Choose one thing to read, watch, listen to, do, or engage with today. Try to mix it up each day between the categories!

READ

A Century of Trauma at US Boarding Schools for Native American Children Federally funded schools used abusive tactics to strip children of their culture and inspired a similar program in Canada. A new initiative aims to reckon with that past. by Erin Blakemore National Geographic (2021)

Secretary Haaland Announces Major Milestones for Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Launched in June 2021, the initiative is the first-ever comprehensive effort by the federal government to recognize the troubled legacy of past federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and shedding light on past and present trauma in Indigenous communities. US Department of the Interior (2024)

Understanding the battle over the Indian Child Welfare Act ICWA requires state adoption agencies to place Native American children with relatives or families of the same tribe whenever possible. Several states and non-Native American adoptive couples have asked the Supreme Court to overturn the law on constitutional grounds, arguing, among other things, that it is racially discriminatory. by Noah Y. Kim PolitiFact (2021)

Army to Send Home 11 Native Children from Former Indian Boarding School The remains of 11 Native American children who died more than a century ago at a government-run Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania are returned home to their closest living relatives. by Jenna Kunze Native News Online (2024)

WATCH

Indian Child Welfare Act - Educational Resource Video This educational video, designed for state court judges, courts, and judicial educators, explains how white middle class perspective set into motion Indian Boarding Schools and abuses that evolved into the foster system and abuses. It also shares how ICWA offers a better way for families. Native American Rights Fund (2013) 19 minutes T CC

Why One Historic Indian Boarding School is Now...Good? Tai Leclaire (Kanien'kehá:ka Mohawk and Mi'kmaq) Join Tai Leclaire explores the dark legacy of Indian Boarding Schools, the failures of modern education, and the trauma, misconceptions, and racism endured by Native Americans as a result as well as how one school has done a 180 degree turnaround, now affirming and nurturing Native students. PBS: A People's History (2024) 11 minutes T CC

The Heart of ICWA One woman's story about what ICWA means to her both as an adopted “scooped” child and a foster parent. National Indian Child Welfare Association (2016) 8 minutes T CC

In The White Man’s Image Documentary about the Native American boarding school movement designed to “kill the Indian and save the man.” PBS: The American Experience (1992) 56 minutes T CC

Schools tried to forcibly assimilate Indigenous kids. Can the U.S. make amends? When hundreds of one Indian Boarding School’s photos and archives are found in the basement of a monastery, efforts are made to repatriate them. PBS NewsHour (2021) 8 minutes T CC

These award winning films from the Upstander Project document the work of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the first such task force in US history to investigate issues important to Native Americans. Bonus: viewer and teacher guides available for many of these resources.

First Light Documents the process of ending and healing from the pattern of removing Indigenous children from their homes. (2018) 13 minutes T CC
Dawnland Documents the behind-the-scenes process of grappling with difficult truths, redefining reconciliation, and charting a new course for state and tribal relations. Film available for institutional rent or purchase. Free viewing for individuals. (2018) 86 minutes TEACHERS GUIDE AVAILABLE

Dear Georgina Documents the story of a Passamaquoddy elder, removed from her family at the age of two and now attempting to fill in the blurry outlines of her identity. Film available for institutional rent or purchase. Free viewing for individuals. (2019) 15 minutes

LISTEN

Native Boarding Schools: Behind The Fight To Repatriate Indigenous Remains After the remains of more than 1,300 First Nations students were discovered at the former sites of Canada's residential schools, the U.S. faces its own moment of reckoning. NPR: Code Switch (2021) 4 minutes T

Nearly a thousand children died at Indian boarding schools funded by the U.S. Findings of a report following a three-year investigation that saw, for the first time, the federal government accepting responsibility for its role in creating the system, which included more than 400 schools across 37 states. NPR: All Things Considered(2024) 3 minutes T

This image is from the Reconciliation Pole on University of British Columbia, Vancouver campus. It marks Canada’s 2017 acknowledgment of having taken Indigenous children from their families until 1996, “embedded in the pole are thousands of copper nails, which represent the thousands of Indigenous children who died in the residential schools. The nails were hammered one by one by residential school survivors, affected families, school children, and others.” The carved schoolhouse contains 68,000 nails for 68,000 children. It also has coffins and skeletons. The pole represents Canada’s commitment to further education about the impact of Residential Boarding Schools, 2024 (photo by Claudia A. Fox Tree)

BRING IT HOME

Read this to prepare for the below read-aloud book videos.

Talking to Young Children About Indian Residential Schools How should you talk about the horrific details, and at what age? Psychology Today (2023)

When I Was Eight

Not My Girl by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Christy-Jordan Fenton reads the first chapter of Fatty Legs

DO

Interactive Digital Map of Indian Boarding Schools: Were there boarding schools in your state? Adjacent states? Do a google search: What boarding schools were indigenous kids in [state name] sent?

Orange Shirt Society Would you consider hanging an orange shirt outside your home (why/ why not)?

EXPLORE & REFLECT

On October 25th, 2024, President Biden apologized to tribal nations for the U.S. government’s Native American boarding school policy. What do you think would be productive next steps?

Look around the Abbe Museum website. The museum is located in Maine, USA. What can you learn about ICWA and the foster care system? Does your area have a museum like this (why/ why not)?