CONTENT WARNING: Abuse, Death, Genocide, and Trauma

Hosted by Joshua Bulavko, currently a student in the Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Kansas, the Boarding School Oral History Podcast (BSOHP) is a research project focused on reckoning with the experiences of survivors, descendants, public officials, and tribal communities with the systematic efforts of assimilation in the United States. In 2021, the Department of the Interior, under the direction of Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), released the “Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report.” Within this report, the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Bryan Newland (Ojibwe), details the “systematic identity-alteration methodologies” used by the federal government and religious institutions during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many Native children of sovereign tribal nations were often misled or ripped away from their families. They were then placed in off-reservation schools, such as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, out of an apparent interest in solving the so-called “Indian problem.” The history of American Indian boarding schools remains uncomfortable, yet important, to discuss so our society never repeats similar atrocities.

This podcast is for Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences alike. It seeks to center on respect for tribal sovereignty, oral histories, and the needs of Indigenous communities. To ensure continued learning, all listeners should respect the experiences shared by guests. Please take care of yourself and one another.

Music by Coma-Media by Pixabay

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.