From 1894 until 1997, the United States and Canada ran a schooling system for Native Americans that equated to systemic genocide- children, some as young as newborns, were taken from their families and forced to live in boarding schools with the intent of assimilating them into Christian society. Not allowed to engage in their native languages or religious practices, these children endured horrific physical and mental abuse as they were stripped of their culture, many times culminating in death via disease, abuse, or suicide. Over a quarter million native children in the U.S and Canada were forced into these schools, with thousands upon thousands never returning home, as evidenced by the discovery of unmarked mass gravesites at many of the schools, with more being found every month.