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New York Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What It Looked Like Inside the Thomas Indian School
It's a little-known chapter in New York history: For decades, the state oversaw a boarding school where native children were systematically stripped of their culture and language and subjected to abuse. Originally called the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children and later shortened to the Thomas Indian School, the institution was on the Cattaraugus Territory of the Seneca Nation of Indians, about an hour south of Buffalo. On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul thrust the school into the spotlight when she issued a formal apology for the atrocities — including forced family separations, physical and sexual abuse and hard labor — that occurred there. Ms. Hochul didn't mince words. She called the school, in operation from 1855 to 1957, a 'place of nightmares' and 'a site of sanctioned ethnic cleansing.' According to the tribe, the event marked the first time a sitting New York governor has made an official visit to the traditional Seneca territories. During her visit Ms. Hochul met with over a dozen Seneca Nation members who attended the school. One of them, Elliott Tallchief, 85, recalled having his mouth washed out with soap for speaking his native language at the school in the 1940s. Some applauded Ms. Hochul for the apology. Dianna Beaver, whose grandmother attended Thomas Indian School, said 'it's about time that someone acknowledged the harm' it caused. But Tim Cooper, 62, a retired carpenter whose father attended the school, said Ms. Hochul's apology means nothing to him and many other tribal members who experienced, either directly or indirectly, the trauma inflicted by New York State. 'The wounds and scars and all the things that go with that are still there,' Mr. Cooper said.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Hochul Apologizes to Native Americans for Boarding School Atrocities
Gov. Kathy Hochul traveled to the territory of the largest Native tribe in New York State Tuesday to apologize for the atrocities committed at the long-closed Thomas Indian School, where Native children were systematically stripped of their culture and language and subjected to abuse. The school opened in 1855 on Seneca Nation territory as the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, and, unlike the many federally operated boarding schools that housed Native American children, it was overseen by state authorities. 'But instead of being a haven for orphaned children, it became a place of nightmares, a place some would call a torture chamber,' Ms. Hochul said. 'A site of sanctioned ethnic cleansing.' A federal reckoning of the legacy of these boarding schools for Native American children began a few years ago, and led to an apology from then-President Biden last year. But the trauma inflicted by New York State at the Thomas Indian School, which took a strikingly similar approach to the forced assimilation of Native children in schools run by the U.S. government, has largely remained in the shadows. On Tuesday morning, Ms. Hochul's appearance on the Seneca Nation's Cattaraugus Territory, about an hour south of Buffalo, thrust the school's history into the spotlight. Ms. Hochul met with over a dozen members of the Seneca Nation, some now using canes and wheelchairs, who attended the school, which shut down in 1957. All around them were reminders of the ordeals faced by many of the 2,500 Native children who were sent to the school during more than a century of operation. They gathered in a building that sits on land once used by the school, situated next to its old red brick infirmary, repurposed as the Seneca Nation Tribal Courts Building. After her private meetings, Ms. Hochul walked past a row of placards describing the involuntary family separations, hard labor and physical and sexual abuse that occurred at the school. One of the placards featured an oversized copy of an 1892 article in The Buffalo Enquirer, under the headline, 'Simply Awful. Poor Indian Orphan Girls Beaten, Starved and Horribly Ill-Treated.' As Ms. Hochul met with the Thomas Indian School survivors, a crowd of Senecas awaited her speech outside, where tribal members in traditional regalia opened the public portion of the ceremony with a prayer in the Seneca language and ancient dances. The Seneca Nation president, J.C. Seneca, whose father attended the Thomas Indian School, welcomed Ms. Hochul to the 'sacred ground' where he said some of the souls of those who suffered at the school still wander. Then the governor stepped up to the microphone and delivered a formal apology that Seneca leaders said they never thought they'd hear. 'On behalf of the State of New York, I, Governor Kathy Hochul, apologize to the Seneca Nation of Indians and survivors and descendants from all nations who attended the Thomas Indian School.' The governor acknowledged the gesture was 'long overdue' but called it a first step toward healing and better relations with the tribe. 'I cannot change the horrors of the past,' she said. 'I wish I could just wipe it all away.' Presbyterian missionaries founded the institution in 1855 after a typhoid outbreak left dozens of children orphaned and destitute, according to a historical account of the school published in Judicial Notice, a journal specializing in New York legal history. Many survivors and their descendants still refer to the school as 'Salem,' a mispronunciation of the word asylum. Though it was a private institution, the New York Legislature appropriated money for the construction of the facility and provided annual funding, while officials in Albany oversaw the instruction. New York State finally took it over in 1875 and eventually renamed it the Thomas Indian School. In 1892 scandal first struck the school when allegations of sexual abuse surfaced about the superintendent, John H. Van Valkenburg, 'ranging from illicit relations with young female residents to mishandling of the institution's finances,' according to the Judicial Notice article. Mr. Van Valkenburg, whose efforts to rid the Native children of their 'inherited shiftlessness' included forced labor outside the school, escaped criminal punishment after a court ruled he was 'insane,' Lori Quigley, the author of the article, said. Some welcomed Ms. Hochul's visit, said to be the first by a sitting New York governor to the Seneca Nation's traditional territories. 'It's about time that someone acknowledged the harm that New York State has done over the generations to our people,' said Dianna Beaver, a septuagenarian whose grandmother attended the Thomas Indian School. But others say the overdue apology was not enough to counter what they perceive as hostile treatment from the governor. Three years ago, Ms. Hochul froze the Nation's bank accounts as a way to force payment of $564 million in gambling revenues from its casinos, a move that she characterized as 'playing hardball' to resolve a longstanding dispute. She then directed $418 million of that money toward the financing of a new home for the Buffalo Bills. The tribe contends it never owed the money, though federal courts backed the state's demands. And Ms. Hochul and the tribe have yet to forge a renewal of the Seneca casino compact, whose current arrangement of 25 percent revenue share for the state and weak protections from competitors make it one of the worst arrangements for Native tribes in the United States. The two sides have been at a stalemate over a renewal since the compact expired about 18 months ago. Elliott Tallchief, 85, who recalled having his mouth washed out with soap for speaking his Native language at the school in the 1940s, said the atonement should have come sooner. 'They should have started a long time ago,' he said. 'My healing hasn't started yet. Here I am in my 80s. So where does my healing begin?' Mr. Seneca, who was elected president of the tribe in November, was more diplomatic. He had urged the governor to make a formal apology during a meeting with her in Albany several weeks ago, and said that Ms. Hochul had 'compassion' for the Senecas and called her visit a step toward making progress on 'the bigger issues that we face.' Ms. Quigley, an enrolled Seneca member and Niagara University professor, said the damage from the Thomas Indian School has reverberated through the generations, contributing to depression, alcoholism and other ills. Her own aunt was sexually abused at the school and her mother 'was never shown love' — only hatred and disdain, she said. 'I don't believe in an apology, and a lot of the survivors that I've interviewed in my research over the years have said the same thing,' she said. 'I think what people over the years have looked for more than anything was a simple acknowledgment that this school existed, that terrible atrocities were done to the children who lived there.'
The Hill
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
NY governor apologizes for ‘atrocities' committed at state boarding school for Native Americans
NEW YORK (AP) — New York's governor visited the Seneca Nation on Tuesday and formally apologized for 'atrocities' she says were committed at a state boarding school that separated Native American students from their families and forced them to assimilate into American society. Gov. Kathy Hochul also met with survivors of the Thomas Indian School, which operated from 1875 to 1957 in western New York near Lake Erie. Seneca President J. Conrad Seneca, whose father attended the school, said the apology is overdue. He said his family and countless others have quietly borne their pain for generations. 'The atrocities that our children suffered at the Thomas Indian School have remained hidden in the shadows for far too long,' he said in a statement announcing the visit. 'At long last, our people will hear, directly from the Governor, the words we have waited lifetimes for the State of New York to say — 'We're sorry'.' But some tribe members are skeptical of the goodwill gesture. Lori Quigley, a Niagara University professor whose mother attended the Thomas school for 10 years as a young child, said she hopes the governor offers more than words. 'An apology is one thing,' she said by phone ahead of the visit. 'What actions is she going to take in acknowledging this? These traumas are still impacting our communities.' Originally established by Presbyterian missionaries in 1855 before the state took ownership in 1875, the Thomas Indian School was among more than 400 government-supported schools established throughout the country with the goal of assimilating Native American youths. But the schools, which operated for roughly 150 years, had a devastating impact on Native American communities. Staff at the schools worked to strip Native children of their traditions and heritage. Teachers and administrators cut their hair, forbade them from speaking their own languages and forced them into manual labor. Students, forcibly separated from their families, endured torture, sexual abuse and hatred from school officials. More than 900 children died at the schools, the last of which closed or transitioned into different institutions decades ago. Former President Joe Biden in October 2024 visited the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona to formally apologize to Native Americans for the 'sin' of the nation's government-run boarding school system. But at least $1.6 million in federal funds destined for research projects on the boarding schools have been among the casualties of President Donald Trump's efforts to rein in the federal bureaucracy. Tribe officials say Hochul's visit appears to be the first by a sitting New York governor to the federally recognized tribe's lands. 'No words or actions will ever be able to undo the pain and suffering of the Seneca people and other Indigenous peoples across the State, but by visiting the Seneca Nation and the site of the Thomas Indian School we will mark a new day in our relations,' Hochul said in a statement Friday. Matthew Hill, a tribe member whose father was among the last class of students before the school was shuttered, dismissed the visit as 'empty words.' After all, he said, the Hochul administration and the tribe have been negotiating for years over how much if any of the tribe's casino revenues the state should be allowed to collect. 'They're saying sorry for the school, but they'll continue extorting money from us in the form of gaming revenues,' said Hill. 'It's a joke.'
Toronto Star
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
NY governor apologizes for ‘atrocities' committed at state boarding school for Native Americans
NEW YORK (AP) — New York's governor visited the Seneca Nation on Tuesday and formally apologized for 'atrocities' she says were committed at a state boarding school that separated Native American students from their families and forced them to assimilate into American society. Gov. Kathy Hochul also met with survivors of the Thomas Indian School, which operated from 1875 to 1957 in western New York near Lake Erie.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hochul to apologize to Seneca Nation for state's role in Native American boarding school
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Gov. Kathy Hochul will issue a formal apology Tuesday for the state's role in a Chautauqua County boarding school that separated Native American students from their families with the goal of assimilating them into American society. Hochul will also meet with former students and their descendants of the Thomas Indian School, which operated from 1875 until 1957. Staff at the school stripped native children of their traditional language and heritage and suffered torture, sexual abuse and hatred from school officials. Originally established by Presbyterian missionaries in 1855 before the state took ownership in 1875, the Thomas Indian School was among more than 400 government-supported schools established throughout the country with the goal of assimilating Native American youths. More than 900 children died at the schools, the last of which closed or transitioned into different institutions decades ago. The Seneca Nation said there are many more deaths that went undocumented. Seneca Nation president J. Conrad Seneca's father attended the school. His grandmother was removed from the family at age 11 and forced to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. 'The atrocities that our children suffered at the Thomas Indian School have remained hidden in the shadows for far too long,' Seneca said in a statement. 'At long last, our people will hear, directly from the Governor, the words we have waited lifetimes for the State of New York to say – 'We're sorry.'' It is believed that Hochul's visit on Tuesday is the first time a sitting governor has visited the Seneca Nation Territory. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
