Federal leaders face Indigenous schools’ tragic past for first-of-its-kind report – OPB

April 5, 2022

Editor’s note: This is the final story in a two-part series looking at federal efforts to document the history and toll of Indigenous boarding schools. Read Part one here.

Denise Lajimodiere has studied Native American boarding schools and documented the experiences of Indigenous students for years. Those students have relayed accounts of being forced to leave their homes, learn English and give up tribal languages and cultural practices.

Lajimodiere remembers talking to her own father about his time at Chemawa Indian School in Salem in the 1920s.

“He said kids would just die,” Lajimodiere said. “And I asked him ‘what did they die of?’ … He said they died of being lonesome.”

Read More: https://www.opb.org/article/2022/04/05/federal-leaders-face-indigenous-schools-tragic-past-for-first-of-its-kind-report/