Kim Oseira tells the story of her life and boarding school experience. Raised by alcoholic parents, she and her sister were sent to the Holy Cross Mission Orphanage where they were ridiculed by other students. Unlike other children, Kim and her sister had no knowledge of their culture or language. Like many boarding schools, students […]
In the midst of trauma and abuse, many students found solace in playing hockey. Students often had to build hockey rinks themselves or skate on frozen lakes. Their passion for hockey was supported by the schools by having priests and lay teachers serve as coaches. Students competed against Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. Willie Littlechild, who […]
In this memoir, Walter Littlemoon educates the reader on the impact federal Indian policies have personally had on him and his family. He provides insight into the cruelty experienced by Native American children at boarding schools, along with his account of the 1973 militant occupation of Wounded Knee. He hopes others will follow down his […]
Eight-year-old Margaret Pokiak wants to learn to read, even though she has to leave her home and community to get an education.Her father reluctantly agrees to let her attend school, warning his daughter of the horrors of residential schools. At school, Margaret encounters a disgruntled nun who attempts to humiliate her with red stockings-while the […]
Best known as a leader of the Indian takeover of Alcatraz Island in 1969, Adam Fortunate Eagle now offers an unforgettable memoir of his years as a young student at Pipestone Indian Boarding School in Minnesota. In this rare firsthand account, Fortunate Eagle lives up to his reputation as a “contrary warrior” by disproving the […]
Several survivors from Canadian residential schools share their experiences of abuse, and how this has affected their children and grandchildren. One of the survivors ended up sending her children to residential school. Video clips are also shown of children in at school. Another survivor describes residential schools as “a blot on the Canadian landscape”for three […]
Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools, as late as 1950, was to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were not allowed to be Indians – to speak their language or express their culture or native identity in […]
Hunter Genia is a well respected member of the Saginaw Chippewa Wellness community and works at the tribe’s Behavioral Health department. He shares very personal stories of he and his relatives’ experiencing direct impacts from being swept into the boarding school systems, and generational aftershocks of those experiences. Watch Video Here Source: Mount Pleasant Industrial […]
In this feature film, the profound impact of the Canadian government’s residential school system is conveyed through the eyes of two children who were forced to face hardships beyond their years. As young children, Lyna and Glen were taken from their homes and placed in church-run boarding schools, where they suffered years of physical, sexual […]
Veteran Robert O’Brien was honored at Carlisle by the Army War College during an annual athletic event called the Jim Thorpe Sports Days. O’Brien, who grew up in an orphanage in St. Paul Minnesota, traced his roots to his father who was a student at Carlisle. O’Brien is now enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes […]
Standing Bear, the son of a Lakota chief, has led an interesting life. As a student he was in the first class at Carlisle Indian School, witnessed the Ghost Dance uprising on the Pine Ridge Reservation firsthand, toured Europe in a Wild West Show, and was heavily involved in the Indian rights movement. Book Available […]
Xat’sull Chief Bev Sellers spent her childhood in a boarding school run by the church. Like other Native American boarding schools, the goal was to assimilate students into mainstream society by forcing students to abandon their heritage and language and adopting Christianity and “civilized” ways of living. The trauma experienced at school continued to haunt […]
