In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly’s Convention on Genocide defined genocide as
any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or
in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
• killing members of the group
• causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
• deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
• imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and
• forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
All these acts happened to Native communities.
In his seminal discussion of American prisoners of war in China (1969), Robert Jay Lifton offered the techniques Chinese captors used to reform the
thought systems of American prisoners, including the following:
• Milieu Control—the control of all communication
and information, including internal thought.
• Mystical Manipulation—the claim of an authority that its ends
justify its means because the end is directed by a higher purpose.
• The Demand for Purity—A black-and-white view of the world,
with the leader as the ultimate, unquestionable authority.
• The Cult of Confession—An act of conversion, of total
surrender to the dominant group.
• The Sacred Science—The presentation of the group’s
doctrine as the ultimate truth, not to be questioned.
• Loading the Language—The use of the language of the
group in a way only understood by the group.
• Doctrine Over Person—The denial of any value of the self
except in the context of the dominant group.
• Dispensing of Existence—The process whereby the group
becomes the determiner of existence, and if individuals do
not comply, they are nonpersons.
The Doctrine of Discovery promulgated by the Catholic Church was justified by the
belief that the White way was “God-given” and therefore the only way.
Indigenous people were forced to accept the United States President and
government as their sole authority, displacing their own often highly complex and
evolved cultures and belief systems.
Natives were forced to regard their indigenous practices and beliefs as sinful. Any
loyalty or practice of former indigenous ways was punished.
The government and the church both imposed their doctrines on Native Americans
as the ultimate truth and gave no room for Native peoples to question or develop
an understanding of these new concepts.
For Native Americans, English was a kind of loaded language. It was understood
only by the conquering Whites. The Natives were forced to adopt a way of
speaking not natural to them.
If persons professed loyalty to the government and compliance with policy, they
had value. The beliefs of the dominant White American culture were considered
more important and valid than those of the Native Americans.
This principle is exemplified by the Doctrine of Discovery, by which Native people
survived only if they converted to White ways.
Native children in boarding schools were taught to reject all prior teaching and beliefs
of their tribal upbringing and, thus, of their families, cultures, and communities.
Margaret Singer (1995) further identified the following conditions of thought reform:
Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she is
being changed a step at a time.
Control the person’s social and/or physical environment,
especially the person’s time.
Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences
in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person’s
former social identity.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in
order to promote learning the group’s ideology or belief system and
group-approved behaviors.
Native children were subjected to strict military order, with classes in the morning,
work in the afternoon, structured meals of often inadequate nutrition, and very
little, if any, free time.
Separating children from their families created this sense, and keeping them away
from family and familiar surroundings, with White people in charge, maintained it.
Some children would try to escape and were hunted down and punished severely.
Children were stripped of their Native clothing and belongings, put into White
people’s clothing, such as military uniforms and dresses, and forbidden to practice
any Native ceremonies or speak their Native languages.
Those Native children who learned to speak English, practice Christianity, and
follow the rules well, and even to report infractions of the other children to gain
favor with the White adults, were held up as examples to the other children.
This approach was taken with Native children. They had little knowledge of why
they were being taken to the boarding schools except in the name of education,
and because it was ordered by the government.
Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that
permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership
approval or executive order.
In boarding schools, the President of the United States was the ultimate and only
authority, and Christianity was the only belief system allowed.
Table 1
bring about its physical destruction in whole or part
(Brave Heart &DeBruyn, 1998 UN, 1948)
Genocide and Thought Reform Criteria,
Techniques, and Conditions Government Policy As Applied to Native Americans
any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or
in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
• killing members of the group
• causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
• deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
• imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and
• forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
All these acts happened to Native communities.
In his seminal discussion of American prisoners of war in China (1969), Robert Jay Lifton offered the techniques Chinese captors used to reform the
thought systems of American prisoners, including the following:
• Milieu Control—the control of all communication
and information, including internal thought.
• Mystical Manipulation—the claim of an authority that its ends
justify its means because the end is directed by a higher purpose.
• The Demand for Purity—A black-and-white view of the world,
with the leader as the ultimate, unquestionable authority.
• The Cult of Confession—An act of conversion, of total
surrender to the dominant group.
• The Sacred Science—The presentation of the group’s
doctrine as the ultimate truth, not to be questioned.
• Loading the Language—The use of the language of the
group in a way only understood by the group.
• Doctrine Over Person—The denial of any value of the self
except in the context of the dominant group.
• Dispensing of Existence—The process whereby the group
becomes the determiner of existence, and if individuals do
not comply, they are nonpersons.
The Doctrine of Discovery promulgated by the Catholic Church was justified by the
belief that the White way was “God-given” and therefore the only way.
Indigenous people were forced to accept the United States President and
government as their sole authority, displacing their own often highly complex and
evolved cultures and belief systems.
Natives were forced to regard their indigenous practices and beliefs as sinful. Any
loyalty or practice of former indigenous ways was punished.
The government and the church both imposed their doctrines on Native Americans
as the ultimate truth and gave no room for Native peoples to question or develop
an understanding of these new concepts.
For Native Americans, English was a kind of loaded language. It was understood
only by the conquering Whites. The Natives were forced to adopt a way of
speaking not natural to them.
If persons professed loyalty to the government and compliance with policy, they
had value. The beliefs of the dominant White American culture were considered
more important and valid than those of the Native Americans.
This principle is exemplified by the Doctrine of Discovery, by which Native people
survived only if they converted to White ways.
Native children in boarding schools were taught to reject all prior teaching and beliefs
of their tribal upbringing and, thus, of their families, cultures, and communities.
Margaret Singer (1995) further identified the following conditions of thought reform:
Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she is
being changed a step at a time.
Control the person’s social and/or physical environment,
especially the person’s time.
Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences
in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person’s
former social identity.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in
order to promote learning the group’s ideology or belief system and
group-approved behaviors.
Native children were subjected to strict military order, with classes in the morning,
work in the afternoon, structured meals of often inadequate nutrition, and very
little, if any, free time.
Separating children from their families created this sense, and keeping them away
from family and familiar surroundings, with White people in charge, maintained it.
Some children would try to escape and were hunted down and punished severely.
Children were stripped of their Native clothing and belongings, put into White
people’s clothing, such as military uniforms and dresses, and forbidden to practice
any Native ceremonies or speak their Native languages.
Those Native children who learned to speak English, practice Christianity, and
follow the rules well, and even to report infractions of the other children to gain
favor with the White adults, were held up as examples to the other children.
This approach was taken with Native children. They had little knowledge of why
they were being taken to the boarding schools except in the name of education,
and because it was ordered by the government.
Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that
permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership
approval or executive order.
In boarding schools, the President of the United States was the ultimate and only
authority, and Christianity was the only belief system allowed.
Table 1
bring about its physical destruction in whole or part
(Brave Heart &DeBruyn, 1998 UN, 1948)
Genocide and Thought Reform Criteria,
Techniques, and Conditions Government Policy As Applied to Native Americans
