The Economist - USA (2022-05-14)

22 United States The Economist May 14th 2022

stitution,” says Mr Raffensperger, sitting in

the  headquarters  of  the  engineering­de­

sign firm he founded in a town called Su­

wanee. (Before the hoopla of 2020, he was a

little­noticed  and  soft­spoken  structural

engineer.)  He  is  hoping  to  stave  off  a

Trump­endorsed,  stop­the­steal  enthusi­

ast, Jody Hice, a congressman who aims to

“to stop Democrats before they rig and ruin

our  democracy  for  ever”.  The  two  are  in  a

tight race that is likely to require a run­off

on June 21st.

Neither Mr Raffensperger nor Mr Kemp

is adopting the position of Never Trumper

or party dissident, however. Asked why he

is  standing  for  re­election,  Mr  Raffens­

perger replies that, “for Georgia voters, the

number­one issue is to make sure that only

Americans  vote  in  our  elections”.  When

asked  why  he  does  not  make  much  of  the

stand  that  made  him  a  (relatively  hard  to

pronounce)  household  name,  Mr  Raffen­

sperger  says  that  is  “because  America  al­

ways  looks  forward”.  His  references  to  it

are unmistakable but oblique: “History has

shown  that  good  always  triumphs  over

evil.  And  truth  always  triumphs  over  un­

truth...I  don’t  mean  to  be  philosophical

about it,” he says, almost apologetically.

Both  Mr  Kemp  and  Mr  Raffensperger

prefer to spend their time criticising Stacey

Abrams, a progressive icon who will again

be  the  Democratic  nominee  for  governor.

Mr Kemp argues that he is the best placed

to  spoil  her  chances  of  becoming  gover­

nor—or  even  president  after  that.  Mr  Raf­

fensperger  claims  she  is  agitating  for

changes  to  election  administration  that

will leave it susceptible to fraudulent votes

by non­citizens. Ms Abrams narrowly lost

her  election  in  2018  to  Mr  Kemp,  but  re­

fused  to  concede,  blaming  voter  suppres­

sion for her loss and firing off a federal law­

suit, which is still ongoing. In his book, Mr

Raffensperger  writes  about  his  “unshak­

able sense of déjà vu” in 2020 after his ex­

perience of the 2018 election.

Controversial  new  rules  are  in  place,

too.  In  2021  the  Republican­controlled

Georgia  legislature  passed  sb202,  a  law

making changes to rules on drop boxes for

absentee  ballots,  early  voting  and  mail­in

voting.  It  also,  seemingly  punitively,  re­

moved  Mr  Raffensperger  as  chair  of  the

state  elections  board,  and  made  it  easier

for  the  state  to  take  over  county  election

boards it deemed to be failing.

Progressive legal groups are arguing in

court that the tactics amount to voter sup­

pression. “sb202 has made it worse in my

mind because one tactic of voter suppres­

sion that has been effective is confusion,”

says Nsé Ufot, chief executive officer of the

New  Georgia  Project,  a  voter­registration

outfit founded by Ms Abrams. The organi­

sation has set ambitious aims for itself: to

register  55,000  new  young  and  minority

voters  and  turn  out  an  additional  150,000

citizenswhohavenotvotedbefore.ForMs

Ufot,thestakesfeeldownrightexistential.

“There’sa clarityamongpeoplewhorun

electionsaboutwhatisatstake,” shesays.

“Tryingtoavoida constitutionalcrisisfo­

cusesthemindina realway.”

Thebadbloodbetweenoldrivalsand

thebipartisantraditionofcryingfoulau­

gura particularlycontentiousgeneralelec­

tioninGeorgia.Theprimarymaybemore

importantstill:Republicanswhobelieve,

againstallavailableevidence,thatthepast

electionwasstolenbecausetheirchampi­

ondidnotwinarevyingtobeinplaceto

certifythenextpresidentialvote.Notlong

ago,a rematchbetweenMrKempandMs

Abramsmighthavebeenseenasa fiend­

ishlyfraughtoutcome.Somehow,itnow

appearstobethetameroption.n

Forcedassimilation

Stolen children

S

ophiatetoffwas 12 yearsoldin 1901

when she was sent 4,000 miles from her

island  home  in  the  Bering  Sea  to  Carlisle,

an  Indian  boarding  school  in  Pennsylva­

nia. Sophia was a member of Alaska’s Un­

angax  people.  Five  years  later,  she  died

from  tuberculosis.  She  was  buried  in  the

school’s  cemetery  and  largely  forgotten.

Her name on her headstone was misspelt.

Her tribe’s name was incorrect. Sophia was

one  of  thousands  of  children  separated

from  their  communities,  often  forcibly,

and sent to Indian boarding schools. 

Last  summer  Deb  Haaland,  the  secre­

tary  of  the  interior,  whose  department

manages the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an­

nounced  the  Federal  Indian  Boarding

School Initiative, a comprehensive review

of the troubled legacy of such policies. On

May  11th  Ms  Haaland,  the  first  Native

American  cabinet  secretary,  released  the

first  volume  of  the  review.  The  investiga­

tion found that from 1819 to 1969, the feder­

al Indian boarding­school system had 408

schools  across  37  states  or  territories.  Bu­

rial  sites  were  identified  at  53  schools  (as

the investigation continues that number is

expected to rise). The Indian children who

died  at  schools  far  from  their  families

could number in the tens of thousands. 

“The  consequences  of  federal  Indian

boarding­school  policies...inflicted  upon

generations  of  children  as  young  as  four

years  old  are  heartbreaking  and  undenia­

ble,” said Ms Haaland. Forced­assimilation

practices  included  cutting  off  the  chil­

dren’s  long  hair,  and  stripping  them  of

their  traditional  clothing,  language  and

culture.  The  government  mixed  children

from  different  tribes  to  disrupt  connec­

tions  and  force  the  use  of  English.  There

was  rampant  physical,  sexual  and  emo­

tional  abuse  as  well  as  malnourishment,

disease  and  overcrowding.  Many  children

were sent out to farms and businesses for

months of manual labour. The schools of­

ten pocketed their wages.

Ms Haaland was moved to shed light on

these  traumas  by  the  discovery  of  hun­

dreds of unmarked graves connected to In­

dian residential schools in Canada. The re­

view found much evidence of intergenera­

tional trauma caused by family separation

and  cultural  eradication.  Ms  Haaland’s

own  grandparents  were  stolen  from  their

families  and  sent  away  to  school.  Her

great­grandfather was taken to Carlisle. 

Carlisle  was  used  as  a  model  for  other

schools.  Its  founder,  Richard  Henry  Pratt,

infamously said in 1892, “Kill the Indian in

him,  and  save  the  man.”  His  outlook  was

not novel. As far back as George Washing­

ton it was part of federal policy. Indian ter­

ritorial  dispossession  and  assimilation

through education was considered a cheap

and  safe  way  of  subduing  Native  Ameri­

cans.  By  1926,  83%  of  Indian  school­age

children were attending boarding schools. 

The  initiative  will  continue  its  search

for  burial  sites.  It  also  intends  to  identify

surviving boarding­school pupils to docu­

ment their experiences. And it will explore

the potential repatriation or disinterment

of  children’s  remains.  Sophia’s  remains,

along  with  those  of  nine  Rosebud  Sioux

children, returned to Alaska and South Da­

kota  last  summer,  where  they  were  wel­

comed home by their communities. At the

review’s unveiling Deborah Parker, head of

the  National  Native  American Boarding

School  Healing  Coalition,  said:“Ourchil­

dren deserve to be brought home.”n

C ARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA

A report on Native American boarding

schools unveils some of their horrors

Carlisle, a long way from home