Former Indian Boarding School Resident Shares Story Of Abuse: ‘No Amount Of Apologies Can Do Anything’

A member of the Seminole nation shares her story for the first time, after she said she was beaten and abused at two Indian boarding schools when she was younger.

Those schools were run by the federal government to assimilate Native Americans into American culture.

"No amount of apologies can do anything for us - the United States government has to stand up and tell the world what they did to the children, to the children," Augustina Warledo told News on 6. "When I talk about the way they treated us, the Indians - I get very emotional about it."

 Warledo said she was forced into a boarding school at six years old, a place she wishes she could forget.

"It was like a military camp. You had to get up at a certain time, and they forced you to march and pray," Warledo recalled. 

She remembers everyone's hair was cut, they were not given full meals or proper medical care and were beaten for speaking their native language. She said a supervisor brought out a "stick ruler and whipped her knuckles," because she spoke her language.

Warledo attended Carter Seminary School until she was 10, and in the ninth grade she went to Chilocca Indian School in Ardmore. She said the worst part was being separated from her parents.

"It hurts, you're lonesome and you cry," Warledo said. 

Warledo said there are stories even worse than hers. She said she hurts to think about the 215 bodies of children found in a mass grave recently in Canada, near a boarding school site.

"They are still digging up graves in Canada - those schools down there were like concentration camps! They were killed by the people who were supposed to take care of them," Warledo said.

Warledo's granddaughter Vanessa Brito said the effects of the school can last for years.

"The emotional support that a normal family would get at home, Native Americans don't get that because of what happened at the boarding schools. And then it gets passed down from generation to generation," Brito said. 

Despite Warledo's experience, she still speaks her native language. She wants more Native Americans to share their stories and for the United States to listen.

"My people suffered - my Indian people suffered. I want the world to know that," Warledo said. 

U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, is now leading an effort to conduct a nationwide investigation into these boarding schools. 

Related Story: Interior Dept. Announces Investigation Into Traumas Of Indian Boarding Schools

She said this investigation will identify past boarding school facilities, locate possible burial sites and document the identities and tribal affiliations of children who were taken there.