The quiet became unbearable

The more I learn about the assimilation institutions in this country and the land called Canada, the deeper I fall into despair. It is so difficult to think of how these things affect my Native friends and their families. To have witnessed some of their anger and sorrow.

I was going to say but this is not about me in order to put the focus where I thought it should be, on the unimaginable suffering of my friends. But then the Spirit told me this is definitely about me and other white people. We must recon with the past before we can be part of any healing. If healing is even possible.

So much is being written now about the horrors of the Native residential schools it’s overwhelming. I have trouble figuring out what I should write about all of this. One thing I am compelled to do is call as much attention to these things as I can.

I believe in the power of stories. When I saw the following story in the article, With the help of the Mounties, the priests piled the children into boats and floated away, I felt it’s power.

Warning: The information and material here may trigger unpleasant feelings or thoughts of past abuse. Please contact the 24-hour Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419 if you require emotional support.

An elder told me a story. It goes like this.

It was long ago and late summer in a remote northern village. A Cree village. Everyone still lived in tents. One day priests visited. They announced that the next time they came, they would take the children. It would be for the best, they explained. The children would go to school. The priests left, and some short time later — maybe a week, maybe two — they returned. This time, the Mounties came with them. The Mounties wore red coats, black boots and each Mountie wore a belt with a gun. The priests did as they’d promised. With the help of the Mounties, they piled the children into boats and floated away.
That evening, the villagers made their fires, cooked supper and ate in silence.
Their world was silent.
No children played or laughed.
No children quarrelled or cried.
The quiet became unbearable.
The sun had not yet set, but they crept into their tents anyway.
Soon a sob broke the silence. It was a woman crying.
Then another sob.
Then another woman.
The sun sank orange, the yellow moon rose, and all night long the only sound heard in the village was mothers crying.
With the help of the Mounties, the priests piled the children into boats and floated away By Karyn Pugliese aka Pabàmàdiz, Canada’s National Observer, June 30th 2021

“The schools were never meant to do us any good,” the elder told me. “They knew. They knew that when you break the hearts of our women, you break the strength of our nations.”

Perhaps we should stop calling these institutions schools. It’s misleading. Schools are built to teach. There may have been individual teachers with good intentions. There may have been individuals attending these institutions who benefitted. But any benefit was a side-effect. The system was designed to erase us.

Understanding the legacy of residential institutions is important, not just for the harm that policy caused. But because every policy, every program, every law aimed at Indigenous people over the same hundred-year period was shaped by the same attitudes of racial superiority. Poor water, shoddy housing, underfunded schools, child welfare. Unresolved land claims that led to standoffs with police. Residential schools were not an exception in government policy. They were the rule.

Reconciliation is not about guilt. Few people living today had the knowledge or power to stop what was happening. You didn’t do anything wrong. All of us are trapped and living with the same history. The question is, what will we do about it?

If you didn’t like what you saw when you stepped through the looking glass, you can change it.

This opportunity is precious, fragile, and it almost didn’t happen.

I worry about what will happen if it fails.

With the help of the Mounties, the priests piled the children into boats and floated away By Karyn Pugliese aka Pabàmàdiz, Canada’s National Observer, June 30th 2021

Four Indigenous Climbers Arrested “LANDBACK”

From NDN’s Landback campaign. NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.

Four Indigenous Climbers Arrested After Mounting “LANDBACK” Flag From 100 Ft Dakota Mills Grain Silo

Action Calls Out Hypocrisy of July 4th, Uplifts Demand for Reparations and Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 4, 2021

Rapid City, SD — Today, Indigenous climbers representing 10 different Nations from Turtle Island and Palestine were arrested for confronting the legacy of white supremacy that is commemorated every 4th of July. Climbers ascended the 100-ft Dakota Mills Grain silo situated on Lakota lands in downtown Rapid City and mounted an upside down American flag with “LANDBACK” written prominently across it.

This flag represents the murders of those children they secretly buried them without markers and thought they could get away with it. The number on the banner that is orange (1505), it represents the number of relatives that we have found so far.

NDN Collective’s LANDBACK Campaign team released the following statement:

“An upside-down flag represents being in distress and is a prominent symbol across Indian Country; we have just celebrated the Battle of Little Bighorn, and at that battle the three sister nations of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho defeated General Custer and the 7th Calvary. In that battle, they claimed the American flag from the defeated US army. That flag belongs to us. Today, we refute the dominant narrative that the American flag represents a legacy of freedom, democracy, and equality.

“This day is nothing to celebrate for the Indigenous Peoples here, or anywhere else the United States has consumed through imperialism. LANDBACK is not a metaphor; it is our present reality and our future struggle. There is no repair or justice until Indigenous Peoples reclaim our land. This place, the Black Hills, represents the entire cycle of life and deserves nothing less than Return.

“Today, we stand with our people, who are in distress, to speak the truth of what the 4th of July means in Mniluzahan, or so-called ‘Rapid City.’ The self-declared “City of Presidents” honors the legacy of past United States leadership on one hand, while brutalizing the original peoples and caretakers of the land on the other.

“Last year, on July 3rd, we saw Indigenous peoples brutalized and arrested by police atop our own sacred site and treaty lands, the Black Hills. 21 people were arrested, including NDN Collective’s President and CEO, Nick Tilsen, who is Oglala Lakota. Tilsen is still fighting the extreme charges filed against him over a year ago, having recently filed a motion to dismiss the charges based on prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional rights violations.

NDBACK Campaign mounted an upside down flag in downtown Rapid City with LANDBACK painted across– a sign of distress and a symbol of resistance to the so-called Fourth of July and the American settler colonial project. One of those climbers is Martin Aranaydo (Tohono O’odham)

“Return Indigenous Lands to Indigenous hands. That’s it. Until we get it we ain’t gonna stop. Being up here today, looking down at this inverted flag, I’m reminded of what this flag means to me. This flag represents the military. They murdered our ancestors and tried to commit genocide against us. They did not succeed.

“This flag represents the people that took children away from their parents– babies away from their parents. Forced them into boarding schools. This flag represents a country that abused those children, beat them, assaulted them sexually, mentally, physically. This flag represents the many horrors that our grandparents, and great grandparents had to endure. This flag represents the murders of those children they secretly buried them without markers and thought they could get away with it. The number on the banner that is orange (1505), it represents the number of relatives that we have found so far. We hope we will find more relatives who can finally lay to rest peacefully.” – Martin Aranaydo, Climber.

#LANDBACK #4thofYouLie

Today, a team of climbers with NDN’s LANDBACK Campaign did a banner drop in downtown Rapid City of an upside-side American flag with LANDBACK painted across– a sign of distress and a symbol of resistance to the so-called Fourth of July and the American settler colonial project. One of those climbers is Krystal Two Bulls, LANDBACK Campaign Director. “We are calling out all of the false narratives that exist on this day, July 4th. Calling attention to the white supremacy that exists in the Rapid City Police Department, through the systems that exist here in this city, but also worldwide. We want to make sure that we are calling out that all of this land is Indigenous Land and that we are up here today to stand and to continue to demand LANDBACK. We have tried many other ways to negotiate, have conversation, and to do all of these things to reclaim our land. It’s a fight for justice, a fight for liberation, a fight for all things good. We’ve only ever been met with violence, attacks, brutality, and criminalization. So we’re here to demand and say that we’re not stopping until we get our land back. And we will not stop. And we’re going to continue to fight to protect our lands, to protect everything that we hold sacred.” – Krystal Two Bulls, Director of LANDBACK Campaign

Follow NDN’s livestream for continued coverage: https://www.facebook.com/ndncol/videos/397600628339257/#LANDBACK #4thofYouLie

May be an image of 2 people, people standing and outdoors

National holidays, Indigenous leadership and buried children

I’ve been writing about the event that was going to be held at the Iowa State Capitol “stop whitewashing genocide and slavery”. I urged people I know to attend. Support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa – LANDBACK Friends Organizers asked for a show of support. I was disappointed to see only a few people I know.

The same calls to remove monuments to white supremacy was held last year. Monuments to White Supremacy July 4, 2020 – LANDBACK Friends

Canada Day, July 1, and July 4 in the land called the United States, celebrate one view of the history of these two countries. Celebrations of white colonialism and the reign of capitalism. My Native friends refer to these as KKKCanada Day or Cancel Canada Day, and “The 4th of he lies”.

The remains of hundreds of children on the grounds of residential schools in Canada was a focus of the event here in Des Moines, and in Canada described below. The number will be in the thousands.

In Canada, monuments have been vandalized or destroyed and churches defaced. Four burned to the ground.

The search for remains in the United States has not yet begun. What does this mean for religious organizations involved with these schools here?

While There Had Been Anti-Canada Day Marches In The Past, This Year’s Especially Large Turnout Was Spurred In Part By The Discovery Of Over 1,100 Bodies At Former Residential Schools Over The Past Few Months.
On July 1, several thousand Indigenous people and settler and immigrant allies answered the call of organizations like Idle No More to protest the celebration of Canada Day and the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples. Cancel Canada Day actions took place across the land occupied by the Canadian state, from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the east, to Victoria, B.C., including a march of thousands to parliament in Ottawa.
Uniting under the slogan “No Pride in Genocide,” these rallies put forward a panoply of demands. At the forefront was that Canada Day be replaced with a day to honor those whose lives have been lost to the Canadian state, whether Indigenous, Black, POC, women, or LGBTQ+. This was accompanied by demands for the end of settler encroachment and return of Indigenous land, Indigenous sovereignty, a real response to the disappearance and murder of Indigenous women, the end of police brutalization of Indigenous people, that the church take responsibility and offer compensation for the residential schools, and the end of celebration of the settler-colonial state.
At the same time, settler-colonial symbols have been vandalized and destroyed, including a statue of Captain James Cook in Victoria and statues of Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II in Manitoba. In addition, many churches have been defaced, and four in BC have been burned to the ground. All this reflects Indigenous consciousness—the awareness that we live under the boot of a settler-colonial state that demands our elimination, and that this fundamental reality needs to change.
However, changing this reality is impossible under capitalism. Indigenous oppression, expropriation, and elimination are carried out in order to remove us as an obstacle to capitalist expansion and exploitation of the land. While victories can be won in the short term, this oppression cannot end while capitalism remains in place. As a result, we must do all we can to unite the class struggle of the non-Indigenous working class with the decolonial struggles of Indigenous peoples, if we are to eliminate the capitalist system that oppresses and exploits both.
THOUSANDS MARCH IN CANCEL CANADA DAY ACTIONS By Taytyn Badger, Left Voice, July 4, 2021

Following is a graphic I’ve been working on, indicating the central role of capitalism.

capitalism has violated the communities of marginalized folks. capitalism is about the value of people, property and the people who own property. those who have wealth and property control the decisions that are made. the government comes second to capitalism when it comes to power.
in the name of liberation, capitalism must be reversed and dismantled. meaning that capitalistic practices must be reprogrammed with mutual aid practices.
Des Moines Black Liberation

A caravan of Trump supporters tried to disrupt the ceremonies. Some of the flags were pulled off as they passed by. I was astonished at the quick reaction of some in our crowd. They have seen this thing before. There was an immediate increase in tension. After the caravan left, Iowa State Patrol cars closed off the street.

LANDBACK and Quakers. A case study

The idea of “landback” — returning land to the stewardship of Indigenous peoples — has existed in different forms since colonial governments seized it in the first place. “Any time an Indigenous person or nation has pushed back against the oppressive state, they are exercising some form of landback,” says Nickita Longman, a community organizer from George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The movement goes beyond the transfer of deeds to include respecting Indigenous rights, preserving languages and traditions, and ensuring food sovereignty, housing, and clean air and water. Above all, it is a rallying cry for dismantling white supremacy and the harms of capitalism. Although these goals are herculean, the landback movement has seen recent successes, including the removal of dams along the Klamath River in Oregon following a long campaign by the Yurok Tribe and other activists, and the return of 1,200 acres in Big Sur, California, to the formerly landless Esselen Tribe.
Returning the Land. Four Indigenous leaders share insights about the growing landback movement and what it means for the planet, by Claire Elise Thompson, Grist, February 25, 2020

There are several reasons I’ve been praying, studying, and writing about LANDBACK. Most importantly my Native friends have told me the best way to support them is by doing so. Those who work for justice often hear we need to follow the leadership of the communities impacted by injustice. It is often not clear how to go about doing that.

I’ve been a bit apprehensive about trying to get Friends involved with LANDBACK because many Friends have trouble dealing with the history of Quakers’ involvement with the forced assimilation of Native children. Many white Friends have trouble dealing with Quakers’ history related to enslavement. Many white Friends are uncomfortable with their white privileges today.

So I was very grateful to receive a response to something I’d written about LANDBACK from my friend and fellow Quaker, Marshall Massey, which you can read here: Marshall Massey on LANDBACK – LANDBACK Friends

I wrote the following case study, hoping to give an example of the implementation of the ideas related to LANDBACK.

This is a link to the PDF version of the LANDBACK case study, Wet’suwet’en and Quakers.

There is much that our past can show, if everyone will stop turning away from the truth

Following are stories from Madonna Thunder Hawk and Chase Iron Eyes (both from the Lakota People’s Law Project) about the Native boarding schools in the lands called Canada and the United States. And a petition calling for the Biden administration and congressional committees to form and empower a Truth and Reconciliation Commission today.
As we wrote to you several weeks ago, there’s a lot of justified anger and trauma in Indian Country right now. For many of us, the reality of what happened in these horrific church-run and state-sanctioned facilities is not something we want to relive. That said, because I was there, I want to share with you some of what my experience looked like.
By the time I went to boarding school in the late 1940s and early ‘50s, things weren’t as horrifying as they’d once been. I spent a period of these years in the U.S. government and parochial boarding school systems on and off the Cheyenne River reservation. It may not surprise you to learn that I was always on the verge of getting kicked out. They said I was “too mouthy!”
My parents’ generation had it much harder. In their day, boarding schools were military in style and very strict. In the late 1920s and early ‘30s, my mother attended Pipestone Elementary. It was a U.S. government school, but many like it were parochial, mainly Catholic. She and her classmates were made to wear uniforms and march wherever they went. Neither crying nor laughing was allowed. No one talked, and many tried to escape, but they would always be found and brought back against their will. Then the administrators would shave their heads bald, march them into the auditorium, string them up, and flog them. All the other kids were made to watch as a lesson in what happens when you run away. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that many children died from illness under these harsh conditions.
This is the intergenerational trauma that I and so many of my contemporaries still live with today. It informs our current fight to keep our young ones from being stolen away into white foster “care.” It’s why we, as an organization, back Secretary Haaland’s investigation, and why we hope even more will be done to empower a true reckoning here in the U.S. — through an audit of our own school properties and teaching real history in the schools of today. There is much that our past can show, if everyone will stop turning away from the truth.
Wopila tanka — thank you for your understanding and allyship at this hard moment.
Madonna Thunder Hawk
Cheyenne River Organizer
The Lakota People’s Law Project

Chase attends a prayer circle in D.C. and offers his thoughts on the tragic discoveries of more graves at Indian boarding schools over the past weeks

Sign the petition here: America cannot hide from the ramifications of its own history (lakotalaw.org)

After the continued findings of mass graves of Indigenous children at boarding schools, it’s long past past time to confront the genocide of Indigenous People on Turtle Island. Tell the Biden administration and congressional committees to form and empower a Truth and Healing Commission today.

Petition Text:

The tragic discoveries of mass graves full of Indigenous children at boarding school campuses shocked Americans and Canadians alike — but this news did not surprise any Indigenous person on Turtle Island. The history of boarding and residential schools are a well-known horror in these communities. Generations have suffered and continue to suffer the fallout of this criminal legacy.

Therefore I ask today that the United States government take immediate corrective action to address its own genocidal history. I call upon the Biden administration, the House Subcommittee of the Indigenous People of the United States and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to immediately spearhead the formation of a Truth and Healing Commission empowered to confront the scope of this tragedy head-on.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s creation of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative is a wonderful start, and we applaud Secretary Haaland for taking action on behalf of her Indigenous relatives. But we need a true reckoning, and any agency must be empowered to find the hard answers.

The proposed Commission — or Secretary Haaland’s Initiative — must be given the authority to conduct a full audit of all Indian boarding schools within the U.S. and any relevant associated properties. We demand that government agencies, churches, property owners, and faith-based organizations prioritize cooperation with these efforts to help ensure they are comprehensive and fully effective.

Until America confronts its own history and continued use of colonial tools of oppression, these discoveries will continue to be made. Communities will continue to grieve and America will continue to skirt responsibility for its violent history — and current practices — of colonialism and resulting genocides.

America was founded on documents which granted legal immunity and bestowed moral imperatives to conquer and “civilize” the Original People of Turtle Island. These documents, issued as papal bulls from the Vatican and known as the Doctrine of Discovery, authorized and encouraged the violent origins of America. By 1860, with the opening of the first Indian boarding school, America was simply updating ancient methods of colonization to continue acting with impunity and violent arrogance. The latest evidence discovered of genocide, murder, and violence underlines the horror resultant from the Doctrine, which is still being used as a tool of disenfranchisement and oppression in today’s court systems.

America cannot hide from the ramifications of its own history. With the closure of our last Indian Boarding school in 1978, Americans must understand that this is living history, not some historical footnote. People and communities are still suffering. Let this tragic discovery in Canada be the wake up call that America needs. Please use your authority as members of the executive and legislative branches to begin blazing a new kind of trail. Form a Truth and Healing Commission — and vest it with the authority to begin addressing this nation’s long history of violence and oppression toward Native communities.

Sign the petition here: America cannot hide from the ramifications of its own history

Quaker meeting 6/27/2021

Yesterday afternoon a group of Midwest Quakers gathered via Zoom in response to the terrible news of the remains of children at Native residential schools in Canada. Tragically there is no doubt many more will be found.

We began with an hour of worship together. For those not familiar, many Quakers worship in silence. If so led, vocal messages can be given. Afterword we had a discussion about what we might do.

I believe those gathered shared my appreciation for a chance to listen for the Spirit, and to each other, for strength and guidance for what we might be called to do. Many, if not all of us, wonder what our responsibility is for the trauma of forced assimilation. We are aware that Quakers played some role in some of those institutions in the land called the United States.

These traumas have been passed from generation to generation. Described as an open wound in Native communities today.

We must look to Indigenous peoples to learn how we can support them. I’ve been asked to tell people about the concept of LANDBACK. I created the website https://landbackfriends.com/ as one way to do that. There you can find explanations of the concepts of LANDBACK and Mutual Aid. And a number of posts about Native residential schools.

Also there is An Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK. This is based on An Epistle to Friends Concerning Military Conscription that was signed by Iowa Friends Roy Knight and Don Laughlin, among others. That espistle discussed options related to military conscription and made the case for draft resistance.

If you are so led, you can add your signature to the LANDBACK epistle. You can also add your email address if you’d like updates.

My friend Christine Nobiss, of the Great Plains Action Society, asks us to support the July 4th event Stop Whitewashing Genocide and Slavery This is a real opportunity for us to demonstrate our support for her work. I would also encourage you to invite young people to attend.

Photos I took at last year’s event can be found below.

Proximity and perspective

This is likely to be a kind of stream of consciousness. Exploring proximity of distance, of time, proximity to the Spirit. How proximity changes our perspective.

I’m floundering. I seem to have become unmoored from the Quaker faith community I was raised in and chose to remain part of my entire life.

Throughout my life there have been tensions between us. One related to the profligate use of fossil fuels. I had hoped when I was led to live without a car, other Friends might also. Had hoped other Friends would be draft resisters. Find ways to join communities of color. Ways to be accountable for settling on Native lands. For participating in the cultural genocide of institutions of forced assimilation.

There have been some Friends who have done some of those things.

A number of things contribute to my current condition. One is realizing the inherent racism, evil of the colonial capitalist economic system. How have we become immune to the hunger, houselessness, disease and despair of millions of people? To endless wars? To the utter devastation of Mother Earth? All predicated on capitalism and white supremacy.

The vast majority of Quakers in the United States are white and relatively well off financially. Benefactors of capitalism and white dominant culture. Many avoid looking at the evils of the capitalist economic system they/we live in. Which, I would contend, is why we don’t have a diverse membership. Why many of us have trouble comprehending racism and privilege.

My perspective has radically changed over the past decade. First when I was blessed to become part of the Kheprw Institute community in Indianapolis. A black youth mentoring and empowerment community. I was mentored myself in the process. I learned there is no substitute for spending a great deal of time in oppressed communities. Justice work is founded on relationships. Without this development of friendships, no meaningful work can be done. This is the proximity of physical distance.

Over the past four years I have been similarly blessed to build relationships, friendships with Native people in Iowa. This was another example of the proximity of physical distance, which was the intention of the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March I am profoundly grateful to have been part of. For a week in September, 2018, a small group of about 15 Native and 15 non-native folks walked together, and camped along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline. Walking down rural gravel roads, we shared our stories with each other. Began to build friendships and trust. Since then, there have been numerous occasions when we worked together.

For over a year now I have been so grateful to become part of Des Moines Mutual Aid. My good friend Ronnie James, an Indigenous organizer with more than twenty years of experience, has been generously, patiently mentoring me about Mutual Aid and activism in Iowa. I spend several hours every Saturday morning with a very diverse group of friends as we put together and distribute boxes of food for those in need. Another example of proximity of distance. Over these times together we share our stories. Get to meet family members. Share our joy of being with each other. My perspective relative to Quakers and black, indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) has changed significantly as a result.

What has brought about my crisis of connection with Quakers has been the recent verification of the remains of Native children at residential schools in Canada. Verification because Indigenous peoples knew children were buried there.

A problem for me was Quaker involvement in some of these schools in the land called the United States. I doubt those Friends harmed the children physically. But looking back from our perspective today, grievous harm was done by forceful attempts to assimilate the children into white culture.

I knew I could not have honest relationships with my Native friends if this wasn’t brought up. So I did. Those stories are for another time.

There are Quakers and many others who contend this was done in the past. Not something that needs to be dealt with today. Not a close proximity of time.

But that is not true. Some of those schools were still in operation until around the 1970’s. And the traumas that occurred at these residential schools have been passed from generation to generation. A close proximity of time. Native peoples suffering now.

Some have suggested we aren’t accountable because there were not residential schools close to us geographically. Proximity of distance.

More what I meant by the proximity of distance relates to physical presence. Because I am often in the presence of my Native friends, I see the great pain this latest news of the Native children has caused. This totally informs my perspective.

I don’t know how often my Native friends think about it, but I imagine our conversations about Quaker involvement come to mind.

There are calls now to look for children’s remains at all the residential schools. They will undoubtedly be found. Very likely found at schools Quakers were involved with. The numbers are already staggering, with over 800 children found at just two schools. Heightening tensions between Native and non-native peoples.

So there is proximity of time. Here and now. For some Quakers there is also proximity of distance. In various ways some of us are physically in touch with Native people. Close in terms of relationships with each other.

Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy
Christine Nobiss

I know I am fortunate, and many other Friends don’t have such relationships. That needs to change.

There are several reasons I have, hopefully temporarily, created distance from Friends. Many don’t acknowledge our responsibilities in this tragic history. Contend we don’t have accountability because these schools operated in the past. Don’t feel a proximity of time. Don’t realize the depths of the pain of Native peoples, because these Friends don’t have physical proximity.

So how can Friends find ways to be present with Native people? One way is to show up for Native gatherings. One such opportunity will be this July 4th, 2021, 1 – 3 pm. West terrace Iowa State Capitol. Stop Whitewashing Genocide & Slavery!!! Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy in Iowa!

My friend Christine Nobiss is asking for a large turnout to support the removal of such statues in Iowa. She writes, “Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy. Fight back!” For more information: Stop Whitewashing Genocide and Slavery

I pray for proximity of the Spirit for all of us. Extremely trying days lie ahead of us. There will be an increasingly desperate need for Quakers learn about all this. So we will be prepared for what the Spirit will ask of us.

The intention of the website, LANDBACK Friends, is to help us learn and share about Quakers and Native peoples, about the Native boarding schools. Learn about the concepts of LANDBACK and Mutual Aid. LANDBACK Friends

In their silence; they woke the world

The Indigenous people who have suffered the tragedies of the residential schools are who should their stories.

“In their silence, they woke the world” – these powerful seven words are spoken at the end of a short video released by the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) this week to remember the many lives lost and impacted by residential schools.
The moving video comes after Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir shared the heartbreaking news on May 28 that the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found in unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site.
“To support our people in their grief and promote healing in light of the recent discoveries at former residential schools, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) filmed a video response,” Kelley McReynolds, director of Ayás Mén̓men Child and Family Services, the team that produced the video, explained.
“For far too long, these schools taught our children to be ashamed of their culture and language. This video celebrates that we are still here and encourages our people to take comfort and pride in their culture during this difficult time.”
‘In their silence, they woke the world’: Squamish Nation releases powerful video by Elisia Seeber, Pique Newsmagazine, June 21, 2021. Take a moment to watch this short video by Squamish Nation to honour and remember the many Indigenous lives lost and impacted by Residential Schools.

See video here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=314927366891267

Incomprehensible

From their beginnings the Indian residential schools, as they were called, in the United States and Canada, were institutions of cultural genocide, abuse, hunger, illness and death of Native children. Some were literally killed. Others died from disease. Or during their desperate journeys of escape. The institutions were usually far away from the tribe.

I hadn’t realized it until recently, but this purposeful cruelty was intended to quell Native resistance to being forced off their lands.

The recent verification of the remains of Native children at the Kamloops institution has triggered profound grief. See: Boarding schools – LANDBACK Friends

This discovery led Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, to create the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative for a comprehensive review of Federal boarding school policies in the United States. See: Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative – LANDBACK Friends

Part of the devastation at the news from Kamloops was knowing children’s remains would be found at many, probably most, other residential schools. Now there is news of many more remains at another Canadian institution. It doesn’t seem right to call them schools.

“This was a crime against humanity, an assault on First Nations,” said Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations in Saskatchewan. He said he expects more graves will be found on residential school grounds across Canada.
“We will not stop until we find all the bodies,” he said.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools, the majority of them run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society.
Report: Over 600 bodies found at Indigenous school in Canada. Leaders of Indigenous groups in Canada say investigators have found more than 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children — a discovery that follows last month’s report of 215 bodies found at another school By JIM MORRIS, Associated Press
June 24, 2021

This is just incomprehensible. A web of grief for all the connections of each child. The parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters and other families and tribal communities and nations. A web that continues across generations.

It adds to the injury that there has been so little press coverage of these monumental tragedies. Yet another way lack of concern for Indigenous peoples continues to be demonstrated. I find it infuriating. Native people are who should tell the stories here. But we can help spread the news as appropriate. So others are aware and looks for ways to help in these dire times. The purpose of this blog is to inform people about the concepts involved in LANDBACK. Which includes being informed about all aspects of the relationships of non-native people with Indigenous peoples.

Additional coverage: Canadian First Nation group finds 751 bodies in unmarked graves at another ‘Indian residential’ school run by Catholics where children were ‘assimilated’ into society By SOPHIE TANNO FOR MAILONLINE, DailyMail, June 24, 2021

The foundation of LANDBACK is to support the leadership of Native people. In Iowa we are being asked to show up for “Stop whitewashing genocide and slavery. Bring back critical race theory and remove monuments to white supremacy in Iowa”. July 4, 2021 at the Iowa State Capitol.”

With this crappy critical race theory bill being passed in Iowa, I think it’s more important than ever that folks show up to this event! The law bans teaching certain concepts, such as that the U.S. or Iowa is systemically racist… but yet this entire state is littered with monuments to white supremacy.
Please try and find the time to be there and show your solidarity with BIPOC folks.
Christine Nobiss

Stop Whitewashing Genocide & Slavery!!! Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy in Iowa!

We have an event planned for July 4th at the Capitol Complex and we would love to see a mass turnout to support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa. If your organization would like to join our coalition and co-host, hit me up ASAP and send me your logo.

Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy. Fight back!

More info at the https://fb.me/e/2unK2uiVj

Great Plains Action Society

As we struggle with these tragic stories, one thing we are asked to do is show up.

#LANDBACK #NoMonumentsToWhiteSupremacy #GreatPlainsActionSociety

Monuments to White Supremacy July 4, 2020

Following are excerpts from a blog post I wrote about the gathering on July 4 last year related to white supremacy and monuments to white supremacy.

Statues to Confederate soldiers are monuments to White supremacy. These White men committed treason by seceding from the United States, and going to war to preserve the institution of slavery. They were clearly saying White culture is superior to all others.

Another campaign of White supremacy was the theft of Native peoples lands and the cultural genocide from forced assimilation of more than 100,000 Indigenous children. This occurred in White run boarding/residential schools and was the epitome of White supremacy. Forcing native children to give up their ways, and try to learn how to fit into White society. The trauma related to forced assimilation that affected the children and their relatives has been passed from generation to generation and is felt by those living today.

Systemic racism in the U.S. today is the interconnected web of ways White supremacy continues in our society.

As I have learned more about Indigenous peoples, it is clear to me we would not be in this rapid spiral into deepening climate chaos is we had lived within our ecological boundaries, as Indigenous peoples have always done. Another way we are all suffer because of White supremacy.

Besides the Confederate statues, pioneer monuments are also displays of White supremacy.

The earliest pioneer monuments were put up in midwestern and western cities such as Des Moines, Iowa and San Francisco, California. They date from the 1890s and early 1900s, as whites settled the frontier and pushed American Indians onto reservations.
Those statues showed white men claiming land and building farms and cities in the West. They explicitly celebrated the dominant white view of the Wild West progressing from American Indian “savagery” to white “civilization.”
Think Confederate monuments are racist? Consider pioneer monuments by Cynthia Prescott, The Conversation.

Pioneer statue, Iowa State Capitol grounds, Des Moines, Iowa

My friends Christine Nobiss and Donnielle Wanatee organized the event at the Iowa State Capitol on July 4th, 2020, regarding removing the Pioneer statue on the grounds there.

Following are rough notes I took from Christine Nobiss’s remarks.

Christine Nobiss: As an academic, as an Indigenous person, as an organizer railing against monuments to White supremacy, whether they be statues, murals or entire buildings.

As an organizer, rail against statues, murals, buildings, spaces
Uprisings George Floyd
Movement to taking these statues down
Concerns about safety of my people, the safety of black people, people of the world majority when taking statues down.

Is it our job to take them down?

In reality, in the best sense of how all this is occurring, the best thing would be that they would just be taken down. The states would see these as human rights violations, symbols of hate speech that leave out and single out portions of the populations and make them feel unwelcoming spaces.

So it wold be the duty of the state and Federal governments to see these as symbols that glorify of slavery, ethnic cleansing, land theft and so many violations of human rights.

But that’s not happening, is it?

So it is, again, up to people on the ground to do it, to make this happen.
But I don’t want people to get hurt.

I would like to see legislation, I would like to see us push for the ancestors of these people who put them up take them down.

They put them up, they should take them down.

S.A. Lawrence-Welch: I have to concur. I believe in the power of the people. We need to start holding the government accountable for the atrocities that have occurred, are still occurring, and these monuments that remind us day after day that this has happened. You know that taking them down we are not erasing history, we are acknowledging the actual stains on our history as a nation.

It is incredibly uplifting to see this uprising happen, but to decentralize the White superiority narrative I think that we need to work as people of the world majority, especially in these United States, to dismantle the government as its known now by influencing and having them follow our lead.

Christine: I am not saying I want to rely on them. I’m saying lets make them do it.
I would love the nation states to recognize all the wrongdoings that are perpetuated and how they are responsible for the daily historical trauma of people that have to look at these and be reminded of what’s happened in this county. And look our whitewashed history because that history is not the truth, that is absolutely not the truth of this country was founded at the point of a gun for the sake of free land and free labor. That little sentence just basically barely describes the amount the violence and terror that people have had to deal with for centuries. All of these statues are monuments to that. They are basically irresponsible acts to put these up. Its not the truth and I believe they are human rights violations. They are symbols of hate speech.

Photo gallery from this event: Monuments 7/4/2020 – LANDBACK Friends

#NoMonumentsToWhiteSupremacy

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Chase attends a prayer circle in D.C. and offers his thoughts on the tragic discoveries of more graves at Indian boarding schools over the past weeks

Sign the petition here: America cannot hide from the ramifications of its own history (lakotalaw.org)

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: