One of the prereqs I had to take ahead of nursing school was an early US history course, which focused heavily on how we treated Native Americans.
I already knew it was bad before that class. That ‘already knew’ was barely a scratch on the tip of the iceberg… and that class was a 101 level dip-your-toes-into-the-content-to-try-it-on but didn’t go too deep into any one topic… so… maybe a solid dent in the tip of the iceberg? We are not good people.
I’m Shoshone living in northern Nevada and the stories I’ve heard about just from older family members is terrible. As a quick example, my father and his older sister were taken to a boarding school in the mid 60s in Montana, where they were repeatedly beaten, and my aunt was sexually assaulted and my father, who was also left-handed was repeatedly beaten for being left-handed. After returning home my aunt said that she could not stop washing her hands because she had felt that she was dirty because of the color of her skin.
Yup. Ottowae/Wyandotte descendant here. When I was young I used to hear my grandmother mention “Indian school”. Always in passing and never elaborated on. As a child it was something I never thought much of. There’s all sorts of schools out there. Religious and otherwise. I assumed it reference schools run by or on the reservations. Heh, nope. She passed long before I understood or ever thought to ask unfortunately.
One of the prereqs I had to take ahead of nursing school was an early US history course, which focused heavily on how we treated Native Americans.
I already knew it was bad before that class. That ‘already knew’ was barely a scratch on the tip of the iceberg… and that class was a 101 level dip-your-toes-into-the-content-to-try-it-on but didn’t go too deep into any one topic… so… maybe a solid dent in the tip of the iceberg? We are not good people.
I’m Shoshone living in northern Nevada and the stories I’ve heard about just from older family members is terrible. As a quick example, my father and his older sister were taken to a boarding school in the mid 60s in Montana, where they were repeatedly beaten, and my aunt was sexually assaulted and my father, who was also left-handed was repeatedly beaten for being left-handed. After returning home my aunt said that she could not stop washing her hands because she had felt that she was dirty because of the color of her skin.
Yup. Ottowae/Wyandotte descendant here. When I was young I used to hear my grandmother mention “Indian school”. Always in passing and never elaborated on. As a child it was something I never thought much of. There’s all sorts of schools out there. Religious and otherwise. I assumed it reference schools run by or on the reservations. Heh, nope. She passed long before I understood or ever thought to ask unfortunately.