How the US stole thousands of Native American children

Summary

The video script recounts the painful history of Native American children's forced assimilation through boarding schools and adoptions, aiming to eradicate their cultural identity. It details the U.S. government's brutal tactics, including the Indian Adoption Project, which tore families apart and led to abuse and neglect. Despite the Indian Child Welfare Act's efforts to protect Native children, the legacy of separation persists, with ICWA facing legal challenges that threaten the very existence of Native communities.

Takeaways

• 👩‍👦 I was adopted by a white missionary couple and placed for adoption immediately, spending 18 years in foster care with a white family.
• 💔 My parents loved us but believed they were saving us from ourselves, taking us from our Native American heritage.
• 🏠 Thousands of Native American children were forcibly taken from their homes by the US government as a way to eradicate Native American culture.
• 💔 The US has a long history of attempting to eradicate Native Americans through colonization, murder, and forced relocation.
• 🏫 Richard Henry Pratt's experiment in 1879 led to the creation of the first off-reservation boarding school for Native American children, aiming to assimilate them.
• ✂️ Children in these schools were stripped of their traditional clothing, had their hair cut, given new names, and forbidden from speaking their Native languages.
• 😔 These boarding schools were sites of mental, physical, and sexual abuse, forced labor, neglect, starvation, and death.
• 📸 Pratt used propaganda to show that his assimilation experiment was working, leading to the creation of over 350 similar boarding schools by 1925.
• 👶 Adoption became the new method of assimilation in the 1960s, with many Native American children placed in white homes, often taken from families that wanted to keep them.
• 🛡 The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed to protect Native American children and their families, requiring efforts to keep children within their communities.

Q & A

What was the primary motivation behind the adoption of Native American children by white families?

The primary motivation was to assimilate Native American children into Western society, erasing their cultural identities and continuing the legacy of colonization and eradication of Native American culture.

How did the US government's approach to Native American assimilation evolve from colonization to boarding schools?

After centuries of colonization, murder, and forced relocation, the US government shifted to a policy of 'absorption' and 'assimilation', starting with the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which aimed to 'kill the Indian and save the man' through forced education and cultural erasure.

What was the motto of Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the first off-reservation boarding school for Native American children?

Richard Henry Pratt's motto was 'kill the Indian and save the man', reflecting the school's aim to eradicate Native American identities and assimilate the children into white society.

What were some of the practices at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School that contributed to the assimilation of Native American children?

The school stripped children of their traditional clothing, cut their hair short, gave them new names, and forbade them from speaking their Native languages, all in an effort to erase their cultural identities.

How did the boarding school system impact the Native American population and their connection to their lands?

The boarding school system led to the disconnection of Native American children from their lands by stripping them of their cultural identities, which in turn facilitated the US government's strategy to infringe on tribal lands.

What were some of the abuses that occurred in the boarding schools, as mentioned in the script?

There were accounts of mental, physical, and sexual abuse, forced manual labor, neglect, starvation, and death in the boarding schools.

How did the Indian Adoption Project differ from the boarding school system in its approach to assimilation?

The Indian Adoption Project aimed to place Native American children in primarily non-Indian adoptive homes, continuing the assimilation tactics but in a more direct and personal manner, and it was also more cost-effective for the government.

What was the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and why was it enacted?

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was enacted to address the high rates of Native American children being removed from their families and placed in non-Native homes. It aimed to keep Native American children within their extended families or other Native American families if removal was necessary.

Why has the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) been under attack and by whom?

ICWA has been under attack by white adoptive families and conservative organizations who argue that the act's preferences for Native American families are unconstitutional and racially discriminatory.

What is the significance of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) for Native American communities today?

ICWA is significant as it provides legal protection for Native American children in foster care situations, helping to prevent unnecessary removals and ensuring that tribal connections are maintained.

How does the legacy of family separation in Native American communities continue to impact them today?

The legacy of family separation has resulted in Native American children being four times more likely to be placed in foster care than white children, even when their families have similar issues, indicating ongoing systemic biases and challenges.