TULSA, Okla. — Hundreds of people involved with the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition are discussing the generational trauma they say is related to the boarding schools.

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Dora Brought-Plenty attended two different boarding schools. She says she has emotional scars from both experiences.

“You had to be there and go through it, to be hit and to be whooped, you know, the things that they did to us. I mean they cut my hair off, threw it my face and laughed at me like I was nothing,” said Brought-Plenty.

Brought-Plenty took part in “Breaking the Silence: Seeking Truth, Justice, and Healing from Indian Boarding Schools.” The event featured survivors discussing their experiences.

The United States Government forced Native American children into boarding schools beginning in 1860, separating them from their families and traditional ways of life in an attempt to assimilate them.

Survivors said they were beaten, raped, forced to abandon religious beliefs, and speak only in English. People at the convention said it destroyed the lives of their families for generations, calling it cultural genocide.

Now, Brought-Plenty says she feels an obligation to speak out.

“I’m seventy one, when I’m gone, who’s going to believe what I have to say, if I can’t say it myself? So, I think it’s important for the elders to, regardless of how painful it is, we have to tell people what was done to us cause there’s children that didn’t get to come home.... thousands of children.”

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