Return of our Sisseton-Wahpeton Children, an item in the Oyate News, caught our attention. It was just an image and a link but worth readers time if they want to learn about the legacy of the boarding school system on families and communities.
Tamara St. John's discussion of the way in which the removal of the children of tribal leaders from their families and communities--along with her sharing of what has been learned about the boys at home and at the schools--illustrates why the children and this history should never be forgotten.
The unflinching questioning of the representatives of the Department of the Army by Sisseton Wahpeton by SWO citizens, along with their insistence that traditional cultural practices and family values be honored, is bracing.
Here's a YouTube of part of the event. It begins with St. John talking about the children:
If a YouTube of the complete event becomes available, we'll add it to this post.
Image: Amos LaFromboise's student information card at Carlisle. From the online Amos LaFramboise Cemetery Sources:
The records indicate that Amos LaFramboise was originally buried in Ashland Cemetery,
a burial ground located in the town of Carlisle. In December 1879, the body was relocated to the
Carlisle Indian School Cemetery due to racial restrictions on the deed for plots at Ashland.Excerpt from Jacqueline Fear-Segal, White Man’s Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of
Indian Acculturation (University of Nebraska Press, 2007), pages 235-237:
“The day after [Amos LaFramboise] was laid to rest in Ashland Cemetery, Pratt wrote to the
War Department requesting ‘to be informed whether the Burial Ground at that place is available
for the interment of Indian youth who may die while attending that school.’ … The judge
advocate general was called on to make the final decision, and he informed the War Department
that ‘The deed in this case conveys to the United States the ‘exclusive and entire right of
interment and sepulture’ in a certain burial lot in Ashland Cemetery in said Carlisle ‘to have and
to hold’ – and it is added – ‘for the burial of such White persons’ as the grantee may admit to be
buried there: In my judgement these last words constitute a condition annexed to the grant, that
the premises shall be used for the burial of White persons only; and I have therefore to express
the opinion that the interment therein of an Indian would not be legally authorized.’”
Years later, in an 1892 speech, Pratt infamously said that the goal of boarding school education was to "kill the Indian and save the man." St. John skillfully wove this information into her discussions.
Related posts:
- Oceti Sakowin March for our Children: over 200 march, drum, and ride horses in pouring rain
- Gwen Westerman named Minnesota poet laureate
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