Tribes confront painful legacy of Indian boarding schools
By Marsha King

Seattle Times staff reporter



Genevieve Williams lies in failing health in her daughter's small house on the
Tulalip Reservation, haunted by powerful memories.

She sees herself as a little girl. Marching everywhere in a line. Scrubbing
floors on her hands and knees. Being forced to stand silent for hours in a dark
hall. Watching children get strapped for speaking their native language.

"I got to know that strap," she said. "Everybody knew what that strap was for,
hanging inside the door."

It was especially bad for girls who wet the bed. Dresses pulled up and underwear
pulled down, they were beaten. "We all had to line up and watch."

At age 85, Williams bears witness to a dark and unfinished chapter in American
history: the Indian boarding school era.

Increasingly, the damage from that early abuse, loneliness and lack of love is
being seen as a major factor in ills that plague tribes today, passed from one
generation to the next and manifesting in high rates of poverty, substance
abuse, domestic violence, depression and suicide.[...]

For the entire article click on

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004161238_boardingschool03m.htm\
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