One of the guidelines in the land grant given to the early invaders by The London Land Company was a suggestion to kidnap Indigenous children and teach them “English cultures and values” (Separatists aka Pilgrims). It’s not clear that kidnapping actually occurred, but there are confirmed reports of young Indigenous slaves captured as the result of armed conflicts. While these captives were likely taught how to perform tasks, there aren’t any records to suggest there were schools for “English cultures and values”. Likewise, the missions established by the Spanish in the West and Southwest didn’t have schools for educating Indigenous children. The missions were established to replace the plantation-styled ‘occupation’ with religiously based communities where Indigenous Peoples were taught practical skills useful in the production of food and products. Many historians think the first school specifically established in the colonies for Indigenous children was in what is now St. Mary’s City, Maryland.  This ‘Mission School’ was founded by Jesuit Friar Andrew White in 1634. He told the local tribal chief the school was “to extend civilization and instruction to his ignorant race, and show them the way to heaven.”  

Although the historical record doesn’t include a wealth of evidence about schools, there are a few verifiable instances that some Indigenous children did received an education. One story is of two Wampanoag men, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck and Joel Hiacoomes. As young boys, they were tutored by Peter Folger, a surveyor and Indian language interpreter, and also Benjamin Franklin’s maternal grandfather. They also attended a grammar school in Cambridge that was the ‘prep’ school for Harvard, which had been founded in 1636. That would suggest the grammar school was perhaps started shortly after that date.  Harvard also established a separate college just for Indigenous men around 1656 which both Caleb and Joel attended. Caleb graduated in 1665 from the Harvard Indian College, and Joel also would have graduated but died in a shipwreck just prior to the ceremony.  While there are other stories like Caleb’s and Joel’s, and reports similar to St. Mary’s City about short-lived attempts of religious orders to educate Indigenous children, there wasn’t a vigorous or sustained effort during most of the colonial period to establish permanent educational institutions for this purpose.

Toward the end of the colonial period, the 1776 Continental Congress did authorize Indian Commissioners to engage Christian ministers to serve as teachers for the Indians. There isn’t a clear record that that directive was the least bit successful. And apparently the issue was not a matter of great concern because it wasn’t until 1819 that Congress passed the Civilization Fund Act, which directed that ‘American’ education was to be provided for Indigenous Peoples to assist in the “civilization process”. The Act authorized and encouraged religious organizations to provide educational opportunities for Indigenous communities under a theory that if American Indians better understood the language and culture of the Anglo-Americans, they would be less resistant to the loss of their lands and possessions. The Act unintentionally created a tension within the Indigenous societies, because traditional members rejected the education, while progressive members believed it afforded an opportunity to learn how to better negotiate with the colonizers. For the next 40 years or so, the Act was sporadically used to set up and administer Indian Schools established by church groups or sometimes by an Indian Nation itself. In 1824 the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was created to administer the provisions of the 1819 Act and was part of the War Department. The BIA eventually became an office in the Department of the Interior that was created in 1849.

Beginning around 1860 and lasting until 1978, the BIA presided over what is now known as the ‘Boarding School’ era.  Under the authority of the 1819 Civilization Fund Act approximately 523 government-funded, and most often church-run, Indian Boarding Schools operated across the country.  It is estimated that at least 60,000 Indigenous children attended these schools, though a number of scholars feel that is a significant under-count. The schools operated both on and off the reservations and attendance was mandatory. The children were given Anglo-American names, uniforms and short haircuts.  While standard academic subjects such as reading, writing, math and history were taught, they were presented with an emphasis on American cultural values such as private property, material wealth, and of course, Christianity. 

Students were not allowed to speak their native language or practice their spiritual rituals.  At many schools they could not visit family, nor were families able to visit them.  Illness, abuse and neglect, along with inadequate diets and withheld medication and care resulted in numerous deaths.  Those that survived often lived the rest of their lives in a weakened physical, mental and/or emotional state.  When students and families resisted, the BIA with the assistance of other government agencies, captured the runaways and/or withheld goods and services from Indigenous communities until the families relented.  In some cases, children were forcefully removed from their families by Indian Agents assisted by military/police personnel.

During World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the killing of “… literally scores of thousands … by the German police troops.” He called it “…a crime without a name.” In the book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, that Raphael Lemkin wrote after the war, he created the word for that crime – genocide.  It combines the Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin word cide (killing). In the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, five specific ‘acts’ were defined as genocide, one of which was “forcibly transferring children out of [a] group”.

Colonizers had various reasons and a variety of causes and goals when they imposed their European Christian culture onto unwilling Indigenous Peoples. When considering Indian Boarding Schools as a Colonization Practice however, it seems clear their actions many times fit the definition of genocide.

Primary Sources:

The Indigenous Foundation, The U.S. history of Native American Boarding Schools, Melissa Mejia, 5/30/21;

National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

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