JudyJB wrote: The best part of my day was two several minutes chats with an older Peigan man about his childhood and going to a residential school in the early 50s. . . (Peigans are part of the Blackfoot confederacy--one of three separate tribes that go under that name, but very separate in his opinion.) . . . Also talked about going to a Catholic residential school and temporarily losing his native language, but getting it back when he returned home. Can you believe they taught these native kids English, French and Latin, of all things???
Very interesting, and I told him he needed to write this all down in a book for the younger members of the tribe because otherwise they will never know about it.
Judy, I find the topic of Native American boarding schools interesting also, and have been reading quite a lot over the last few years regarding the tragedy of Native American children being forcibly removed from their parents and sent to these schools for "assimilation". Both Canada and the U.S. had these schools, up until fairly recently (60's - 70's).
There is quite a lot of information regarding these schools online, and numerous articles as well - I searched on "Native American Boarding Schools" and here is one (of many) articles that came up:
"The History of Native American Boarding Schools Is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals"https://time.com/6177069/american-indian-boarding-schools-history/Here is an excerpt:
"Between 1819 and 1969, the U.S. ran or supported 408 boarding schools, the department found. Students endured “rampant physical, sexual, and emotional abuse,” and the report recorded more than 500 deaths of Native children—a number set to increase as the department’s investigation of this issue continues."Since many on this forum have also been talking a bit about the difficulty of finding interesting things to watch on tv, and since a documentary I watched a while back fits in quite well with the Native American boarding school topic (and very much else), I would like to suggest an amazing, multi-part, mini-series that was on PBS some years ago that (as I remember) also touched (although very briefly) on the topic of these boarding schools.
This documentary is called
"The West", by noted documentarian Ken Burns. I went looking for it, and it seems that it is currently streaming on PBS, but one needs to be a member to view it - I think a basic PBS membership is $5.00/mo. (for a year) or $10.00/mo. for a month (cancel before the end of the month). This documentary
alone is well worth the price.
"A chronicle of the turbulent history of one of the most extraordinary landscapes on earth"I found this documentary extremely moving, fascinating, haunting, and tragic - the end of the series left me in tears.
Despite this, I
HIGHLY recommend it:
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-west/Also available on Amazon Prime:
https://www.amazon.com/West-Film-Stephen-Presented-Burns/dp/B0D1H65K51/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1UVYTFLDXVSQZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YbcqiMx8jp-WaRef6PKvbdFBIoMnCmoN5W_r5CkwaRABYA8D0zFKxYyNq9UFXWpV8RG4a8oBJ8X0uG2YW0Fo535fXbU5_PxPWXSqmwDzDAeaAbkdG9Y5qkD7D3dNj7s5vAN7-nK-9Aj1Jnih5kL4vvX0OPqdUo1Dj-lGsjR6vXYFI4431eQ3Ty8ulEgyyOIEB0uuUqiynpaAY0ujnqc8gaPBeahIto3VUq_2LkUc1fE.l08buZ_uNQI2HKeDQrxrv11Xd5c0rvrDPTz_8HvbMiU&dib_tag=se&keywords=ken+burns+the+west&qid=1725343918&s=instant-video&sprefix=ken+burns+the+west%2Cinstant-video%2C150&sr=1-1Take a look - it is well worth anyone's time. I think I will pay so that I can watch it again.
Anne