“There just weren’t any resources to take care of us,” said Klein, a retired educator and mother of two who now serves on the Healing Coalition’s board.
At Fort Totten, Klein and the other kids on the bus were taken into a laundry room, where she was told to sit on a high stool.
'One of the first things they did was cut my long hair that was down my back,' Klein said. With black combs dipped in kerosene, a matron brushed her hair to kill head lice, even though she had none.
'I remember watching my hair fall to the floor,' Klein said, noting that she got the nickname 'Butch' because her hair was cut so short.
Her daily routine started at 6 a.m. with making her bunk bed. The covers had to be tight enough so a coin bounced off them. If not, she’d have to redo it. She then had to do 'details,' or chores such as cleaning floors and bathrooms.
For meals, she and other young girls were marched to the cafeteria. Boys ate on one side; girls on the other. They weren’t allowed to talk to one another, and she rarely saw her siblings."
~ Dana Hedgpeth
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/08/07/indian-boarding-school-survivors-abuse-trauma/
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