Spring Break
Lakota man shares schooling horrors
K.C. Fleming
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: News
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When his mother visited him at the Oglala Community High School, one of dozens of federal boarding schools established to assimilate Native Americans, several years later, he didn't recognize her.
"Save the child. Kill the Indian. That is what the boarding school was all about," Littlemoon, 67, a Lakota Native American from Pine Ridge, SD, said to a crowd of about 75 local and CSU community members who crowded into the Eddy Building Wednesday night.
Well into the 1970s, Native American children were taken by the federal government and enrolled in U.S. government and church-run boarding schools, forced to assimilate into the Western, white culture.
Children were often beaten for speaking their tribal languages and displaying any aspects of their native culture, according to the documentary, "Something's Moving," shown at the event.
"(Even) 10 years ago, I was deadly afraid of speaking Lakota because the boarding school had scared it out of me," Littlemoon said.
Littlemoon, who has published a book about his life story and experiences in the boarding school, he said, along with many of his peers, were subjected to inhumane conditions --Â mental and physical abuse abounded --Â while they were at the school.
Today, he said, the residual backlash of the boarding schools still haunt him and many others in the Native American community.
Many individuals who grew up in the boarding school, also called residential or naturalization schools in some areas, now experience complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which is defined by Medicine.Net.com as a natural, emotionalresponse to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience.
Twenty-eight Native Americans committed suicide in the years following a court case in which they testified as to their experiences in the schools in Canada.
Littlemoon, who experiences PTSD, and his wife, Jane Ridgway, are working to raise awareness about the effects of the boarding schools on Native Americans and their families.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Ben Miller
posted 11/05/09 @ 8:42 AM MST
This is an issue that cuts all the way to the core of our American story. The treatment of the indigenous is a stain that colors all of America's accomplishments. (Continued…)
A. M. Akers
Andrea Akers
posted 11/10/09 @ 2:41 PM MST
As a preface I am sorry for the length but I had a lot to say.
I was ecstatic when I saw an article on the front page of the Collegian about Walter Littlemoon's lecture about his new book, "They Called Me Uncivilized: Memoir of an Everyday Lakota Man" but within the first sentence I became dismayed. (Continued…)
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