Indian Boarding Schools, Six inhumane laws still on the books
Did you know it is still legal to withhold food and clothing from Indian children who dont attend school? Or that Indian children can be placed in reform schools without parental consent?
While it is unlikely these laws would be enforced, these and other boarding school laws are still on the federal law books. According to Native American Rights Staff Attorney Melody McCoy, some of the laws are at least outdated, and at worst assimilationist, racist and genocidal.
As bad as some may sound, a few have actually benefitted tribes in present-day courtrooms.
McCoy and Todd County, South Dakota, School Superintendent Dr. Roger Bordeaux (Association of Tribal Schools) have looked at these laws and considered their purpose. Should the laws stand? Be removed? Are they outdated or could there still be some relevance?
Excerpts of the laws are below. To read the full law, click the links provided. Let us know what you think!
25 USC 302, Indian Reform School Enacted June 21, 1906
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, is authorized and directed to . . . specifically provide an Indian Reform School, and to make all needful rules and regulations for its conduct, and the placing of Indian youth therein, and, That the consent of parents, guardians, or next of kin shall not be required to place Indian youth in said school.
McCoy called the law offensive, and said, The federal Indian schools were already bad enoughwhy would the government want one that was even more penal/correctional? Also, the express provision that parental consent is NOT required to send Indian kids to reform school wouldat least todaybe subject to some basic due process rights (like notice and a hearing) under the U.S. Constitution.
Bordeaux said, This is a concept discussed as recently as 1976. Repeal.
Full Article: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/04/30/6-boarding-sch...
WTH?????
This one really struck me as being way to heavy handed:
25 USC 282, Regulations for withholding rations for nonattendance at schools Enacted March 3, 1893
But, mainstream society will swear it never happened.
As they always have!!
''mainstream society will swear it never happened''...Yes, they will. But there is living proof to shove it back in their face.
These laws are an insult and need to be repealed as soon as possible, they have no place or value in today's judicial system.
And we expect the DOI to do that??????
We can always hope they will see the light. If not we'll keep pouring it down their throats.
Is there a brief, concise history on this subject?
This subject has been on going ever since the first Reservation was set up and continued into the 1970s.
Yeah try that on white, black or Asian kids and see what would happen.
Disgusting.
Well ... something like that did happen with Asians . Remember those Japanese internment camps during WW2 ?
Not quite the same Petey. One difference is the U. S apologized and gave compensation to the Japanese. So far, the boarding school veterans have received neither.
Do you attribute the difference to timing or to the nature of the warfare differences ... or to something else ?
138 years of Indian Boarding Schools - 60,000 dead Indian children - you work it out.
Hard to believe such laws still exist, they should have been extinguished a long time ago
Well palma, when there are 272 laws, specifically dealing with Indians, it's kinda hard to keep up with what's what.
As long as there was no out cry about these laws nothing was done. It has only been recently that the public has even become aware that these laws even existed.
OK , I've worked it out . The Japanese Americans were never combatants against the US . But at least some of the Indian tribes were .
Guess we need you to read "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. But, for starters, HBO is showing a movie with that name that will do for initial information.
Not quite sure what you are trying to say Petey. Are you implying that, because the U. S. intentionally massacredmillions of Indians to gain their lands that the Indians started wars against the U. S., and, because of those "Wars", the Indian laws came about that denigrated and reduced the Indians into total submission?
Yep and the attitude today is the same as it has always been: What the hell they're only Indians, right? The Boarding school, of the time, was where my Brothers and I were supposed to be taken to and I shudder to think about what would have happened to us except we ran!
I admit I knew nothing about boarding schools. I think the only time I saw anything related to it was on "Into the West" but there it barely scratched the surface. It was by joining this group that I found out what has really happened in those schools and it was and still is very hard to accept it
I sincerely wish it was different 1st, I really do
Evidently they were bad enough that my Grandfather gathered our entire family together and we bailed out of there and did what my Mother came to call our wandering years finally settling in every New England state except Rhode Island. She always said that we were repaying Johnny Appleseed by salting New England with Indians.
Damn good flick to watch hasWes Studi and his daughterin it - it's called "The Only Good Indian" - now, that, my friends, is what boarding school is like.
I am placing blame on neither the Indians nor the US govt . I am merely attempting to explain the difference in govt response .
I know you've been part of previous discussions where information was presented on how the U. S. has broken all 476 treaties made with the Indians (along with all foreign nations in the world) and have made no attempts at attempting to rectify the deaths of the millions and the total loss of over 93 million square miles of land that the Indians had "owned". Hell, even the SCOTUS has said what asswipes the U. S. government is in their handling of Indian people and that the Indian Nations have every right to be pissed that the U. S. government has treated those treaties and the people so disparagingly. Now, THAT is a sad state of affairs.
Great suggestion 1st now if they will just watch it and pay close attention, they will see just how bad the schools were and the effects they had not only on the children but adults as well.
Ya know what Larry? Think I'm gonna watch both of them tonight - just to get my hair up (what's left of it that is
)
I have both movies in my library and watch them every so often.
I brosed around the posts and could not find the second movie you mentioned. One is the "The only good Indian" and the other is?
Apologies if it is right at my face but please consider a bit of pre-caffeine intake ADD. On a Sunday morning
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.