Shondin Silversmith of the States Newsroom outlet Arizona Mirror is an award-winning Native journalist based on the Navajo Nation. Silversmith has covered Indigenous communities for more than 10 years, and covers Arizona's 22 federally recognized sovereign tribal nations, as well as national and international Indigenous issues.
For the first time in history, the Department of Interior investigated the federal Indian boarding school system across the United States, identifying more than 400 schools and over 50 burial sites. Georgia was home to two of those schools, which were attended by indigenous children who were taken away from their families and attempted to assimilate them through education — and, often, physical punishment.
