American Indian boarding school

American Indian boarding school, system of boarding schools created for Indigenous—that is, Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian—children by the United States government and Christian churches during the 1800s and 1900s. Hundreds of thousands of children attended the schools, which were sometimes hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their homes. The schools were intended to wipe out traditional Indigenous cultures and assimilate Indigenous children into the dominant white culture. Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the well-known Carlisle Indian Industrial School, described his philosophy of assimilation as “Kill the Indian…and save the man.”

The boarding-school system was part of the U.S. government’s broader policy toward Indigenous peoples. As the United States expanded westward during the 1800s, tribal nations occupied land that American settlers wanted. Conflicts over land often led to violence between the U.S. military and Native peoples. As evidenced by the Plains Wars, this was a costly way for the United States to acquire land, in terms of both lives and financial expense. Government officials came to believe that assimilation was the safest and most economically efficient way to deal with “hostile” Indigenous peoples. They made the education of children an essential part of their assimilation strategy. They thought that isolating Native children and educating them in the white tradition would break the ties between the children and their families, communities, and lands. This in turn would make it easier to acquire Indigenous territory.

Origins of American Indian boarding schools

The foundation for a Native school system was laid when the U.S. Congress passed the Civilization Fund Act in 1819. The law provided funding for the education of Indigenous children, with the goal of “introducing among them the habits and arts of civilization.” The funds were often given to church organizations that had already been active in trying to convert American Indians to Christianity.

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The churches used the government funds to establish day schools for Native children that were run by missionaries. These schools were located mostly on reservations and did not have housing for students. Children attended school during the day and returned to their communities at night. Mission day schools were the main educational institutions for Native children in the mid-1800s.

Eventually, however, government officials decided that day schools were not well suited to the goal of assimilation because children were allowed to return to their homes at night. These officials determined that complete isolation would be a more effective way to break the children’s bonds with their communities, families, and cultures. They saw boarding schools as the answer.

The boarding-school system

The first government-supported boarding school for Indigenous children was established in 1819, the year the Civilization Fund Act was passed. The number of boarding schools remained small, however, until the 1870s. It was then that the government stopped funding mission schools and took a more direct role in Native education. It began establishing boarding schools, first on reservations and then off them. The schools were often in abandoned military forts or other old government buildings.

Over the course of 150 years, from 1819 to 1969, the government funded or operated more than 400 Indigenous boarding schools. The schools were spread across 37 states or territories. Oklahoma, once Indian Territory, had the greatest number, 76. The next-highest totals were in Arizona (47) and New Mexico (43). Most of the boarding schools were located on reservations; fewer than 30 were not. Reservation schools were less expensive to establish and run. However, off-reservation schools were favored by some officials for the same reason that boarding schools were preferred over day schools—more complete isolation of children from their families and cultures. Off-reservation schools were set up in white communities, and many students were not allowed to return home even during school breaks.

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Hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children attended boarding schools, sometimes for four years or more. Some Native parents chose to send their children to the schools, largely because there were no other educational options. Most boarding-school students, however, were taken from their families and forced to attend. Government agents on reservations were responsible for gathering children for transport to the schools. In 1891 the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring Native children to attend school. After that, the agents pressured parents who were reluctant to cooperate by withholding food or other supplies. If necessary, they sent police to seize children.

The first and best-known off-reservation boarding school, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was opened in Pennsylvania in 1879. Richard Henry Pratt, the founder, recruited students from throughout the country. About 10,000 children from more than 70 Native communities attended Carlisle between its founding in 1879 and its closing in 1918. The typical student was between 14 and 18 years old, though some were much younger. The school’s most famous student was the athlete Jim Thorpe. Carlisle served as a model for the boarding schools that followed.

Daily life and discipline at American Indian boarding schools

Boarding-school administrators used a variety of methods to pursue the goal of assimilation. Students were taught that their traditional cultures were primitive and inferior to white culture. Upon arrival, students were forced to trade their clothes for uniforms and to have their hair cut in Euro-American styles. Each child was given an English name. Students were forbidden to use their native languages and had to speak English instead. They were also prohibited from practicing their traditional religions and forced to become Christians.

Boarding schools taught children some academic subjects, including math, science, and history. Students also took art classes and participated in sports. Half of the school day, however, was spent learning practical skills or doing manual labor. Girls were taught to cook, clean, make clothes, and do laundry. Boys learned trades such as blacksmithing, carpentry, and brickmaking. The many types of manual labor performed by students included digging wells, raising livestock and poultry, fertilizing crops, and cutting down trees for lumber. The schools relied on student labor in order to operate. In addition, some of the products made by students were sold outside the school system.

The schools were run like military camps. Students had to march in formation and perform military drills. Rules were strictly enforced, and discipline was harsh. If students spoke their native languages, they were cruelly punished. Other displays of Indigenous cultures—song, dance, stories, religion, sports, or food—were punished as well. The many forms of punishment included beatings, electrical shocks, solitary confinement, the withholding of food or water, and long periods of forced labor or kneeling. Sometimes elder children were forced to punish younger ones. Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse were common.

Boarding schools were typically overcrowded, and physical conditions were often very poor. Many children suffered from malnutrition and disease, such as tuberculosis and measles. A U.S. government investigation carried out in 2021–22 found that boarding schools were responsible for the deaths of more than 500 children. Marked and unmarked burial sites were found at or near more than 50 schools.

Resistance to and decline of American Indian boarding schools

Knowing that many children who were sent to boarding schools never returned, Indigenous families responded in a number of ways. Many taught their children to hide from the government agents who collected children to send to the schools. Many children ran away, either during the trip to a school or from the school itself. Those who escaped often had to walk hundreds of miles to return home. Some communities made group decisions to keep their children hidden. A well-known example occurred in 1894–95, when 19 Hopi men from Oraibi pueblo were imprisoned for refusing to turn over their children to the authorities.

The government began to move away from the use of off-reservation boarding schools in the early 1900s. The schools were expensive to build and operate, and officials saw little evidence of assimilation. After leaving school, most students did not assimilate into white society. Instead, they returned to their reservations, where they found that the skills they had learned did not get them jobs. On-reservation boarding schools fell out of favor when the government began to question the effectiveness of assimilation as a policy. A government report released in 1928 found that the boarding schools were overcrowded and the students malnourished, poorly educated, overworked, and harshly disciplined. In the 1930s the government shut down many boarding schools. Those that continued to operate began to include Native history and culture in the curriculum.

Over the next few decades Indigenous communities worked to gain control over the education of their children. Their efforts helped bring about the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which the U.S. Congress passed in 1975. The law gave tribes control over their own affairs, including the operation of their schools.

Today about 9 out of 10 Indigenous children attend schools in the U.S. public school system. Most of the rest attend reservation schools operated by either the U.S. government or a tribe. Several government or Native off-reservation boarding schools remain open, but they now emphasize Native sovereignty and the preservation of traditional languages and cultures.

Legacy of American Indian boarding schools

The boarding schools caused serious and enduring problems for Indigenous individuals, families, and communities. The schools stripped away children’s sense of identity and destroyed extended family systems. They led to the loss of Indigenous languages and other aspects of traditional cultures by disrupting the passing down of knowledge from one generation to the next. Many Indigenous languages have very few speakers left, and some have gone extinct. Many researchers and activists have traced the most difficult issues faced by contemporary Native communities to the abuses that occurred at the boarding schools. They note that the problems common to many reservations—including high rates of suicide, substance abuse, and domestic violence—are clear aftereffects of child abuse.

The U.S. boarding schools inspired a similar system in Canada. In 1879 the Canadian government sent a representative to the United States to visit and study several schools, including Carlisle. The resulting report led to the creation of Canada’s Indian Residential School (IRS) system. The abuse and trauma suffered by Indigenous children in the IRS system were very similar to the experiences of students in the U.S. schools. In the 2000s the Canadian government officially apologized for the schools and provided reparations (payments) to former students.

The discovery of more than 1,000 potential unmarked graves at residential-school sites in Canada in 2021 drew new attention to the history of Native boarding schools in the United States. Soon after the discovery, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland called for a comprehensive investigation of the U.S. boarding-school system. The first report of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative profiled 408 schools and was released in 2022. It discussed the abuses that took place in the schools and identified burial sites at more than 50 schools. The report recommended further research to identify additional burial sites and to examine the full impact that boarding schools had on Native peoples and cultures. A second report, released in 2024, expanded on the initial findings and included a collection of policy recommendations for the U.S. government. At the top of this list was the request for an official acknowledgment of the harm caused by the practice of forced removal, as well as a formal apology. On October 25, 2024, U.S. Pres. Joe Biden delivered an address at the Gila River Indian Reservation in which he described the boarding school system as “a sin on our soul.” “I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did,” Biden continued, “It’s long overdue.”