The revelation that more than 200 children were buried in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia has inspired this article about the many horrors of what Native children experienced in both the U.S. and Canada in what were more like prison camps. The children were trained as low-skilled workers, punished if they showed any indication of maintaining their own cultural heritages, and often died from inadequate medical care. Those who survived often passed on generational trauma. Canada has at least had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that acknowledged this cultural genocide. A bill (HR 8420) to establish a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy was introduced in Congress last year by Deb Haaland and sent to two committees. Our member Don Klose will be following and reporting on its progress.

Ann Harlow

Update, 7/28/21: There is a National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. See its website for more information. A page on churches states there were two Unitarian-run schools for Native Americans, and also has a link to the 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association statement of Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, one of the first.

AH