TULSA, Okla. — A shocking 106-page report is revealing the horrors inside boarding schools for indigenous children run or supported by the U.S. government for over a century.
The U.S. government is acknowledging it intentionally targeted tens of thousands of indigenous children by sending them to boarding schools, forced to change their names, and punished for speaking their languages.
It's a policy the report calls "traumatic and violent."
The report found the U.S. operated or supported 408 boarding schools in 37 states from 1819 to 1969.
The highest concentration of boarding schools:
- Oklahoma with 76 schools
- Arizona with 47 schools
- New Mexico with 43 schools
According to the report, there was "rampant physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; disease; malnourishment; overcrowding, and a lack of health care."
Children who broke the rules were disciplined by "corporal punishment such as solitary confinement, flogging, withholding food, whipping, slapping, and cuffing."
The investigation already determined hundreds of children died, but that number is expected to exponentially rise as more schools are studied.
At least 53 burial sites have been found — some marked, some not.
The investigation will continue to try and piece together the total number of students who attended the schools and identify the remains found at burial sites.
You can read the full report below:
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