Boarding Schools

After findings about the damage caused by government-run Indian boarding schools, former students want more investigation into the matter.

Along with typical childhood concerns about schoolwork, family and relationships with peers, the children of Chicago’s West Side also have to deal with gun violence. So far in 2016, there have been 267 homicides in Chicago, compared to 489 homicides citywide in all of 2015, according to the Chicago Tribune.

By Melody Ann Owen Vera, an Indian residential school survivor, describes years of fear and desperation growing up. In her words, the experience left her with a “lack of communication skills and the closeness learned was not healthy.”