Government-sanctioned boarding schools scarred Indigenous children for life. In turn, their children and grandchildren have suffered inherited trauma. But those harmed by the Tulalip Indian School, a cornerstone of the Tulalip Reservation since its inception, have begun to heal.
The Tulalip boarding school evolved from a Catholic mission into a weapon for the government to eradicate Native culture. Interviews with survivors and primary documents give accounts of violent cultural suppression under the guise of education at the “Carlisle of the West,” modeled after the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Growing up in the Tulalip boarding school, Harriette Shelton Dover would “just sit absolutely still and watch my playmates die” of illness, hunger and cold. The Daily Herald dug into rosters and other records at Tulalip that reveal a staggering death toll — and pain passed from generation to generation.