Native American Residential Schools - Rehoboth School
Aug 11, 2022 15:20:37 GMT
throwaway2018, questioneverything, and 1 more like this
Post by prnolonger on Aug 11, 2022 15:20:37 GMT
This topic came up because of a post by fellowhuman in a different thread. I thought it was worth exploring as a topic in its own thread.
The type of schools being talked about are called "Residential Schools", sometimes referred to as "Indian Boarding Schools". They are deeply rooted in white supremacy. The explicit intention of them was to set up to "civilize the savages", wiping out their indigenous culture, language, and religions. The actual motto and guiding principle of the residential school system was "Kill the Indian, save the man". They'd set the schools on native land (or just outside their lands), and they'd literally kidnap children from their families and force them into the residential school system. They'd mercilessly treat the kids with all the worst stuff you can imagine. Refuse to give them names and only call them by numbers. Beating them for speaking a word not in English. Punish them by refusing to feed them, putting them in solitary confinement, psychological abuse, spiritual abuse, and physical abuse. Sexual abuse was rampant, absolutely RAMPANT, at these schools. The Canadian government was one of the worst offenders there. The stories coming out of the Canadian are horrific, stomach-churning stuff. The kind of horror that a human brain has trouble wrapping around it its so awful. Mass graves are still being discovered at these schools. They'd abuse the kids to death and just toss them in an unmarked mass grave. That's graves, plural. Multiple schools. A conservative estimate by the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission places the minimum number of unmarked graves to be 3,200. The pope recently apologized for the Catholic complicity in the residential school system.
If you think is a far away type of issue and Canada still seems to far away for you (it's not), there's a terrible and complicated history of residential schools in Michigan.
If you think it's an issue of the distant past, the last residential school was shut down in 1998.
If you think this is an issue of other churches, and not the CRC/PRC, what do think Rehoboth Christian School was? Quote "In its early years as an Indian boarding school, the children were forbidden to speak the Navajo language and were taught to eschew their native culture." Do you know how many PR teachers did their student teaching at a school set up as a Navajo residential school in New Mexico? Did you ever think that was weird that so many PR teachers went to student teach in New Mexico, when there's no PR church in New Mexico?
Rehoboth and the CRC have acknowledged this history, and are working to turn it around. In 2002, the schools executive director Ron Polinder was quoted as saying "We came here 100 years ago with some cultural arrogance, expecting Native American people to become like white people". Courses were introduced that same year to teach the Navajo language in the school. That's good. Progress. If we are truly to make amends, the awful history of residential schools and racism needs to be acknowledged and cannot be ignored.
The type of schools being talked about are called "Residential Schools", sometimes referred to as "Indian Boarding Schools". They are deeply rooted in white supremacy. The explicit intention of them was to set up to "civilize the savages", wiping out their indigenous culture, language, and religions. The actual motto and guiding principle of the residential school system was "Kill the Indian, save the man". They'd set the schools on native land (or just outside their lands), and they'd literally kidnap children from their families and force them into the residential school system. They'd mercilessly treat the kids with all the worst stuff you can imagine. Refuse to give them names and only call them by numbers. Beating them for speaking a word not in English. Punish them by refusing to feed them, putting them in solitary confinement, psychological abuse, spiritual abuse, and physical abuse. Sexual abuse was rampant, absolutely RAMPANT, at these schools. The Canadian government was one of the worst offenders there. The stories coming out of the Canadian are horrific, stomach-churning stuff. The kind of horror that a human brain has trouble wrapping around it its so awful. Mass graves are still being discovered at these schools. They'd abuse the kids to death and just toss them in an unmarked mass grave. That's graves, plural. Multiple schools. A conservative estimate by the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission places the minimum number of unmarked graves to be 3,200. The pope recently apologized for the Catholic complicity in the residential school system.
If you think is a far away type of issue and Canada still seems to far away for you (it's not), there's a terrible and complicated history of residential schools in Michigan.
If you think it's an issue of the distant past, the last residential school was shut down in 1998.
If you think this is an issue of other churches, and not the CRC/PRC, what do think Rehoboth Christian School was? Quote "In its early years as an Indian boarding school, the children were forbidden to speak the Navajo language and were taught to eschew their native culture." Do you know how many PR teachers did their student teaching at a school set up as a Navajo residential school in New Mexico? Did you ever think that was weird that so many PR teachers went to student teach in New Mexico, when there's no PR church in New Mexico?
Rehoboth and the CRC have acknowledged this history, and are working to turn it around. In 2002, the schools executive director Ron Polinder was quoted as saying "We came here 100 years ago with some cultural arrogance, expecting Native American people to become like white people". Courses were introduced that same year to teach the Navajo language in the school. That's good. Progress. If we are truly to make amends, the awful history of residential schools and racism needs to be acknowledged and cannot be ignored.
