Members of the Thomas Indian School faculty on the campus grounds. A caption on the back of the photograph read, “Teachers on reservation being entertained at Thomas Indian School,” June 14, 1910.

The Thomas Indian School is one of many residential boarding schools across the US and Canada that were used to carry out government policies of forced assimilation.

Gov. Kathy Hochul visited Seneca Nation to apologize for historical abuses at Thomas Indian School. Survivors seek actions to recognize ongoing impacts.

Originally called the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, the school was established by Presbyterian missionaries in 1855 and taken over by the state in 1875.

For over 100 years, more than 2,500 students were forced to attend the former Thomas Indian School on Seneca Nation land, where they were stripped of their names, language, appearance and cultural ...

The school opened in 1855 on Seneca Nation territory as the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, and, unlike the many federally operated boarding schools that housed Native ...