[FistofFury]

"A question I have always asked my students when opening the discussion of Indian residential schools is, “What is the acceptable death rate at the school your child attends?”

The answer of course is zero.

My question is relevant because the people who managed the Indian residential school system had a different set of standards.

Deaths and illness were rampant in the residential schools. In the early part of the twentieth century, what death statistics are available suggest a mortality rate at these schools ranging from about 17% to as high as 84% of the students.

For comparison, a soldier on either side in the US civil war, a war notorious for its brutality and unheard of casualties in battle, had an approximately 10% chance of dying from combat or disease. Not folly enough.

On D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, 10 thousand soldiers died of the 630 thousand who landed that day. Ten days of D-Days is about 17%, but a soldier would have to repeat the experience every day for 7 and a half weeks to achieve an 84% chance of dying. Not folly enough.

In the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, the British soldiers suffered something like 17 to 18% casualties. Not folly enough. They would have had to rerun the Charge another three or four times to achieve casualties equivalent to the worst Indian residential schools.

A revolver puts it proper perspective.

The low-end mortality for Indian residential schools, 17%, is approximately equal to playing Russian roulette with one bullet in your six shooter. The high-end mortality, 84%, is approximately equal to playing Russian roulette with five bullets."
-fathertheo