Beacon Hill Friends House

A slide presentation by Paula Palmer, Gail Melix, and Andrew Grant, recorded on November 15, 2022

What does the Quaker history of running Indigenous boarding schools and the ongoing impact on Native communities mean for Friends today? How can Friends contribute toward healing?

This educational resource is offered by Beacon Hill Friends House, Friends Peace Teams, and the New England Yearly Meeting Right Relationship Resource Group.

"I know that this process will be long and difficult. I know that this process will be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak and loss we feel. But only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace."

- Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Quakers managed more than thirty schools for Native American children. Some Quaker schools operated with federal funds and carried out the government’s policy of forced assimilation. Quakers separated Indigenous children from their parents and tried to remake them in the Euro-American Quaker image, causing tremendous harm.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition has told us that the first step in a truth, reconciliation, and healing process is truth-telling. Put another way — in order for healing to occur, we must bring the full truth about the boarding schools and their ongoing consequences for Native families to light in the United States.

This educational resource offers a way to explore the findings of Paula Palmer’s research into Quaker support for Indigenous boarding schools to help bring some of that truth to light. We aim to understand this history and its current impacts, as well as how Friends can take responsibility for our part in the historic and ongoing harm done to Native Peoples.

** Note that this resource explores traumatic history and includes sensitive content. **

Educational Resource:

The Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools: Facing History and Ourselves

What does the Quaker history of running Indigenous boarding schools and the ongoing impact on Native communities mean for Friends today? How can Friends contribute toward healing?

"I know that this process will be long and difficult. I know that this process will be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak and loss we feel. But only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace."

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Educational Resource:

The Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools: Facing History and Ourselves

What does the Quaker history of running Indigenous boarding schools and the ongoing impact on Native communities mean for Friends today? How can Friends contribute toward healing?

"​I know that this process will be long and difficult. I know that this process will be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak and loss we feel. But only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace."

"I know that this process will be long and difficult. I know that this process will be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak and loss we feel. But only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace."