University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, Department of History History, Department of March 2004 A Battle for the Children: American Indian Child Removal in Arizona in the Era of Assimilation Margaret D. Jacobs University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub Part of the History Commons Jacobs, Margaret D., "A Battle for the Children: American Indian Child Removal in Arizona in the Era of Assimilation" (2004). Faculty Publications, Department of History. 3. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Department of History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. A BATTLE FOR THE CHILDREN American Indian Child Removal in Arizona in the Era of Assimilation by Margaret D. Jacobs n 1906, Helen Sekaquaptewa “awoke to fi nd [her] camp sur- Irounded by troops.” She later recalled that a government offi cial “called the men together, ordering the women and children to remain in their separate family groups. He told the men . that the govern- ment had reached the limit of its patience; that the children would have to go to school.” Helen went on to relate how “All children of school age were lined up to be registered and taken away to school. Eighty-two children, including [Helen], were taken to the school- house ... with military escort.” Helen Sekaquaptewa, a Hopi girl from Oraibi, was just one of many American Indian children who, from the 1880s up to the 1930s, were forced by U.S.