How do you cope when your sacred land becomes Times Square? The art of the first Native New Yorkers

A new exhibit of Lenape paintings, traditional dress and music proves their modern-day culture is vibrant and alive During the 19th century, the US government funded more than 500 “Indian boarding schools” aimed at forcibly assimilating Native American children into western culture. Students were taken from their families, frequently by force, and forced to cut their hair.

They were stripped of their original names, and taught to feel shame regarding their heritage and customs. Run like military academies, these institutions required children to wear uniforms and subjected them to severe physical punishment, such as solitary confinement and flogging. Richard Henry Pratt, who established the first of these schools, declared that their explicit purpose was to “kill the Indian, save the man”. These assimilation practices persisted for decades, during which numerous…