the historical erasure and lack of acknowledgment of these events in history books. Furthermore, it draws parallels with similar tactics used in countries like New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, which, in contrast, have acknowledged and apologized for such actions.
• 08:30 - 09:30: Ongoing Legal and Cultural Battles This chapter discusses the historical and ongoing battles related to boarding schools in the United States. It highlights the emergence of the brutality within these institutions, especially after a 1928 report that exposed the horrific conditions, leading to the closure of many schools in the 1960s. The momentum of indigenous activism, which paralleled the civil rights movement, increased during the 1970s, significantly influencing the shutdown of more boarding schools. Eventually, control of the remaining schools was transferred to tribal authorities.
• 09:30 - 10:00: Conclusion and Resilience of Native Communities The chapter discusses a new assimilation project that followed the boarding school era, focusing on the adoption of American Indian children into primarily non-Indian homes. This initiative, run in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was officially aimed at promoting the adoption of what they termed the 'Forgotten child'.

How the US stole thousands of Native American children Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I was adopted by a white missionary couple I was adopted immediately placed for adoption I was in foster care with one family for 18 years they were white my parents loved us and I understand that but at the same time they took the idea that they were saving me saving us from ourselves being saved and I should be grateful for the life that I've been
• 00:30 - 01:00 given because any child on the reservation would give anything to live as I was living they took us away from our mom they came marching right in and literally took us and thousands of other children from their home it's a way to right eradicate us and to go to a nation's children is one of the sure ways to do that [Music] the US has a long and brutal legacy of
• 01:00 - 01:30 attempting to eradicate Native Americans for centuries they colonized Native American lands and murdered their populations they forced them west and pushed them into small confined patches of land but Native Americans resisted a Board of Indian Commissioners report said instead of dying out under the light and contact of civilization the Indian population is steadily increasing and that was an obstacle to total
• 01:30 - 02:00 American expansion so the u.s. found a new solution to absorb and assimilate them it all started with an experiment and a man named Richard Henry Pratt he had in his charge some prisoners of war and he taught these men how to speak English how to read and write and how to do labor he dressed them in military
• 02:00 - 02:30 uniforms and basically ran an assimilation experiment and then he took his results to the federal government and said they're capable of being civilized so he was able to get this project funded in 1879 the government funded Pratt's project the first-ever off-reservation boarding school for Native American children his motto was to kill the Indian and save the man
• 02:30 - 03:00 what started there at the Carlisle Indian industrial school was nothing short of genocide disguised as American education children were forcibly taken from reservations and placed into the school hundreds even thousands of miles away from their families they were stripped of their traditional clothing their hair was cut short they were given new names and forbidden from speaking their native languages to take our children and to indoctrinate them into
• 03:00 - 03:30 Western society to take away their identity as indigenous peoples their tribal identity I think it's one of the most effective and insidious ways that the u.s. did do harm to indigenous peoples here because it targeted our children our most vulnerable and they tried to make us ashamed for being Indian and they tried to make us something other than Indian there are
• 03:30 - 04:00 also accounts of mental physical and sexual abuse of forced manual labor neglect starvation and death my great grandfather went to Carlisle and nobody in my family ever talked about it so if you google Indian boarding schools the majority of the pictures that you will see will be actually from Carlisle Colonel Pratt created propaganda he hired a photographer to create those before-and-after photos to show that his experiment was working so he it was you
• 04:00 - 04:30 know intentional propaganda and it worked the Carlisle model of Education swept the country and led to the creation of over 350 boarding schools to assimilate Native American children to these boys and girls have ever seen a white man yet through the agencies of the government they are being rapidly
• 04:30 - 05:00 brought from their state of comparative savagery and barbarism to one of civilization in 1900 there were about 20,000 Native American children in these schools by 1925 that number more than tripled families that refused to send their kids to these schools faced consequences like incarceration at Alcatraz or the withholding of food rations some parents who did lose their children to these schools even camped outside to be close to them many
• 05:00 - 05:30 students ran away some found ways to hold on to their languages and cultures others though could no longer communicate with family members and some never returned home at all by stripping the children of their Native American identities the US government had found a way to disconnect them from their lands and that was part of the u.s. strategy during the same era in which thousands
• 05:30 - 06:00 of children were sent away to boarding schools a number of US policies infringed on their tribal lands back home in less than five decades two-thirds of Native American lands had been taken away the whole thing was purposeful and the fact that it has been buried in the history books and not acknowledged is also intentional and in fact the same tactics were used in New Zealand Australia Canada all of these countries have acknowledged apologized
• 06:00 - 06:30 or reconciled in some way except for the United States over time the brutality of boarding schools started to surface and after a 1928 report detailed the horrific conditions at some schools many began to close in the 1960s indigenous activism rose alongside the civil rights movement and by the 1970s that activism forced more schools to shut down the government handed over control of the remaining boarding schools to tribes to
• 06:30 - 07:00 be run in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs but just as the boarding school era started fading another assimilation project took shape adoption [Music] the main goal of this pilot project was to stimulate the adoption of American Indian children to primarily non-indian adoptive homes they claimed it was to promote the adoption of the Forgotten child but it was essentially a
• 07:00 - 07:30 continuation of the boarding school assimilation tactics and the strategy came with a financial advantage for the government to adoption was cheaper than running boarding schools but first adoption officials had to sell white America on the idea of adopting Native American children feature stories like this one in Good Housekeeping marketed them to white families they were described as unwanted and adoption gave them a chance at new lives in the end
• 07:30 - 08:00 their media campaign worked white families wanted Indian adoption but the problem was many of these children were not orphans that nobody wanted they were kids often ripped apart from families that wanted to keep them you still will hear stories today of people you know my age older saying I remember as a child the social worker was coming and people would hide their children on
• 08:00 - 08:30 reservations social workers used catch-all phrases like child neglect or unfit parenting as evidence for removal but their criteria was often questionable some accounts describe children being taken away for living with too many family members in the same household an extended family is a big thing for Native people and that means being judged for being in a house that's overcrowded so it's always whiteness is the standard for success and everything
• 08:30 - 09:00 else is judged by that standard by the 1960s about one in four Native children were living apart from their families the official Indian adoption project placed 395 Native American children into mostly white homes but it was just one of many in an era of Native American adoptions other state agencies and private religious organizations began increasingly making placements for
• 09:00 - 09:30 Native American children - my mother giving me up was a white person telling her if she didn't she would never see her other kids again and one of the documents I have it's addressed to my biological father Victor Fox that he was trying to look us up to get a hold of us but Hennepin County wrote Daniel and Douglas are adapting very well and their
• 09:30 - 10:00 new family just was totally it was a false statement when you're adopted you know you're missing something I think I've likened it to having like when someone has like a 500 piece puzzle and they have all the pieces to make this pretty picture except one my adoptive mother was not well verbally physically and sexually and spiritually abusive so
• 10:00 - 10:30 by the by the time I was 14 I started drinking 15 drugs are added and I became an addict to numb I didn't realize I was numbing pain I had tried suicide tried to slice in my wrists one time children were taken and believe like I believed for a long time there was something wrong with me
• 10:30 - 11:00 versus something wrong with the system the Indian adoption project was considered a success by the people who set it in motion officials claimed generally speaking we believe the Indian people have accepted the adoption of their children by Caucasian families and have been pleased to learn the protection afforded these children but the truth was unsettling these hearings on Indian children's welfare is now in
• 11:00 - 11:30 session I was pregnant with Bobby and the welfare kept coming over there and asked me if I gave him up for adoption before he was even born yeah they picked up my children and placed him in a foster home and I think that they were abused in a foster home for years after Native people organized in this Senate hearing Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act known as equi it gives tribes a place at the table in court
• 11:30 - 12:00 states would be required to provide services to families to prevent removal of an Indian child and in case removal was necessary they would have to try to keep the child with extended family or another Native American family without our relatives we cease to exist so with Native people part of our wealth is in our family it's in who we're connected to but the legacy of family separation in Native communities has
• 12:00 - 12:30 been difficult to fully undo today Native American children are four times more likely to be placed in foster care than white children even when their families have similar presenting problems in these cases equi is often the best legal protection they have and it's been under attack repeatedly a young girl ripped from her foster family because of the Indian children welfare act white adoptive families intent on keeping Native American children have
• 12:30 - 13:00 tried to do away with the act and they're often backed by conservative organizations the Indian Child Welfare Act was dealt a blow earlier this month the subject of a lawsuit issued on Tuesday by the Goldwater Institute arguing that preferences given to American Indian families to adopt Indian children is unconstitutional and discriminates based on race it's a way for these industries these very powerful industries to try to attack what Indian identity is wanting to overturn nikla is connected to everything about who we are
• 13:00 - 13:30 as a nation so if we don't have any protections for our families and if we don't have protections for our treaties then we have no more Indians we've been under attack we're going to continue to be under attack and we have to keep just keep fighting it's in our DNA to survive we are nations that pre-exists European contact and we are still here [Music]
• 13:30 - 14:00 you [Music]