On this episode of Rhode Island PBS Weekly, we report on stories that are both tragic and hidden histories that indigenous people endured in Rhode Island and around the country. We begin in the late 1800’s with the practice that lasted almost a century: Native American children taken from their families and forced in “Indian Boarding Schools” by the Federal Government. The suffering caused by the often-brutal assimilation has resulted in multi-generational trauma for indigenous people, including the Narragansetts of Rhode Island. Pamela Watts has the story.
Long before Indian Boarding Schools took root in America, Rhode Island was the scene of a well-documented injustice to Indigenous Americans. David Wright has this Rhode Island PBS Weekly exclusive story on a brutal incident known as the Great Swamp Massacre that took place three hundred and fifty years ago.
Rhode Island PBS Weekly