Cultural genocide in the United States facts for kids

Cultural genocide in the United States refers to the ways the culture and identity of Indigenous people were harmed and nearly destroyed. This happened by forcing children to attend boarding schools and through unfair laws that discriminated against them. Cultural genocide is when a group's culture is broken down, and people are made to forget their traditions and way of life.

What is Cultural Genocide?

A man named Raphael Lemkin, who created the term "genocide," said that the way Indigenous people were treated during colonial times was a "cultural genocide." He explained that this was a very effective way to destroy a culture and make people lose their connection to their heritage.

Lemkin explained the difference between "cultural change" and "cultural genocide." Cultural change is a slow, natural shift as people adapt to new situations. Cultural genocide, however, is a sudden and harsh change that happens on purpose. It's like a planned attack on a culture, meant to destroy it.

Vincent Schilling, a Native American journalist, explained that while many people know about the difficult history of Indigenous people, there's still a lot of misunderstanding about Native American and First Nations history. He said that Indigenous people have suffered "cultural genocide" because of the lasting effects of colonization.

Boarding Schools and Native Children

For many years, Indigenous children were taken from their families and sent to special schools. These were called Indigenous boarding schools. Many adult Native people today still remember being forcibly removed from their homes and sent to these schools. There, they were often punished for speaking their native languages. Many children also became very sick, and some did not survive.

Why Were These Schools Created?

From the 1800s to the 1900s, there were about 350 of these boarding schools in the United States. Most were funded by the government and often run by churches. The U.S. Interior Department stated that these schools were meant "to culturally assimilate Indigenous children." This means the goal was to make Indigenous children act and think like white Americans. They were taken far from their families and communities. At these schools, their Indigenous identities, languages, and beliefs were suppressed.

Hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were removed from their communities for over 150 years. Between 1869 and the 1970s, countless Indigenous children went through these schools, and many died there.

The Indian Child Welfare Act

In 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed. This law finally gave Native American parents the legal right to refuse to send their children to these institutions.

Taking children from their families with the goal of destroying a group's identity, even partly, is part of the definition of genocide from the 1948 Genocide Convention. The boarding schools aimed to "kill the Indian, save the man." This phrase shows that the schools were designed to erase Indigenous culture and identity.

See also

In Spanish: Genocidio cultural en los Estados Unidos para niños