For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States government and Christian denominations operated boarding schools where generations of Native American children were isolated from their families. Along with academics and hard work, the schools sought to erase elements of tribal identity, from language and clothing to hairstyles and even their names.
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where the remains of 17 students were exhumed and repatriated in recent weeks, served as a model for other schools.
