Unmarked graves, lost family members, and a reckoning long overdue – it is a story familiar to Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States, where residential schools for native children ripped apart tribal nations. The US boarding school system was even more extensive than Canada’s, but much less is known about it, and its history is often surrounded by a culture of silence. Today, we’re revisiting this story and still wondering what will it take for a reckoning in the US.

In this episode: 

• Kavitha Chekuru (@KaviChek), producer for Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines (@AJFaultLines)


• Denise Lajimodiere (@DLajimodiere), author and academic


• Eleanor Hadden, descendant of boarding school students

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Alexandra Locke. The original production team was Alexandra Locke, Dina Kesbeh, Amy Walters, Ney Alvarez, Priyanka Tilve, Natalia Aldana, Stacey Samuel, Graelyn Brashear, and our host, Malika Bilal. Our production team also includes Chloe K. Li, Ruby Zaman, and Ashish Malhotra. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. 

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