'We survived, we are resilient': Remembering U.S. Indian boarding schools

""When I went to boarding school, I was 7," said Ramona Klein, speaking to a group clad in orange shirts at a vigil earlier this month in Washington, D.C. "My parents didn't see me other than a little while during the summer for four years. Some parents didn't see their children for 12 years." Klein attended the Fort Totten Indian Industrial School in North Dakota from 1954 to 1958."

"From 1819 to 1969, the federal government financed more than 400 Indian boarding schools. Native children were often forcibly removed from their homes and sent to these schools, sometimes hundreds of miles away, where many were abused and neglected. An investigation by the Interior Department found that, of more than 60,000 students who attended the federal Indian boarding schools, at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died. "There was physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, academic abuse, intellectual abuse and neglect," Klein said."

Ramona Klein attended Fort Totten Indian Industrial School from 1954 to 1958 and was separated from her parents beginning at age seven, seeing them only briefly during summers for four years. Many families experienced even longer separations, sometimes for 12 years. Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation mark remembrance for tens of thousands of Native children forced into boarding schools. From 1819 to 1969, the federal government financed over 400 Indian boarding schools where children were often removed from homes, abused, neglected, and sometimes died. An Interior Department investigation identified at least 973 child deaths among more than 60,000 students. Community groups distribute orange shirts reading "Every Child Matters" and promote healing and remembrance.

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