The scars of Native American boarding schools

Correction: A previous version of this episode incorrectly stated when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland began her listening tour. Haaland started the listening tour last summer, and the tour has lasted for longer than one year The audio has been updated to remove the error.

In a moment of reckoning, survivors of the U.S.-run Indian boarding schools are speaking out and trying to hold the U.S. government accountable.

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For almost a century, the U.S. government took Native American children from their families and forced them to attend residential boarding schools. These schools – which were intended to assimilate the children into White culture – left lasting impressions on the students who attended. Many suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of school employees.

While the history of Indian boarding schools in the United States is largely forgotten, survivors of these institutions are starting to speak out and share their experiences. Reporter Dana Hedgpeth spoke to several survivors who chose to tell their stories publicly for the first time. 

Today, what it means for Native Americans to speak openly about the abuse they survived, and what it would mean to hold the United States accountable for its role in running the nearly 400 Indian boarding schools across the country.