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Why did the United States and Canada establish boarding and residential schools for Indigenous children?

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A dancer in a bright pink shawl with fringe, wearing traditional regalia adorned with blue and black accents, performs at an outdoor cultural event. — Native American November is the traditional time of harvest, gathering, and celebration in Native communities.

The United States and Canada established American Indian boarding schools and residential schools with the explicit, morally indefensible goal of destroying Indigenous cultures and forcing the assimilation of Indigenous children into dominant white, Western society.12

Government officials and church administrators viewed this forced assimilation as a strategy to resolve what they termed the "Indian question." By isolating children from their families, communities, and ancestral lands, authorities intended to break the transmission of Indigenous languages, religions, and traditions. In the United States, this was also driven by a desire to acquire Indigenous territory more efficiently by undermining tribal sovereignty.13

The systems were rooted in deeply racist ideologies, exemplified by the philosophy of "killing the Indian to save the man". These institutions subjected children to systemic physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, forced labor, and neglect, which resulted in widespread illness and the deaths of thousands of children. The legacy of these schools continues to cause profound intergenerational trauma within Indigenous communities today.132