Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-376_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 47.0

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

5 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

seize such children as were proper and take them away to
school, willing or unwilling.”  ARCIA 1886, at 199.  When 
parents “hurried their children off to the mountains or hid 
them away in camp,” agents “chase[d] and capture[d] them
like so many wild rabbits.”  Ibid.  Fathers were described 
as “sullen,” mothers “loud in their lamentations,” and the 
children “almost out of their wits with fright.”  Ibid. 

Upon the children’s arrival, the boarding schools would 
often seek to strip them of nearly every aspect of their iden-
tity.  The schools would take away their Indian names and 
give them English ones.  See BIA Report 53.  The schools 
would cut their hair—a point of shame in many native com-
munities, see J. Reyhner & J. Eder, American Indian Edu-
cation 178 (2004)—and confiscate their traditional clothes.
ARCIA 1886, at 199.  Administrators delighted in the pro-
cess,  describing  the  “metamorphosis  [a]s  wonderful,”  and
professing that, in the main, “the little savage seems quite
proud of his appearance.”  Ibid.  After intake, the schools 
frequently  prohibited  children  from  speaking  their  native 
language  or  engaging  in  customary  cultural  or  religious 
practices.  BIA Report 53.  Nor could children freely associ-
ate with members of their own Tribe.  Schools would organ-
ize dorms by the “[s]ize of cadets, and not their tribal rela-
tions,”  so  as  to  further  “br[eak]  up  tribal  associations.” 
ARCIA 1886, at 6. 

Resistance could invite punishments that included “with-
holding food” and “whipping.”  BIA Report 54 (internal quo-
tation  marks  omitted).  Older  boys  faced  “court-martial,” 
with  other  Indian  children  serving  as  prosecutors  and 
judges.  Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Af-
fairs to the Secretary of Interior 188 (1881).  Even compli-
ant  students  faced  “[r]ampant  physical,  sexual,  and  emo-
tional abuse; disease; malnourishment; overcrowding; and 
lack of health care.”  BIA Report 56.  Given these conditions, 
it  is  unsurprising  that  many  children  tried  (often  unsuc-
cessfully) to flee.  Id., at 55, n. 176 (recounting incidents).