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The Unhealed Wounds of Forced Assimilation: A Call for Apologies
My LDS family adopted an American Indian child in the 1970s. It was wrong, and the church should apologize.
This opinion first appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, June 21, page B3. Opinion: The Indian Placement Program was wrong when I was a boy. The LDS Church should apologize. (sltrib.com)
A recent exposé described the abuse of American Indian children in boarding schools operated by the Catholic Church and sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Interior. In June, U. S. Catholic bishops apologized for the church’s efforts to strip away the identities of American Indian children for generations. Other churches should do the same.
Apologies cannot change the past, but they can pave the way for healing and reconciliation for those affected by forced assimilation and abuse. Apologizing is recognition by the contrite of wrongdoing. The federal government and all institutions involved, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, must formally apologize and commit to doing better in the future.
My foster brother, Leander, came to live with my family in Utah as part of the Indian Student Placement Program (also called the Lamanite Education Program) sponsored by the LDS Church…
