Lincoln lecturer to review forced assimilation

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – At a Lincoln lecture, a history professor will discuss the lasting consequences of the forced assimilation of American Indian and Australian aboriginal children into the dominant culture.

The lecture will be given by University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Margaret Jacobs. A university news release says her lecture will build on her book, ``White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940.”

In the late 19th century, the U.S. and Australian governments moved the children to boarding schools as part of the assimilation effort. Tens of thousands of children were forced to leave their families and abandon their customs.

The free lecture is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on April 14 in the Nebraska Union auditorium.