'Understand history, create empathy': Telling the tale of Oregon's Native American boarding schools * Oregon ArtsWatch

"For generations, going to school for some Native Americans not only meant doing what they were told but using English names and being unable to speak in their native tongue. Some students were even met with beatings, withholding of food and solitary confinement. The 60-minute Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary Uncovering Boarding Schools: Stories of Resistance and Resilience follows Klamath Tribes member Gabriann "Abby" Hall as she discovers her family's experiences in Native American boarding schools."

"Funded by an Oregon Department of Education grant to the Klamath Tribe, Hall began digging through records to uncover her family's story. She found "the history had not been written," she told Ashland.news in a Zoom call. "It's undeniable that the government has tried to cover this up. You don't read about it in history books. It's void of information."

Gabriann "Abby" Hall, a Klamath Tribes member, uncovered three generations of her relatives who were removed and placed in Native American boarding schools. Tens of thousands of Indigenous children were taken by the federal government under a policy from 1819 until the 1970s aimed at assimilating tribes into mainstream society. Students were forced to use English names, forbidden to speak native languages, and subjected to beatings, food withholding and solitary confinement. Funded by an Oregon Department of Education grant, Hall researched records, found large omissions in histories, and initiated a two-year investigation that revealed systematic suppression of information.

Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News