The Weaponization of Childhood: A Tactic with Deep Roots
Same playbook, different decade: FIRST INSTANCE: The Legacy of Forced Assimilation and 'Child Saving' The practice of state intervention in family structures, particularly concerning minority and Indigenous populations, has a long and dark history in the United States. One of the clearest precedents for the systemic separation of children from their parents and the infliction of 'toxic stress' for
social engineering purposes can be found in the Native American boarding school system , which gained momentum in the late 19th century. From the 1870s through the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities, often under the guise of 'civilizing' them. The explicit goal, as articulated by Captain Richard Henry Pratt, founder of the
Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879, was to 'kill the Indian, save the man.' Children were subjected to cultural erasure, physical abuse, and psychological trauma, designed to break their ties to their heritage and integrate them into dominant white society. The long-term physiological and psychological impacts on these children and subsequent generations, now recognized as intergenerational
trauma, are well-documented (National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, 2021 ). REPETITIONS: Eugenics, Sterilization, and the Welfare State This pattern of state-imposed distress and family disruption resurfaced in the early 20th century, notably within the American eugenics movement, which peaked in the 1920s and 30s. State laws in over 30 states sanctioned forced sterilization