boarding schools, native american, south dakota, minnesota, pipestone [Video]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -It is a historic day in the effort to heal the pain inflicted on native american communities by the actions of the U.S. government long ago. President Biden apologized for the atrocities upon Native American children and their families at boarding schools. Many still feel the effects of the trauma today.

In the late 1800s, leaders of the U.S. government believed they had a question: what to do about the “Indian problem.” Two options emerged.

“You could either exterminate every single Indian person, or you could assimilate them and make them civilized,” says Gabriel Yellow Hawk, who sits on the Pipestone Human Rights Commission.

One of the first board schools was in Carslisle, Pennsylvania. Many children from this area were sent there.

“Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the school, is credited with using the phrase, kill the Indian, save the man,” said Barbara …