Plot Against Native America

This narrative history tells the full story of the Native American boarding schools: how they were conceived, how they operated, and the damage they left behind. It also argues that the country still has a great deal to reckon with before it can truly heal.

The account begins with the arrival of Europeans, many of whom brought racism with them. Even presidents such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson had their own ideas about solving the so-called Indian Problem, and none of those ideas served Native people. In the early 1800s the federal government and various church denominations created the boarding schools, where Native children were made to give up their languages, clothing and spiritual beliefs in the name of assimilation. Many were sexually abused, and a shocking number died of pneumonia, tuberculosis and other diseases. Large graveyards have been found at many of the schools.

The book follows recent events. In 2021 mass graves of First Nations children were found at the sites of some Canadian boarding schools, and the Pope traveled to Canada to apologize. In May 2022, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released the first part of a federal investigation into the schools in the United States, which was only the beginning of what remains to be uncovered. It found that the system stressed manual labor and vocational training, which left Indigenous students unprepared for life in a capitalist economy.

The author also looks at what has happened since. Tribal cultures have endured and are now thriving: Indigenous birth rates exceed those of white communities, and tribal councils across Indian Country are building their own bison herds. Meanwhile the Catholic Church in America is in decline, with some thirty dioceses having declared bankruptcy after lawsuits from victims of predatory priests and nuns. Native Americans seeking reparations for lost land are now looking directly at the Vatican.