Survivors say trauma from abusive Native American boarding schools stretches across generations

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Survivors of government-backed Native American boarding schools and their descendants have shared their experiences as U.S. officials made a final stop in Montana on their yearlong tour to confront the institutions that regularly abused students to assimilate them into white society. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, was at Montana State University in Bozeman on Sunday to wrap up her “Road to Healing” tour. The stated goal of the boarding schools was to “civilize” Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. But tribal members recall being involuntarily enrolled in the institutions where the use of their native language and customs would bring swift and sometimes severe punishments.