Many indigenous children are forcibly removed from their families, communities, and culture.

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Indian residential schools were part of an explicit policy of stripping the indigenous people of their language and culture, and imposing Euro-American culture on them. 

For five consecutive generations, from roughly 1880–1980, native children across the US were taken from their families and sent to residential schools. The explicit goal of this government program was to “kill the Indian to save the man.” An effort was thereby made to strip indigenous people of their language and culture and impose Euro-American culture on them.

Nation-wide, half of the children did not survive the experience, and many of those who did were left permanently scarred. The resulting alcoholism and suicide, and the transmission of trauma to their own children, has led to social disintegration with results that have been described as genocidal (Ward, 2008). The impacts of this inter-generational trauma, along with the broader impact of colonization, are ongoing.

In northwest Washington, although the Point Elliott treaty promised education to the indigenous peoples, some children were sent to residential schools while others were left without any formal education. In the late 1800s, an effort was also made to establish a school on the Lummi reservation but it only operated intermittently. 

In that same period, some Lummi children were sent to a Catholic mission boarding school at Tulalip. Some were sent to the Stickney Home Mission School for Indians in Lynden. Some were sent to the Chemawa Boarding School in Oregon. Some were sent to other Indian residential schools. 

Many of these boarding schools were characterized by harsh treatment and various forms of abuse. For instance, one headmaster of the Tulalip school chained the ankles of students to a heavy metal ball when they attempted to run away, and beat them for resisting medical exams or other infractions.

A 1928 federal investigation of Indian residential schools found that the diet and medical care provided for students was inadequate, that the schools were overcrowded, used child labor, and did not provide adequate education. Nonetheless, the residential schools in this region continued to operate until the 1970s, after which many were closed.

 

For more information:

Churchill, Ward. (2008) Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools, City Lights Publishers.

Nugent, Ann. (1981) Schooling of the Lummi Indians between 1855-1956 (available in the WWU library)

Nugent, Ann (ed). (1982) Lummi Elders Speak (available at WWU library) Contains personal accounts of former students at these schools.

Nugent, Ann. (1977) Regulation of the Lummi Indians by Government Officials between 1900-1920 (available in the WWU library)