Revisiting One of the Oldest Orphanages, Asylums, and Indigenous Residential Boarding Schools: The Thomas Indian School at Seneca Nation

Abstract

For Indigenous populations, one of the most recognized acts of historical trauma has come from boarding schools. These institutions were established by federal and state governments to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into foreign cultures through spiritual, physical, and sexual abuse and through the destruction of critical connections to land, family, and tribal community. This literature review focuses on the impact of one of the oldest orphanages, asylums, and Indigenous residential boarding schools in the United States. The paper shares perspectives on national and international parallels of residential schools, land, truth and reconciliation, social justice, and the reconnection of resiliency-based Indigenous Knowledge towards ancestral strength, reclamation, survivorship, and cultural continuance.