Why were Great Basin Indigenous children sent to distant boarding schools?

The U.S. government established distant boarding schools for Indigenous children, including those from the Great Basin, as a central component of a broader policy of forced assimilation.12

Government officials believed that day schools located on reservations were ineffective because children returned to their families and communities each night, maintaining their cultural bonds. By removing children from their homes and isolating them in distant institutions, the government intended to break these ties, suppress traditional languages and religions, and replace Indigenous cultures with Euro-American ways of life.314

This strategy was also driven by the desire to acquire Indigenous land more efficiently. By "killing the Indian" to "save the man," officials sought to transform Indigenous children into individuals who would conform to the dominant white culture. These schools were run with strict, often military-style discipline, where students were forced to abandon their traditional identities, adopt English names, and perform manual labor to sustain the institutions. This system caused profound harm, including widespread abuse, malnutrition, and the deaths of hundreds of children.14