The Boarding School Experience: Native Beating

"Kill the Indian, and save the man." – Richard Henry Pratt

The mindset which the U.S. government used to assimilate Native American children by stripping them from their identity and culture. By using religious emphasized education, this was to help “civilize” the children. Not only were they beaten when they spoke their native language or disobeyed. There were multiple accounts of sexual abuse among girls at boarding schools. The boarding school staff that included priests and nuns were guilty of sexual assault, but unfortunately there was no questioning their actions. Girls as young as eleven years old had babies as a result of rape. Physical and emotional abuse was prevalent in boarding schools, but I wanted to emphasize the sexual abuse these young girls had to endure and face as survivors from this horrific trauma.

I created this piece using articles and sources from personal stories, which the highlighted sentences display different cases of sexual assault against girls. The drawing of the girl is centered among these and the black line dividing her indicates a before and after effect of the boarding school experience. I chose to incorporate a handmade red beaded earring that I personally wear in remembrance of missing and murdered indigenous women. I thought since the color red is associated with the movement, it should be included in the art piece to also remember those girls that were murdered or took their lives while in the boarding schools. I chose to put “Native beating” in my title as sort of wordplay with the beaded earring being part of native identity that was subjected to genocide.

Sources:

Blad, Evie. “Bill Addresses Cultural Genocide Caused by Indian Boarding Schools.” Education Week, Education Week, 4 Dec. 2020, www.edweek.org/policy-politics/bill-addresses-cultural-genocide-caused-by-indian-boarding-schools/2020/10.

Hopkins, Ruth. “Sexual Trauma: One Legacy of the Boarding School Era.” Indian Country Today, Indian Country Today, 30 Mar. 2013, indiancountrytoday.com/archive/sexual-trauma-one-legacy-of-the-boarding-school-era.

LaCroix, Debbie A. Indian Boarding School Daughters Coming Home: Survival Stories as Oral Histories of Native American Women, University of Oregon, Ann Arbor, 1993. ProQuest, http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/dissertations-theses/indian-boarding-school-daughters-coming-home/docview/304076814/se-2?accountid=4485.

Sage, et al. “Needs and Expectations for Redress of Victims of Abuse.” Handle Proxy, Law Commission of Canada, 23 Oct. 1998, hdl.handle.net/10222/10440.