Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Plot Against Native America by Bill Vaughn - Wait list

The Plot Against Native America

The Fateful Story of Native American Boarding Schools and the Theft of Tribal Lands

by Bill Vaughn
ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
Place a hold Read a sample Read a sample
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
The first narrative history revealing the entire story of the development, operation, and harmful legacy of the Native American boarding schools—and how our nation still has much to resolve before we can fully heal.
When Europeans came to the Americas centuries ago, too many of them brought racism along with them. Even presidents such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson each had different takes on how to solve the "Indian Problem"—none of them beneficial for the Natives.

In the early 1800s, the federal government and various church denominations devised the "Indian Boarding Schools," in which Native children were forced to give up their Native languages, clothes, and spiritual beliefs for a life of cultural assimilation. Many of the children were abused sexually—and a shocking number died of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other diseases. Sizable graveyards were found at many of these boarding schools.

In 2021, the mass graves of First Nations children were found at the remains of some Canadian boarding schools, and the Pope traveled to Canada to apologize. In May 2022, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland released the first installment of an investigation into Native American boarding schools in the United States. It was the tip of the iceberg. The findings were shocking: the investigation revealed that the boarding school system emphasized manual labor and vocational training, which failed to prepare indigenous students for life in a capitalist economy.

Despite the plot against Native America, tribal cultures have endured and are now flourishing. Indigenous birth rates are higher than those of white communities. Tribal councils across Indian Country are building their own herds of bison. As the tribes rebuild and reinvigorate their culture, the Catholic Church in America is fading. Some thirty dioceses have declared bankruptcy because of lawsuits brought by the victims of the sexual predators among priests and nuns. Native Americans seeking reparations for lost land are looking directly at the Vatican.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 1, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781639367474

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781639367474
      • File size: 17132 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      September 15, 2024
      How North American schools committed cultural genocide. Vaughn's narrative history charts the growth and impact of Indigenous residential boarding schools in North America, offering insights into their pedagogical rationale, day-to-day operations, and enduring consequences. In illuminating detail, he covers the collaboration between government and church powers in creating the schools as well as their efforts over two centuries to evade responsibility for the myriad abuses that took place across the continent. As Vaughn notes, the sometimes high-minded rhetoric of those who designed and managed these institutions was belied by the more cynical intentions guiding official policies: "Indian boarding and residential schools were used by the government to steal Native land by degrading indigenous cultures and reducing their communal will to resist the plunder." Vaughn's sensitive accounts of those who attended the schools vividly convey the realities of individual suffering and the cultural losses incurred by institutionalized attempts at cultural assimilation. It is now beyond question, he demonstrates in detailed summations of recent historical scholarship, that physical and sexual abuse, along with staggeringly high mortality rates, were common at the schools. Vaughn perceptively delineates the significance of figures such as Richard Henry Pratt, the founder and superintendent of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, whose ideas about Indigenous education became hugely influential. The concluding sections emphasize the failure of American and Canadian schools to carry out their ultimate aim: the complete eradication of Indigenous cultures. Vaughn rightly emphasizes the resilience of Indigenous peoples in the face of attempted annihilation: "Although these forces attempted and sometimes succeeded in suppressing Indigenous languages, customs, economies and spirituality, Native people resisted." An informed, astute, and often harrowing account of institutionalized assaults on Indigenous peoples.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading