On this edition of Your Call’s US at 250: A Native Perspective Series, we discuss the upcoming National Day of Remembrance for US Indian Boarding Schools on September 30.
According to the The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, between 1869 and the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in the over 526 boarding schools operated by the federal government and churches across 38 states, whose goal was to strip Indigenous children of their languages, cultures, and communities.
Given that nearly all Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian families carry an intergenerational connection to the boarding school system, how can we honor and remember the survivors and their families on the upcoming Day of Remembrance?
What does justice and healing look like?
Guests:
Deidre Whiteman (Spirit Lake Dakota, Hidatsa, descendant of the Meskwaki and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Nations), director of research and education for The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
Mary Annette Pember (Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe), journalist, national correspondent for ICT News, and author of Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Resources:
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition: Statistics
The New York Times: The Native American Boarding School System
The Washington Post: More than 3,100 students died at schools built to crush Native American cultures
ICT News: ‘Sorry, not Sorry’: Trump administration goes silent on boarding school history
