Boarding school survivors get chance to share their stories, preserve history
In July, Indian boarding school survivors will have the opportunity to share their stories with a national organization that aims to document history, raise awareness and promote healing.
From the 1800s to the 1970s, Native children were taken from their homes and forced to attend Indian boarding schools, where they were emotionally, physically and sexually abused. The explicit mission of these schools was elimination of Indigenous culture. Some children died at these schools; some remain unaccounted for. Tribes suffered language and culture loss as a result, and historical trauma persists in Native communities today.
In 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Pueblo of Laguna, announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to investigate what happened at these schools and examine long-term consequences. Through the initiative, Haaland has visited Indigenous communities nationwide on her “The Road to Healing” tour. And in 2022, the Interior Department released part one of an investigation into the schools.
To help preserve and document the oral history of these schools and the experiences of children who attended them, the Interior Department awarded $3.7 million to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), the only organization whose sole mission centers on advocating for Indian boarding school survivors.
This project focuses on gathering first-person survivor narratives to establish an oral history collection that will be available for generations to come. NABS plans to visit 20 states within two years to speak with at least 400 boarding school survivors. Each site visit is about a week long, with an opening ceremony typically held on a Monday and a closing ceremony on the following Friday.
The NABS team will be in Great Falls from Monday, July 29 to Friday, Aug. 2 to interview survivors. People who are interested in participating are encouraged to sign up in advance at BoardingSchoolHealing.org. NABS is also hosting a virtual event where people can learn more about the project on July 9 at noon Mountain Time. Those interested can register at Bit.ly/MTOHP.
Lacey Kinnart, programs coordinator at NABS, said preserving this oral history is essential.
“We need to document this so that it’s not lost and forgotten,” she said. “We’ve already lost so many survivors. We’re not going to be able to get their stories documented. … And we’re losing them all the time. When they’re gone, so are all their teachings and their wisdom and their story. And their experience of boarding school is gone, too.”
Interviews are done in private with NABS historians and videographers. Charlee Brissette, a NABS oral historian, said she typically asks people about themselves and about their lives before, during and after boarding school. She wants people to know that every survivor’s story is important.
“I always tell survivors when I’m talking to them — the most important thing is what they feel is most important to share,” she said. “If they don’t feel like answering some of our questions, we skip them and we move on to the next question.”
Ultimately, these oral history videos will be made accessible to the public for education purposes. Each participant will also receive a copy of their video as well as a care basket. Survivors also have the option to speak with a spiritual healer or Native licensed counselor before or after their interview.
“The survivors are our priority,” Kinnart said. “We built this project with that in mind and that at the center. … Planning has been going on for quite some time to make sure things are done in the right way and that our survivors are loved and cared for and held and supported. That’s the priority of this project — not to extract data or anything like that.”
To counter transportation barriers, NABS is providing $50 to $100 gift cards for gas expenses. The organization will also provide hotel rooms for those traveling to the event. People who participate in the Great Falls event will also receive $100 cash.
Kinnart said survivors’ perspectives are invaluable in shaping this history.
“For so long, people have been writing about us — and often getting our experience wrong,” she said. “And we’ve never gotten to hear publicly or in history books what happened to our people by our people. When (non-Natives) write about it, it’s often romanticized or glorified or revisionist or assimilative. Well, now we can hear from the people who attended (these schools). That’s as truthful to the story as you can get.”
When Brissette asks survivors what they want others to know, she said survivors often tell her that sharing their story felt restorative.
“This is part of the healing process,” she said. “By sharing these stories, it’s healing our people. It’s healing our communities. It’s healing our tribal nations.”