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The Race Gap in the U.S.: Secrets can't be buried forever
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It was in the Dakota Territories where the "progressive" experiment with the boarding schools for indigenous children started. In 1879, army captain Richard Pratt was sent there with instructions to recruit the children of the Pine Ridge and Rose Bud agencies, and take them across the country to Carlisle Pennsylvania, where Pratt established the first off-site boarding school. The mission was to "kill the Indian and save the man," as Pratt himself put it. The generational trauma experienced by the Lakota people is symbolized by the recent return of the mortal remains of nine children who died while attending Carlisle and were buried there, away from their families and uprooted from their traditions one hundred years ago.

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