Suit alleges abuse at Indian boarding schools

MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2003

A group of Native Americans has filed suit against the federal government, alleging sexual, physical and other abuse at Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools.

The plaintiffs are seeking $25 billion in damages and want others to join the case. Lawyers say they will file similar suits against the churches that ran the schools for the BIA.

The plaintiffs say the abuse was widespread and even led to the death in some cases. They say priests, nuns and school administrators beat them for speaking their own language or for breaking the rules.

"I don't think anyone was mistreated unless they asked for it," Sister Mary Francis Poitra, who taught at St. Paul's Mission on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, told The Washington Post.

The Department of Justice said it won't comment on the suit.

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Abuse Charges Hit Reservation (The Washington Post 6/2)