Brandi Morin is a Cree/Iroqouis French journalist on assignment for National Geographic. She has been covering the return of the remains of Native American children from the Carlisle Industrial Indian School to the Rosebud Tribe. We check in with Morin from the road.
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds discusses Congressional support of repatriations of student remains from federal boarding schools.
Denise Lajimodiere, Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe and former board member for the National Native American Boarding Schools, joins us for context regarding the return of the disinterred remains of nine Native American children from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Poetry from Studio 47 features the work of Zitkala-Sa.
SDPB's Laura Johnson adds context to our coverage with insight from adults who attended Indian Boarding Schools.
Whitney Rencountre joins us for conversation and song as we welcome the return of relatives to tribal lands.
Transcript:
Lori Walsh:
The ancestors are coming home. From South Dakota Public Broadcasting today is Friday, July 16th. And this is In The Moment.
Lori Walsh:
Coming up this hour, the repatriation of the remains of nine Rosebud children is underway as a delegation arrives in South Dakota after a journey of 1,400 miles and more than a century. It began when Rosebud tribal youth council members decided to take action. Today marks a significant historical moment, but it's a marker for a more spacious journey, that of a national reckoning about American Indian boarding schools. Today, we talk with U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, Denise Lajimodiere, Whitney Rencountre and journalist Brandy Moran. We'll also hear poetry from Zitkala-Sa on poetry from Studio 47. We're broadcasting live today from SDPB's Kirby family studio in Sioux Falls. I'm Lori Walsh. You're in the moment. News is first.
Laura Johnson:
With SDPB I'm Laura Johnson. Two groups that want to regulate adult use marijuana continue to wait for the South Dakota Supreme court to rule on the law that legalizes recreational pot. The law was supposed to go into effect on July 1st, but has been held in the courts since last year. SDPB's Lee Strubinger reports.
Lee Strubinger:
A legislative subcommittee focused on writing. Recreational marijuana legislation has canceled its upcoming meeting in early August. Republican Hugh Bartles is chair of the subcommittee. He says the group could go down two different paths depending on the court ruling.
Hugh Bartles:
We need to move forward on it. So that marijuana becomes a safe product for our residents. And getting it out of the black market is really the way to do that. So we need to clean up our code and provide a safe mechanism to get it to the public.
Lee Strubinger:
Bartel says that's important in the event. Marijuana is decriminalized at the federal level. U.S. Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer has announced draft legislation that allows states to choose whether to legalize the drug.
Chuck Schumer:
If South Dakota can do it, the Senate should be able to do it.
Lee Strubinger:
President Joe Biden does not support the measure. Even if the state subcommittee drafts a bill, providing the details needed to legalize cannabis, its path through the state legislature is uncertain. Because of that, the group that originally backed the two marijuana laws that were passed last November has four draft ballot questions ready to circulate. Matthew Schweich is the deputy director for the marijuana policy project, which works with South Dakotans for better marijuana laws. He says they're filing those initiatives in case the state Supreme Court considers amendment A unconstitutional.
Matthew Schweich:
If that's the case, we want the option of going back to the ballot next year. The reason we filed four different cannabis legalization initiatives is to accommodate different potential rulings from the court.
Lee Strubinger:
Schweich says they're also filing a petition to remove the rule that could declare marijuana legalization unconstitutional. In 2018, a provision was added to the state constitution that says a constitutional amendment can only have one subject. Opponents of amendment A say it violates that rule, which is getting its first test in the courts. For South Dakota Public Broadcasting I'm Lee Strubinger in Rapid City.
Laura Johnson:
The Oglala Sioux tribe public health authority is confirming the first case of the COVID 19 Delta variant in Oglala Dakota County. The county is within the Pine Ridge reservation. Tribal leadership and health officials are still urging those 12 years or older to get vaccinated if they haven't done so already. They also ask that people continue to mask up, frequently wash their hands and to maintain social distancing. The tribe's vice president, Alicia Mousseau says the tribe will continue to operate under safe health protocols.
Alicia Mousseau:
The rates of COVID are up across the nation and so we need to protect our community and we're going to continue to do all the prevention measures that we have in place already, including our mask mandates. We are watching our risk level to see how we move and things we need to do. If we need to go back into working from home potentially. But we are watching it carefully and taking all of the necessary precautions and procedures to ensure that our community is safe.
Laura Johnson:
According to the center for disease control and prevention, the COVID 19 Delta variant is the most dominant strain in the United States. Today's weather report shows highs in the mid to upper 80s in the West and Northeast. Lower 60s and the Southeast and the lows for today are in the upper 50s and lower 60s. Tonight we'll see partly cloudy skies in the West and mostly clear skies in the East. Tomorrow there'll be highs in the upper 80s and lower 90s in the West and Northeast. Lower 80s will be in the Southeast. Tomorrow there's a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the West. For SDPB I'm Laura Johnson.
Lori Walsh:
And I'm Lori Walsh more than 140 years ago the United States government opened the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. It was a part of a campaign to forcibly assimilate indigenous children into white American culture while dispossessing their families from ancestral lands. Many of those children never saw their families again. Well today nine of the children who died in care of the Carlisle School are coming home in the only way they still can. The remains have been exhumed. They're being guided home by a delegation of their relatives. Journalist Brandy Moran is covering the journey from Pennsylvania to their final resting places. Seven of the children will be buried at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Veteran Cemetery, two will be laid to rest on their family's land. Brandy Moran is Cree Iroquois French journalist who's on assignment from National Geographic and she joins us now on the phone. Brandy, thank you for being here with us today.
Brandy Moran:
[inaudible 00:06:01], hello. Thank you.
Lori Walsh:
We've been following you on Twitter extensively as you make this journey and report upon it. Tell us a little bit about the process and the Rosebud Youth Council and how these young people are part of this entire effort tire effort.
Brandy Moran:
Yes, absolutely. So I arrived in Carlisle on Tuesday. There was the transfer ceremony of the remains of the Lakota children in a very, very powerful ceremony that was attended by Secretary Haaland and just family members. And this was all spearheaded six years ago by the youth council from the Rosebud Sioux tribe. So 12 of their youth made the journey from their community via car and are now escorting their relatives home. And so we're on the final stretch of a three day journey home. And the bones of their children, their cousins and ancestors are being carried in a utility trailer by a tribal driver. There is a really incredible procession that I'm actually witnessing and documenting right now with dozens and dozens of motorcycle riders in front and the actual procession with the youth and supporters and family members, dozens and dozens of more cars on the highway and police escorts. And it's very powerful to see and really powerful to see these children taking the children home, like the youth taking the youth home.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. You were able to speak with U.S. Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland about this process and about her federal boarding school initiative. What did she have to say? What can you tell us about the energy she brings to this broader conversation of American Indian boarding schools?
Brandy Moran:
I mean, this is something that is very personal to her. She's an intergenerational survivor of these institutions, these assimilative institutions and her grandparents were survivors. So it was very meaningful to the family members and the youth that she attended the ceremony. And she has started this investigation on behalf of the federal government into these schools and a report on them is expected, she said in the spring. So she said, "It's about time that these are all brought to light because this legacy has not been told properly to the American people, but it is a very painful, violent, tragic legacy that has left deep, deep scars and marks on our people that are still prominent in our communities today." But it's also an opportunity when this is happening for healing to be unleashed. So she expressed also a lot of hope.
Lori Walsh:
We're spending this entire hour talking about that and healing and closure in the context of so much unfinished business as well. Brandy, what's next for your coverage as we follow you on Twitter? You're on assignment from National Geographic, what are you working toward as far as a bigger piece?
Brandy Moran:
Yeah. So we're heading back to the Rosewood Sioux. They're having a wake and funeral today and tomorrow, and we're going to be spending several days after that in the community. And just spending time with the youth and profiling their journey to be written in the future. I'm working with acclaimed photo journalist and Danielle Zackman as well. And it is just a very powerful historic, a sacred ceremony to be ale to document and witness and to write into history. So I feel very privileged to be here. The people have been very welcoming and they want their stories heard, and it's about time for that. So I'm not sure when our piece will be published, but be sure to follow National Geographic online and you can look us up. Thank you so much.
Lori Walsh:
You can follow Brandy Moran's coverage as she goes along on Twitter at Songstres28. You can also follow the journey on Facebook, through the Rosebud Sioux tribe repatriation information page. SDPB's Jackie Hendry and Laura Johnson are on their way to Rosebud now. We'll talk with Jackie on Monday for a recap of weekend events, all part of our ongoing coverage. Brandy, thank you so much for being here with us today.
Brandy Moran:
Hi. Hi. Thank you.
Lori Walsh:
So this month we're shining the SDPB spotlight on South Dakota history. This hour, we're going to dedicate the entire show to covering the return of these children from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. It is a painful part of our history, but it's essential to grapple with it. You can find all our coverage online at sdpb.org/spotlight. Up next, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds is with us. You're listening to In The Moment, South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
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Lori Walsh:
You're listening to In The Moment on South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I'm Lori Walsh. Today we're dedicating the hour to the return of the remains of nine Rosebud children from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. And to this conversation about the American government's legacy of boarding schools for indigenous children, Governor Kristi Noem issued a statement today, reminding South Dakotans of the importance of an honest accounting of children who died at these boarding schools. U.S. Senator Mike Rounds offered his remarks and prayers earlier this week in Pennsylvania. He quoted President Abraham Lincoln and South Dakota Governor George Mickelson during his comments. And he spoke about how acknowledging and reflecting on our failures challenges future generations to strive for improvement. Senator Mike Rounds is with us now. Senator Rounds, thank you for joining us today.
Senator Mike Rounds:
Good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to spend a few minutes with you.
Lori Walsh:
Help our listeners... And for those who don't know, Senator Rounds is also former governor of South Dakota... Help our listeners put into context, just the historic nature of this 1,400 mile journey to bring these children home again.
Senator Mike Rounds:
This would not have happened if it would not have been for the Rosebud Sioux tribe, and it would not have happened if it wouldn't have been for that group of students from the Rosebud Youth Council that literally came and said, "Look, why isn't this done yet?" And back in 2016, they started on a journey, on a mission to bring these remains of their relatives back home again. And they clearly were very emotionally attached to their project and they convinced other people that they were right. The Rosebud Tribal Historical Preservation Office and the tribal leadership.
Senator Mike Rounds:
I mean, this doesn't happen unless you bring your leadership together and they did this. And they stepped forward, they followed through, they had patience and yet they were persistent. And they came to us in 2016 and 2017. And members of my staff felt very strongly about it as well. My chief of staff is from the Sisseton Wahpeton tribal area. My legal counsel, my deputy chief in Washington D.C. is a member of the Cheyenne River tribe. My East River coordinator is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton tribe. And all of them felt very strongly that this was an appropriate thing to do.
Senator Mike Rounds:
And so we tried to support by making sure that the department of the Army was engaged. We had our folks from military affairs step in and coordinate to try to make sure that the Army was on focus with what was attempted to be done. And the Army I felt was very cooperative and they wanted to do what was right. And I think in looking back at it, I think they did their best to follow the appropriate protocols and respect for these remains of these children. There's more work to do clearly, but nonetheless, this happened. This journey home, this 1,400 mile journey home, didn't just start now, it started literally a decade ago to become a reality now. But it's the right thing to do.
Lori Walsh:
What struck you about the transfer ceremony itself?
Senator Mike Rounds:
I think the fact that there is a clear personal connection that was felt so strongly by the young people that were there, but also by the relatives or representatives of the relatives that were there. And the respect that was shown by all involved for these children that lost their lives while at Carlisle. You know what I mean? This goes back to a time in our history that some people would like to simply ignore and we shouldn't ignore it, we should learn from it. If we want to make things better in the future, you have to learn from your past.
Senator Mike Rounds:
A number of the individuals that were involved in creating this scenario at Carlisle, some of them had very good intentions, but today we would look at this and we would say, we would never do that today. And part of that is some of the laws that were on the books back then that we've tried to change and get off the books, that we're still fighting to get off the books, that are ignored today but nonetheless are still there, basically said to parents, "If you want your food ration on this reservation, you will allow your children, you will direct your children to go to a boarding school." [crosstalk 00:18:34]-
Lori Walsh:
I want to jump in Senator Rounds.
Senator Mike Rounds:
... things that were done.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. I want to jump in. Sorry to interrupt you. But I feel that you probably need an opportunity to clarify. When you say good intentions, a lot of people are going to hear that and say, "These intentions were dispossession of land. These intentions were to kill the Indian, to take away culture, to separate from families." What more do you want to say about that to clarify for the people who are going to be critical of that statement?
Senator Mike Rounds:
There were ministers at the time who thought they were doing good by trying to assimilate Native Americans into the population. There were actually some Native Americans who felt the same way. Today we wouldn't do it that way. But they thought at the time that it was the appropriate thing as ministers, that it was something that would be good for these Native American children to learn the way and to take it back home with them.
Senator Mike Rounds:
That's what they actually were told, many of these kids that they should come and to learn the way and then come back home and help their parents to learn and to be able to read and to write and to understand the treaties and to be defenders of their way of life. And it doesn't mean today that we would do it that way. And there were clearly others who had other things in mind. But my point is that at that time, there was a differing point of view, and it wasn't the right point of view, but nonetheless, the individuals that were there would've told you, many of them thought that they were doing it with a good heart.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. Individual human beings were making individual decisions as part of this overall system.
Senator Mike Rounds:
Correct.
Lori Walsh:
And it's really important when we look back on history to consider some of those individual intentions, even though we also have to consider the vast impact of this. Senate Rounds, South Dakota is one of the states with the highest number of boarding schools from this time. I think we're in the top five. What work needs to be done to account for the ideas of unmarked graves and records and archives that weren't kept? This is not the last time we will be talking about this story, for sure.
Senator Mike Rounds:
No, that's right. We've got more work to do. And we've had good cooperation from the Army. And the tribes have worked hand in hand. Sisseton Wahpeton will be the next tribe that will bring home their children. They're working on that now. We've also got children from Pine Ridge and also from Cheyenne River. And in both of those, or in all of those cases, in a coordinated effort with their historic preservation offices and with their spiritual practices, there will be an appropriate process, hopefully just as we have done with the first nine, those will be identified.
Senator Mike Rounds:
Now, there's still two more children there from Rosebud that they were not able to find or to agree on. And they're going back in to look again, once again to find these children. And so they've got more work to do, but nonetheless, there are nine children that have now been returned appropriately to the Rosebud Sioux tribe so that they can be appropriately buried either in a veteran's cemetery or in their family cemetery. And I think it's the right thing to do. And I think then the Army has really stepped up in this particular case to try to write this wrong as well. And so, as I said, the tradition, or at that point, it was actually the motto of that particular institution was, "Kill the Indian, save the man." And that says a lot about what was wrong with what happened.
Lori Walsh:
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, I want to say, thank you very much for your time today. We really appreciate it.
Senator Mike Rounds:
Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity. Bye-bye.
Lori Walsh:
You can find all our continuing coverage online at sdpb.org/spotlight.
Lori Walsh:
Ahead on the program. We talk about America's unfinished business of reckoning with the boarding school mandate. We'll also talk about processing this day and its fresh wounds. Denise Lajimodiere is with us. You're listening to In The Moment on South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
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Lori Walsh:
You're listening to In The Moment on South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I'm Lori Walsh. We're spending this hour coming alongside the return of nine Rosebud children, more than a century after their deaths at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Today is historic, but it's also one marker and a long reckoning that is far from complete. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge this might be a difficult show for many of our listeners. It's a broadcast that might trigger grief or anxiety or anger. So I'm going to encourage you to take a deep breath now and step away from the broadcast if you need to. We're recording this, you can listen later if you need to.
Lori Walsh:
My next guest is Denise Lajimodiere, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. She's one of the founding members of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. Now known as NABS. The acronym N-A-B-S there. She's an author. She's an artist. She's a guest at the upcoming South Dakota Festival of Books in Deadwood. Her books include Stringing Rosaries: The History, the Unforgivable and the Healing of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors; Dragonfly Dance and Josie Dances. She's joining us now on the phone. Denise, welcome. Thank you for being here.
Denise Lajimodiere:
Yes. Thank you for the invitation.
Lori Walsh:
We've covered a certain amount of history about this event today, but I want to pause with you for a minute and just ask you how this journey and the news coverage of it can impact people who are not coming to this story for the first time?
Denise Lajimodiere:
Yes. I think it can cause what we call secondary trauma, listening to what was found up in Canada. The boarding school era is what is called our soul wound. We are, as a native nation, Indian country we're already in historical and intergenerational trauma. Our transgenerational transference of trauma, unresolved grieving. So yes, it's definitely caused, I'm sure a lot of trauma across the U.S. And of course our brothers across, our relatives across the medicine line.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah, you mentioned-
Denise Lajimodiere:
So um-
Lori Walsh:
... Yeah, go ahead.
Denise Lajimodiere:
... Go ahead.
Lori Walsh:
I just want to just let listeners know, you mentioned Canada, and this is the recent discovery. It was more of a surprise discovery of some unmarked graves that had a lot of people kind of turning their head to this conversation too. We're going to talk more about that later in the hour as well. It's difficult to consider Denise, words like healing or closure or justice when there is so much work to be done. What can you tell us about what we don't know about how many children, how many unmarked graves, how many missing records lost stories might be out there across the nation?
Denise Lajimodiere:
Well, the finding of the unmarked graves in Canada was not a surprise or not shocking. I think native people, the survivors of the schools always know that those graves were there. The tough part, Canada knows exactly how many boarding schools they have. We are still searching for boarding schools here in the United States. My research and NABS researchers have found 366 schools. And it's in the map in my book Stringing Rosaries. But I found over 21 schools just in the last, maybe six months. So the map is being updated. So just that research alone, no one ever asked the churches, how many boarding schools did you run? We've asked the Bureau of Indian affairs. They haven't answered yet. So we're still just in the process of looking for boarding schools, which has been 12 years of very tedious painstaking research. Just to find that out.
Denise Lajimodiere:
I also know schools that have unmarked graves. Forest Grove, which was precursor to Chemawa in Oregon, archivists have found 12 unmarked graves there. Fort Totten has unmarked graves moved away from the boarding school up on a hill. I'd like to look for those when I return home to North Dakota. There're other schools that in California, there's a school there a mission school there where the grave site has been vandalized. And so those are unmarked. We found unmarked graves, Marsha Small, in Chemawa where my father was sent in 1925. So we know that, just the fact that there are cemeteries at boarding schools. I found a letter from the Department of Interior in 1885 and it says there that, "Notice should be given to superintendents of the Indian Industrial Schools, such expenses, such as sending home of children's remains should not be incurred." So that is why we have graves, cemeteries at boarding schools.
Lori Walsh:
What were some of these conditions at the boarding schools? What can we tell listeners about why so many children did not survive their time there?
Denise Lajimodiere:
Yeah. There were overcrowding conditions. Those are documented in letters from superintendents and so on of how many kids are at their schools, such as the Bismarck Boarding School in North Dakota, Fort Totten. They weren't set up for as many kids as were sent there. Some of the buildings at Haskell even, they weren't ready yet for kids. So there was a lot of diseases that they died of, tuberculosis, measles, the flu, pneumonia. They had eye conditions, such as trachoma. Some of them like my father, he told me, he said that sometimes they would wake up and a boy would be dead in the bed. And I said, "Well, daddy, what happened to him?" And he said, "They died of lonesomeness." So we know that's failure to thrive.
Denise Lajimodiere:
And then of course there was suicide or the kids, even at Chemawa some of the kids committed suicide at the railroad tracks there, or they ran away and they froze to death or drowned in the rivers when they were trying to swim to get home. And they're also beaten to death. The people I've interviewed the boarding school survivors I've interviewed have seen kids get beaten to death. My father saw a kid killed. His kidneys were ruptured when he went through what's a common disciplinary method at schools was called the gauntlet where the kids would have to run through a line of kids and get hit with belts often with studs and so on. And so some of them were literally beaten to death.
Lori Walsh:
Hmm. As you look at the work of NABS, and that acronym just brings to mind that many of these children were just taken, were forced to go to these places. What can you tell us about some of the process of how these children were removed from their families?
Denise Lajimodiere:
There are laws... laying up my book here. There were laws that were enacted that they would withhold rations, clothing and other annuities from Indian parents or guardians who refused or neglected to send their kids to school. So that's what happened to my father. He was literally nabbed, stolen. It's called a stolen generation because the people, the elders that he was living with, his mother died in the 1918 flu epidemic, so he was raised by an elder Cree couple, they threatened to hit their wood and their food if they didn't send him to school. So they had to send them to school. There wasn't a choice. So many of them were literally stolen. Others, the welfare system, someone would just come in and this one family, they just took the kids. They didn't give the extended family a chance to raise the kid, grandparents or aunts, uncles, older brothers and sisters. They just took them through them, threw them in a truck and took them off to boarding school.
Lori Walsh:
So I did a lot of my research and learning at boardingschoolhealing.org, this is NABS and they offer a lot of curriculum for younger kids. It's appropriate for elementary, that's appropriate for high school. Tell me a little bit about resources that people can find to help understand the facts and then also connect with these options for healing and balance that is also so important as we talk about this. As we have this conversation, tell me a little bit about that please.
Denise Lajimodiere:
Well, that's the big issue is we need more resources. We need more curriculum. I think there's one state that actually has developed a curriculum for the schools. You know, this is America's best kept secret. Boarding school era and history is not even in the history books. So when I speak throughout the United States to college students and adults and teachers, I ask them how many of you heard about boarding schools? And very few can raise their hand. So we need more resources. I think NABS is probably the best resource right now.
Denise Lajimodiere:
There are books out there. I'm not home, so I don't have my list of books, but there are some books out there. Education for Extinction is one of the first and one of the best, talks about the history and the horrors of the boarding schools. So I'd like to see more curriculum written. Even North Dakota, right now, there was a law enacted that more native studies needs to be taught in the schools. And part of that, I'm saying needs to be a curriculum developed maybe specifically to boarding schools here in North Dakota. So there's one children's book. I can't remember the name of it now. It's a true story from a man and his brother that ran away from, I think it's Riverside boarding school and caught a train and headed back home. That's the only children's book. It's about 2,000 words, I believe. So maybe it's for like fourth grade on up.
Denise Lajimodiere:
So I'm developing a story right now based on my father's story of his years in Chemawa. And so Canada has maybe 50 or more boarding school stories for kids as young as I think, five, and more memoirs. And I interviewed boarding school survivors and I'm of the belief that every survivor that is alive here today needs to have their story told, needs to have it written down, needs to have it recorded. The people I interviewed the survivor said, "Please tell the world what to us." And that's what I'm trying to do with, with these interviews and with my book.
Lori Walsh:
Well, Denise, I hope you'll come back on the program and keep this conversation going in the days and months ahead. South Dakota listeners, you can see Denise Lajimodiere at the South Dakota Festival of Books this October and Deadwood. She's the author of several poetry collections, as well as the Stringing Rosaries book. One of her poetry collections is called A Thunderbird, and that gosh, Denise, I hope you will come back and just talk to us about that because she practices the traditional art of birch bark biting. It is so fascinating. And I would love to talk about these things that have survived and these things that are still surviving in spite of efforts to make sure it was otherwise. So Denise, thank you very much for your time.
Denise Lajimodiere:
Yeah. Migwich, thank you very much.
Lori Walsh:
Let's take a moment now for poetry from Studio 47 and the work of Zitkala-Sa. Here's Patrick Hicks.
Patrick Hicks:
This is poetry from Studio 47. Welcome. Today's poet is Zitkala-Sa. She was born on February 22, 1876 on the Yankton Indian reservation and lived her first eight years there with her mother. As with so many indigenous people at this time, she was taken by missionaries and brought to White's Indian Manual Labor Institute in Indiana, where her Lakota name Zitkala-Sa, which means redbird, was changed to Gertrude Simmons. Her long hair was cut and her culture was suppressed. She was gifted at writing and playing the violin and because of this, she went to Earlham College, as well as the New England Conservatory of Music. She would go on to write many books and articles about the collisions between her birth culture and 20th century America. This includes old Indian legends, American Indian stories and Sundance opera, which was the first opera to have native themes and stories.
Patrick Hicks:
During her life she was politically active and she remains one of the most influential native artists of the 20th century. She died on January 26, 1938 in Washington D.C. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Today's poem is The Red Man's America. As you'll soon, hear this poem has lines from My Country, 'Tis of Thee in it as well as references to federal bills that sought to influence either positively or negatively native life and ways. This is The Red Man's America, by Zitkala-SA.
Patrick Hicks:
"My country 'tis to the sweet land of liberty. My please, I bring land where our fathers died, whose offspring are denied the franchise given wide. Hark while I sing, my native country thee, thy red man is not free. Knows not that love political bread ills, peyote in Temple Hills. His heart with sorrow fills, knows not that thy love. Let lanes bill swell the breeze and ring from all the trees. Sweet freedom song. Let Gandhi's bill awake all people till they quake. Let Congress silence break the sound prolong. Great mystery to thee life of humanity, to thee we cling. Grant our homeland be bright. Grant us just human, right. Protect us by thy might, great God our king.
Speaker 18:
Poetry from Studio 47 is hosted and curated by Patrick Hicks. This episode was recorded at Augustana University and produced by Peter Folliard. Thank you for listening.
Lori Walsh:
Ahead on the program. Whitney Rencounter joins us. We'll end the program today with music. But first SDBP's Laura Johnson talks with people about the complicated legacy of Catholic boarding schools in South Dakota. You're on listener supported South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
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Lori Walsh:
You're listening to In The Moment on South Dakota Public Broadcasting. I'm Lori Walsh for many Americans, the brutal legacy of Native American boarding schools returned to the spotlight with a discovery of unmarked children's graves in Canada. While America has its own history of such schools, you've been hearing this hour about the repatriation of the remains of nine children from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania to their ancestral lands with the Rosebud Sioux tribe. Well across America, there's much about the location and circumstances of boarding school deaths that we still don't know. In the Pine Ridge reservation an effort is underway to uncover the truths about the past through research and conversation. SDPB's Laura Johnson has more.
Laura Johnson:
The Red Cloud Indian School is a private institution established by Jesuit missionaries in the early 1900s. Today, middle and high school kids learn academic subjects mixed with Lakota language studies and Catholic liturgy. It began as a boarding school called Holy Rosary Mission. Jesuit priests established the mission when Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota invited them to the reservation. In the late 1800s, the federal government pressured native communities to enroll their children in boarding schools. Many of those were run by religious institutions. The goal was assimilation into white society. Parents were forced to comply when government agents withheld rations. The tension between the Oglala Lakota community and government and religious institutions continues to this day. Maka Black Elk is executive director of Truth and Healing at Red Cloud Indian School.
Maka Black Elk:
You can't build a bridge across the chasm that you refuse to see, and you can't build a bridge across the chasm if you refuse to even try.
Laura Johnson:
Black Elk created the Truth and Healing Committee in the fall of 2019. It's their effort to address the trauma of the boarding school era.
Maka Black Elk:
All we can do is finally no longer deny and we can no longer stand in the way of that history being told. So what we're trying to do is create a platform for survivors to tell their story.
Laura Johnson:
Black Elk selected seven members to serve on the committee. Father Brad Held is one of them. He's a pastor at the school and has been combing through the archives.
Father Brad Held:
At times, it's uncomfortable, and again, we have a lot of work to do to just know what's there and to know what is the full story of the history. We have a lot of listening to do yet. We have a lot of research to do. This is very much a newborn here where we are, kind of in this process.
Laura Johnson:
The archival documents can help identify potential victims and survivors experiences at the boarding school. Along the way, the Truth and Healing Committee wants to offer people an opportunity to talk about their exploitation. Father Held said, "The truth can come from documents and technologies like ground penetration radar." Pine Ridge has not used the technology yet to search graves outside of the existing cemetery. For many Native American families the trauma doesn't end with the survivor's experience. Tashina Banks Rama is chief executive officer at Red Cloud School and the daughter of a boarding school survivor. In 2006 Rama uncovered letters her father never received during his time at the Pipestone Boarding School. The school cut off his communication with family members. Rama says her family found healing after uncovering the truth of her father's story. The experience has made her want to help other survivors and their descendants.
Tashina Banks Rama:
The healing can begin knowing that their family did try to reach out to them. That there was an actual coordinated effort to prevent families from reconciling. I want records to be available and accessible to families, so families can on their own start to begin that healing journey.
Laura Johnson:
Rama says her involvement at Red Cloud is a way she can advocate for her community. Maka Black Elk is also a descendant of boarding school survivors on both sides of his family. One of his family members was taken thousands of miles away to Carlisle Indian School.
Maka Black Elk:
You know, my great grandfather being 16 years old, going off to Pennsylvania, living with these strangers, working to be able to go to the school, being just far away from everything you know at such a young age, it's emotional to think about that.
Laura Johnson:
Black Elk says this history has affected generations of his family. The Truth and Healing Committee tries to meet survivors where they are in their healing process. Some are ready to share their stories. Retired journalists, Tim Giago attended the Holy Rosary Mission.
Tim Giago:
The things they did that tried to destroy a culture, tried to destroy a language. I mean, these were institutions that tried to totally take us away from who we are.
Laura Johnson:
Giago recalls a particular moment from his time at the school.
Tim Giago:
One of my friends, a 16-year-old young man got an ear infection and he died. So they assigned me and my friend Red Elk to dig his grave. So we were up at the Holy Rose Mission cemetery digging his grave. And I dug down, we were about five feet down and I hit something with my pick. And when I lifted up over my head, it was a little child's skull.
Laura Johnson:
Giago has processed his experiences through published writing. His poetry and novels are part of his journalistic presence across the state. For others, talking about experiences does more harm than good. Artist John [Gosensiner 00:48:02] attributes his own healing process to the resiliency of his Lakota culture. He was sent hundreds of miles from his family to attend St. Paul's Indian school on the Yankton reservation.
John Gosensiner:
I know a lot of people kind of keep living their experience over and over. And myself, yeah, I have those experiences, but pretty much when you keep talking about them, thinking about them, get interviewed about them, you really it keeps a lot of people in victimhood.
Laura Johnson:
Boarding schools focused on menial labor training instead of preparation for higher education. After military service, Gosensiner got a college degree and a deeper understanding of Native American history and their tribal relations with the United States.
John Gosensiner:
America is afraid of its own history, the way I see it.
Laura Johnson:
Gosensiner says learning more about boarding schools will help Native Americans and America face the past today. Today Red Cloud Indian School wrestles over how to reconcile with Catholic traditions that have caused so much damage to the Oglala Lakota people. Balancing between Lakota and Catholic traditions is an ongoing struggle. Black Elk grew up learning both traditions.
Maka Black Elk:
We haven't figured out what it fully yet means to be a Lakota Catholic institution and how we can get to a place where we can do that and nobody feels threatened or harmed by either of those traditions and faiths being present. I think the only way to get there is by doing the very first step of truth and healing that is coming to terms for the truth, rather than the culture of silence that has existed until now.
Laura Johnson:
For South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I'm Laura Johnson.
Lori Walsh:
You can find all of today's stories and share them online at sdpb.org/spotlight. For this month's coverage of South Dakota history, we've explored the nuances of critical race theory, the history of American Indian boarding schools and land dispossession, a new history podcast from the South Dakota Historical Society, and a whole lot more is coming. We want you to be part of the story. What is something that you wish you had learned in high school about the history of this place you call home? What is something you wish other people knew about our history? Call us and leave a message. 605-951-0740. That's 605-951-0740.
Lori Walsh:
Now, then how shall we end this hour together? We have asked Whitney Rencountre to join us in SDBPs Black Hills Surgical Hospital studio with thoughts on an appropriate response to this day and the work ahead. Whitney, thank you for being here with us today.
Whitney Rencountre:
Hello, Lori. Thank you for having me on again, it's honor and a privilege.
Lori Walsh:
I just want to turn this over to you for a minute without really asking you a question other than where do you want to begin after we look at what's happening today, but also in this full context?
Whitney Rencountre:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. You know, I think in essence, in amongst the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota people, the Oceti Sakowin and also all the tribes, all of the people, this land that are affected by this, I think memorializing and much like what took place during the Holocaust and remembering in Germany. They put memorials in the streets so that people can understand and remember, so they do not repeat history. I think the next steps for our people are to memorialize and to teach and to make sure that we continue to teach the facts in our public schools and educate people about our history. The facts, at least at the beginning. And essentially 100 million indigenous people down to less than one million at the end of the 1800s, 30 to 60 million buffalo down to one less than 1000 left. And so when we take a look at these facts, it gives us a historical viewpoint and an understanding of all the changes that impact our people and us as mankind.
Whitney Rencountre:
And if we can share the facts and the history and teach these to our children moving forward, we hope and pray that we will not repeat history and that we can continue forward in learning how to go through this healing process, but also the educational process, because we do better when we know better as human beings for the most part. And so in essence, taking this time, I think what's happening now with the returning, currently as we speak the Rosebud relatives, the Sicangu Lakota are bringing back some of their relatives from Carlisle Indian School, traveling throughout Indian country. And many others United States and Canada are discovering a lot of these. And what brings this really to the forefront is the fact that these were children. And it's important for us to take a look and to listen and to understand that we have some work to do, but nonetheless, it is important for us to try to work together during this process to see how we can make our communities better for everyone.
Lori Walsh:
Whitney, I'm hoping that you will sing for us, for the listeners of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, some of whom are perhaps listening as part of their journey to bring these children home. Will you do that?
Whitney Rencountre:
Absolutely. Yes. I'd be happy to. My grandfather who taught me how to sing ironically enough, my grandmother and my grandfather went to the Stephan Mission boarding school, by our Community Crow Creek Sioux reservation, [inaudible 00:54:02] Dakota nation. And my grandfather, my grandparents did not teach my mother and my aunts our language. They had six daughters. And they did not teach them the language and a lot of our traditions. But when we were born as the grandchildren, they started to teach us through the songs and the dances and our traditional gatherings.
Whitney Rencountre:
So we were really happy about that at least some of the language was coming back. And so my grandfather taught me the importance of songs and there are songs for all occasions. Certainly there are many songs for memorials. There're certain songs to remember. And so I'll just share a song for all the residential school relatives that are impacted by the lives that were lost and all the survivors, and in hopes that we can bring some healing through these songs, because that's what they're meant to do. So here's a song for all the relatives that are impacted by the events throughout history here.
Whitney Rencountre:
(Singing).
Whitney Rencountre:
[foreign language 00:57:33]. Thank you.
Lori Walsh:
Whitney Recountre, I thank you. I respect you. I love you. Thanks for being here.
Whitney Rencountre:
You're welcome.
Lori Walsh:
And thank you for listening. We will end the rest of our time here in silence.
