One of War Bonnet’s earliest memories was the anguish of being separated from his family at just six years old. He’d been excited to go to school for the first time when his parents dropped him off at St. Francis in September of 1952. But that changed when he realized he wasn’t going back home.

‘Kids Were Marched Everywhere. This Was a Concentration Camp.’

Native survivors share stories of beatings, forced labor, sex abuse, and more as part of the federal Indian boarding school program from 1819 to 1969.