WMFE spoke with associate professor of history Daniel Murphree about the roots of Native American boarding schools and the generational trauma they caused. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Halaand recently called for a federal investigation into the schools after thousands of unmarked graves were found near similar residential boarding schools in Canada.
“I think for many, many Native communities today, and there are many Native Americans that either were in boarding schools, or their parents were they have direct connections to these residential boarding schools. I think having the clarity of what happened, will give them some kind of resolution on what happened. Of course, it can’t compensate in any real sense, but it still having the acknowledgement that this happened is very, very important to a lot of people,” said Murphree.