Kill the Man Save the Native

The Past Meets the Present

 In 1879 the first and most well know boarding schools for Native American children was established by Richard Pratt. Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School was located in an abandoned army post in Pennsylvania. The design and theory of this school was based off an experiment conducted on a group of Apache prisoners of war. Prisoners were shackled and taken by train to a camp in Florida where they were forced to become Christian, cut their hair, learn English, wear uniforms and live a strict military life. Some men were severely traumatized to the degree that they committed suicide however, most prisoners did survive and Richard Pratt requested federal funds to make this the model for educating Native children.

By the 1900’s most Native children were taken away from their parents and transported to boarding schools where they were forced to cut their hair, wear uniforms, speak only English and no longer practice their religion. They had very little to no contact with their family members and when they did it was as if they were strangers amongst their own people. Schools worked very hard to keep Native children from their families and in doing so, family relationships were completely destroyed due to the major differences in the way Europeans conducted relationships versus how Natives conduct relationships. Tribal societies depend on everything working as they work together homes are multi-generational where their traditions are the foundation for who they become and how they identify themselves. In this new forced environment Native children not only lost their families but also their identities.

Upon arriving at these boarding schools Native children were told they were dirty Indians and that they spoke devil tongue, they were scrubbed in kerosene and ddt both substances known to cause sterilization in humans. Native children were often whipped, beaten and clubbed if they did not follow the rules and in many cases this was done by older Native children at the schools. They were forced into child labor often working out in the very hot sun for long tedious hours toiling the land or washing and pressing clothes, working in print shops doing maid service or cooking. The education they were promised was little to none the basis of their days were spent working. For those children that clubbing and beating was not enough of a punishment the schools came fully equipped with prison cells and handcuffs perfectly fit for disobedient children.

Native children were subject to horrible amounts of abuse in these schools mental, physical and sexual abuse. Native children were often forced to stand completely still in lines for long hours, mouths were scrubbed with lye or chlorine solutions for uttering a word of their Native language. They were often subjected to cleaning floors with a tooth brush for so many hours their hands and knees would be blistered and bleeding. These types of abuses as we know today from a psychological standpoint, have a terrible long lasting impact on gender identity as well as generational impact.

Although this is but a brief look into the history of Indian Boarding Schools, this gives you glance into the experiences Native children were subjected to. In the United States there were 460 schools. Schools also stretched into Canada, Australia and New Zealand as it was a model for all Indigenous people. To this day the United States has not acknowledged its role in operating these schools.  

The story does not end here as these psychological and physical atrocities have a far impacting reach into the next generations to come. Suicide rates on reservations are 150% higher than anywhere in the United States, Alcoholism effects 8 out of 10 families on reservations and Native Americans are victims of rape or sexual assault at more than double the rate of other racial groups. There are 5.2 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives living in the Unites States, 31.6 percent under the age of 18. Native children have the third highest rate of child maltreatment/victimization at 11.6 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.

Gangs Drugs and Human Trafficking

 Native Americans live in some of the most extreme poverty ridden territories in the world. A good example of the is Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota where unemployment rates are 85% - 90% and life expectancy averages 48 years old. Birthed out of non-Native prison systems and well known street gangs is the rise of gang violence spreading into reservations across the US. The FBI reports that on reservations in the last decade there has been a large spike in Native gang activity. Due to the poverty state reservations are in drug smuggling and gun trafficking has peaked as well with some reservations having ties to Cartels in Mexico. Tribal members who are otherwise unemployed are paid off to overlook this infiltration. With the gangs comes criminal activity on reservations that range from drug dealing to homicide.

Human trafficking, an industry that most enter under force or persuasion, but rarely willingly, has increased on reservations 30% over the last three years. The most vulnerable are young girls. The girls quickly find themselves locked into a world of violence and degradation, but threats, fraud and persuasion from the pimps make it extremely difficult for them to leave and Tribal Police simply lack the resources to investigate most of the trafficking activity. Girls can simply disappear off reservations and never be found.

The law is not in favor of Tribal territories and their ability to protect themselves from non-Native people. Outside of homicide there is very little Native communities can do to a non-Native person who commits a crime on their land. The United States Government considers federally recognized reservations as Sovereign Tribal Land however, this does not come with what the word “sovereign” means, the power to enforce all law on their territories. Tribal lands are engulfed in red tape. Anywhere else in the US a crime is committed you call the police they come out conduct an investigation and hopefully at the end of the investigation a criminal is apprehended and prosecuted. For reservations nothing is that simple, from the food they lawfully receive to crimes committed on the land all are mixed up in red tape as if they are a third world country in the freest Nation on the planet.

From Warrior to Displaced

 From Crazy Horse leading the war party to a victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn and Sitting Bull a holy man who lead his people as tribal chief during years of resistance to the United States policies to Geronimo who was a prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache who fought against Mexico and Texas for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Throughout Native American history we can clearly see the picture of stoic heroes who rode the open plains protecting and caring for their people. Providers and spiritual people that built up their Nations through their traditions and cultural practices.

Today, we see a very different extremely heart breaking picture of what our once Warriors were. On some reservations housing is substandard at best. Black Mold fill homes with no way of heating them in the winter or cooling them in the summer. Some homes lack the basic human standards for living such as water or electricity. On reservations a bed can sometimes be a privilege as some sleep on dirt floors and not everyone on reservation have a stove or a refrigerator. It is estimated that there are sometimes 17 people living in a house that is fit for 3 and that it would take thousands of new homes built to combat homelessness on reservations. The Warriors of this land are living as displaced refugees’ foreigners in their own home. 

We as a country need to do better for the Indigenous people of this land, if we really mean all people are equal, we condemn racism and are committed to fighting genocide in other regions of the world then why are we not protecting all the citizens on this land in the same manner?