On Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:24:02 -0500, Wayne.B wrote:


All too often missionary groups have committed a form of cultural
genocide by suppressing native languages and customs, all in the name of
education and western morality of course. We were given a first hand
view of this in Alaska last year. Several different native Alaskans
that we spoke to remembered very well their days as children in
missionary schools, and the memories are not exactly positive to say the
least. It was apparently common place for the children to be beaten for
any use of their native language or display of native customs. Parents
were coerced into sending their children to the schools under various
threats. There are also many reports of this sort of thing from Hawaii
and other south Pacific islands. The medical services and educational
opportunities always seem to come with strings attached.

Or the Canadian residential school system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadia..._school_system