Samantha Garrity, M.Ed., College of the Holy Cross Center for Writing Professional Tutor

Erasing Native Peoples and Their Cultures: Forced Boarding Schools & Sterilization Practices

This presentation will cover the topics of how white America actively worked to erase Native American peoples and their cultures through forced boarding schools and sterilization practices.

More than 100,000 Native American children were taken from their homes and forced to attend these boarding schools from the 1800s until the mid 1900s. These boarding schools, rampant with abuse, were in operation until 1978. Another form of genocide that the Native American people were subject to was forced and coerced sterilization. Forced sterilization procedures began in the United States in the late 1800s as the eugenics movement gained popularity. Both the boarding schools and the sterilizations practices were used in an attempt to end Native cultures and Native tribes in North America. In this presentation will learn about the frequently covered up or forgotten parts of dark American history.