Truth and healing coalition

Yesterday at my Quaker meeting, Bear Creek Friends near Earlham, Iowa, we continued discussions related to Quakers and our relations with Native peoples generally, and those we know personally. There was deep sharing related to what we were learning about the institutions of forced assimilation. Like me, others indicated they had not understood the depths of the tragedies of forced assimilation. We have little specific information about the role of some of our ancestors. While it is not appropriate to share what was said without the permission of those present during the meeting’s discussion, I think it is important to state that we are engaged in the process of learning more, i.e. truth telling, and what we might do. There was discussion about healing.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) has many excellent resources. One of their excellent publications is Healing Voices Volume 1: A Primer on American Indian and Alaska Native Boarding Schools in the U.S.

https://boardingschoolhealing.org/truthcommission/

NABS was formed in 2012, in part to advocate for the establishment of a federal commission on U.S. Indian Boarding Schools, similar to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Canada’s Residential Schools. For years, NABS has been part of a grassroots movement of Native academics, researchers, tribal leaders, and boarding school survivors and descendants who are seeking truth, justice, and healing. The work to introduce a congressional commission has been underway for almost a decade.

The announcement by U.S. Interior Secretary Debra Haaland of the Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative in June this year is an important first step in the federal government taking accountability for revealing the truth, but we believe a Congressional Commission is the most comprehensive approach to developing a complete picture of the ongoing impact Indian boarding schools have had on generations of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people. This is critical to providing a path toward healing for individuals, families and Tribal communities that have endured the devastating consequences of Indian boarding school policies.
TRUTH AND HEALING COMMISSION ON INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL POLICIES IN THE U.S.

Here is a link a fact sheet related to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

Why a Truth and Healing Commission

We have a right to know the truth of what happened in Indian boarding schools in the United States.

Over the course of a century, hundreds of thousands of our children were taken or coerced away from our families and Tribes and forced to attend government-sanctioned Indian boarding schools. These schools were tools of assimilation and cultural genocide, resulting in the loss of language and culture and the permanent separation of children from their families. To date, there has never been an accounting of:

the number of children forced to attend these schools;
the number of children who were abused, died, or went missing while at these schools; and
the long-term impacts on the children and the families of children forced to attend Indian boarding schools.

Key Provisions of the Bill

Examines the location of children
Documents ongoing impacts from boarding schools
Locates church and government records
Holds culturally-appropriate public hearings to collect testimony from survivors and descendants.
Institutional knowledge gathering from subject matter experts
Shares findings publicly
Provides a final report with a list of recommendations for justice and healing

TRUTH AND HEALING COMMISSION ON INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL POLICIES IN THE U.S.

This is a link to articles on this website related to the institutions of forced assimilation. https://landbackfriends.com/forced-assimilation/

Spiritual basis of justice work

This morning my Quaker meeting will continue to discuss our work for peace and justice. In preparation, I’ve been praying about the spiritual basis of justice work.

Quakers have a long history of work related to Indigenous peoples, including participation in the institutions of forced assimilation (sometimes referred to as boarding or residential schools).

In the following, Paula Palmer writes about her spiritual leading that led to a ministry related to Quakers and Native peoples. She writes, “from our twenty-first-century vantage point, we know (or can learn) how Native people suffered and continue to suffer the consequences of actions that Friends committed 150 ago with the best of intentions. Can we hold those good intentions tenderly in one hand, and in the other hold the anguish, fear, loss, alienation, and despair borne by generations of Native Americans?”

What happened at those institutions is generating attention these days as the remains of thousands of children are being uncovered on the grounds of these institutions.

What I’ve been praying about for years is how Quakers could have become involved in those institutions? Not to judge what individual Friends might have done but wondering how the Spirit could have guided them to participate. This is a clear example of white supremacy and dominance. Those involved thought the Native children should be forced to learn the ways of the white society that was engulfing them.

This has led me to pray about:

How can Friends work spiritually toward truth and reconciliation?
What things might we be doing now that are not spiritually grounded?
How can we challenge and support each other to seek a spiritual basis for our work now?

As Paula Palmer writes, “who are Friends today? Knowing what we know now, will Quakers join us in honest dialogue? Will they acknowledge the harm that was done? Will they seek ways to contribute toward healing processes that are desperately needed in Native communities?”

Last year I responded to a call that came from two sources: from Spirit, in the manner of Friends experiencing leadings, and from a coalition of Native American organizations that is working to bring about healing for Native people who still carry wounds from the Indian boarding schools.

My leading started with a nudge four years ago and grew into a ministry called Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples. This ministry has grown in depth and breadth under the loving care of the Boulder (Colo.) Meeting. Working in partnership with Native American educators, I learned about their efforts to bring healing to the Native people, families, and communities that continue to suffer illness, despair, suicide, violence, and many forms of dysfunction that they trace to the Indian boarding school experience.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition says that for healing to occur, the full truth about the boarding schools and the policy of forced assimilation must come to light in our country, as it has in Canada. The first step in a truth, reconciliation, and healing process, they say, is truth telling. A significant piece of the truth about the boarding schools is held by the Christian churches that collaborated with the federal government’s policy of forced assimilation. Quakers were among the strongest promoters of this policy and managed over 30 schools for Indian children, most of them boarding schools, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The coalition is urging the churches to research our roles during the boarding school era, contribute this research to the truth and reconciliation process, and ask ourselves what this history means to us today.

Native organizations are not asking us to judge our Quaker ancestors. They are asking, “Who are Friends today? Knowing what we know now, will Quakers join us in honest dialogue? Will they acknowledge the harm that was done? Will they seek ways to contribute toward healing processes that are desperately needed in Native communities?” These are my questions, too.

Quaker Indian Boarding Schools. Facing Our History and Ourselves by Paula Palmer, Friends Journal, Oct 1, 2016

The country known as Canada went through a year’s long process of truth and reconciliation. The document referenced below is about what was learned in that process. A similar process is beginning in the land called the United States.
See: https://landbackfriends.com/2021/10/26/native-american-legislative-update/

It is due to the courage and determination of former students—the Survivors of Canada’s residential school system—that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was established. They worked for decades to place the issue of the abusive treatment that students were subjected to at residential schools on the national agenda. Their perseverance led to the reaching of the historic Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.
All Canadians must now demonstrate the same level of courage and determination,
as we commit to an ongoing process of reconciliation. By establishing a new and respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, we will restore what must be restored, repair what must be repaired, and return what must be returned.

What We Have Learned. Principles of Truth and Reconciliation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Minute approved by Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

To this day we have not come to grips with fundamental injustices our country was built on, the cultural genocide and theft of land from Native Americans, the enslavement of African Americans and the legal justifications of bestowing rights and privileges on white land-owning men. The consequences of these injustices continue to plague our society today. And will continue to impact us until we do what is necessary to bring these injustices to light and find ways to heal these wounds.

Several Friends recently assisted Boulder Meeting Friend, Paula Palmer, to lead workshops and discussions as part of her ministry “toward right relationships with Native people.” Part of the tragedy of the theft of Native land is that some Native people don’t have the concept of land as property, belonging to a landowner. Rather they have a spiritual connection to Mother Earth, that the land is sacred and not something that can be claimed as property by anyone. Being forced to leave their land broke their spiritual bonds with the land.

Native people have asked us to begin work toward reconciliation and healing. The first step needed is truth telling, recognizing that injury or harm has taken place. One of the important parts of holding “right relationship” workshops is to determine which Native nations were on the land before white settlers arrived.

Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) 2019

Continued erasure of Indigenous peoples

How can the atrocities of the Native residential institutions of forced assimilation, continue to be ignored by the mainstream media, governments, and the public? (These institutions should not be referred to as “schools”. )

How can faith communities, some of whom were involved with these institutions, not advocate to have the truth revealed, and work toward reconciliation?

Some of the following might be traumatic for those who have had experiences related to forced assimilation.

The Facebook group, Every Child Matters, documents the progress in locating the remains of children on the grounds of some of these institutions. And stories of those who have been affected. Searches continue in the lands called the United States and Canada.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/125050373031500/permalink/217155080487695/

A community to provide educational resources, generate awareness, share events and actions and work together to create a world our 7 generations yet to come can feel proud to be a part of.

“Every person will do their work in their own way as we move forward.

Some will take direct action and take action. That is important. Some will write policy. That is important. Some will do ceremony. That is important. Some will share stories. That is important. Some will build relationships and understanding. That is important. Some will teach. That is important. If we all do what we know how to do, with what we know, it will be good.

Everyone and everything has purpose. Keep your ears and minds and hearts open. Try to listen to each other without forming an opinion. Listen to things as information. You don’t have to agree with it. But you can validate it as someone’s experiences, feelings and ways of healing. ”

Every Child Matters

As it says on that Facebook page, “Every person will do their work in their own way as we move forward… If we all do what we know how to do, with what we know, it will be good.”

Try to imagine how an Indigenous person feels as hundreds more remains of children continue to be uncovered. And seeing almost nothing is done to acknowledge that. To witness the continued erasure.

What work will we choose to do? The concept of truth and reconciliation begins with finding and sharing the truth. One thing I’ve been called to do is share what I’m learning on this website. https://landbackfriends.com/

Try to imagine how an Indigenous person feels as hundreds more remains of children continue to be uncovered. And seeing almost nothing is done to acknowledge that. To witness the continued erasure.

The following explains why orange is used as a theme for some of what is written and shared.

Both the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day take place on September 30.

Orange Shirt Day is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day that honours the children who survived residential schools and remembers those who did not. This day relates to the experience of Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwepemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, on her first day of school, where she arrived dressed in a new orange shirt, which was taken from her. It is now a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.

On September 30, we encourage all Canadians to wear orange to raise awareness of the very tragic legacy of residential schools, and to honour the thousands of Survivors.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Native American Legislative Update

Following are legislative updates for October from Portia K. Skenandore-Wheelock, Congressional Advocate, Native American Advocacy Program, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). This is a link to information from FCNL related to Native Americans. On that page you can sign up to receive these legislative updates. https://www.fcnl.org/issues/native-americans

The Friends Committee on National Legislation is a national, nonpartisan Quaker organization that lobbies Congress and the administration to advance peace, justice, and environmental stewardship. https://www.fcnl.org/about

This month’s action is to Support the Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools.

“It is long overdue for the United States to acknowledge the historic trauma of the Indian boarding school era. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Christian churches collaborated with the government to create hundreds of boarding schools for Native American children. The conditions at these schools, some of them Quaker-run, were unspeakable.
Now we must work with tribal nations to advance congressional efforts to establish a federal commission to formally investigate boarding school policy and develop recommendations for the government to take further action. Although the wrongs committed at these institutions can never be made right, we can start the truth, healing, and reconciliation process for the families and communities affected as we work to right relationship with tribal nations.
Remind your members of Congress of their responsibility to tribal nations and urge them to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444).”

This link will help you write and send a letter of support for the establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission.

As a constituent and person of faith, I welcome the introduction of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444) and urge you to support this important legislation.

From the 1860s through the 1960s, U.S. federal boarding school policy sought to assimilate more than 100,000 Native children into white American culture at 367 boarding and day schools operated by 14 different denominations. The traumatic separation of Native children from their families, identity, traditions, and spiritual beliefs was often coupled with psychological and physical abuse administered at these institutions. Heartbreakingly, many of these children never returned home.

The faith community has begun acknowledging our complicity in the historic trauma of the boarding school era and is committed to locating, cataloguing, and sharing boarding school records with the commission and the public as part of the truth-telling process. Given the scale of this effort and the government’s central role in boarding school policy, I call on you to join this important work and establish a federal commission to formally investigate boarding school policy and develop recommendations for the government to take further action.

The intergenerational impact of federal boarding school policy is still felt today. Loss of indigenous languages and cultures, injury to tribal governance and sovereignty, and high poverty, poor health, and growing suicide rates continue to harm tribal communities across the country. The establishment of the commission is an important first step in starting the truth, healing, and reconciliation process for all of us.

I urge you to co-sponsor this vital legislation and make a public statement in support of it and ask that you encourage your colleagues in Congress to do the same.

Quaker Lobby Backs Indian Boarding School Investigation Legislation by Timothy McHugh, FCNL, October 4, 2021

Washington, DC – The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) welcomed late last week’s introduction of important legislation to investigate and address the atrocities committed at Indian boarding schools throughout the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Contact Tim McHugh: media@fcnl.org, 202-903-2515

“For far too long, the truth of cultural genocide led by European-Americans at Indian boarding schools has remained hidden in secrecy and ignored. Christian churches, including Quakers, carry this burden of transgression against indigenous people. It is necessary and important for our government to investigate, acknowledge, and report the truth to help us move toward healing the injustice against American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians,” said Diane Randall, FCNL’s general secretary.

“History cannot be undone. But it also can’t be ignored. The faith community must acknowledge our complicity in the historic trauma of the boarding school era and work in solidarity with tribal nations to advance congressional efforts to establish a truth, reconciliation, and healing process for the families and communities affected,” Randall concluded.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA), Representative Sharice Davids (KS), and Representative Tom Cole (OK) introduced the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act to establish the first formal commission in US history to investigate and document the attempted termination of cultures and languages of Indigenous peoples, assimilation practices, and human rights violations that occurred against American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians through Indian Boarding School policies. A final report will be due within five years of the commission’s creation.

“This bill is a positive first step toward addressing not only the crimes of the boarding school era but centuries of abuse, maltreatment, and genocide of Native people at the hands of the federal government. Acknowledging the truths tribal communities have always known is an important part of the healing and reconciliation process for all of us,” said Portia Kay^nthos Skenandore-Wheelock, FCNL’s Native American Advocacy Program Congressional Advocate.

“Our work must also continue beyond the Commission in supporting the Indigenous languages, cultures, and peoples these policies were intended to destroy and erase. Only then can we create a future where all our children are safe, loved, and proud of who they are.”

Bill Advances to Protect Native American Cultural Heritage

On Oct. 13, the House Committee on Natural Resources advanced the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony (STOP) Act of 2021 (H.R. 2930) by unanimous consent. This bipartisan bill would prohibit the export of Native American cultural items that were illegally obtained, provide for the return of items, and double criminal penalties for individuals convicted of selling or purchasing human remains or illegally obtained cultural items.

“Throughout history, Native American cultural items such as human remains, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony have been looted and sold to collectors in our country and abroad,” said Rep. Leger Fernández (NM-3) during an earlier hearing on the bill. “The STOP Act gives Tribes, Pueblos, and Nations a tool to close the door on the illegal exportation of cultural objects.”

Similar legislation (S. 1471) has been approved by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and is awaiting action by the full Senate.

Native American Legislative Update (FCNL)

Indigenous Land Acknowledgement

As we bear witness and lobby in solidarity with Native Americans, we also honor the Nacotchtank tribe on whose ancestral land the FCNL, FCNL Education Fund, and Friends Place on Capitol Hill buildings stand. They are also known as the Anacostans, the Indigenous people who lived along the banks of the Anacostia River, including in several villages on Capitol Hill and what is now Washington, D.C. By the 1700s, the Nacotchtank tribe had merged with other tribes like the Pamunkey and the Piscataway, both of which still exist today.

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

We fight for our children

I avoid too many quotations and media from other sources in these blog posts. But there are stories that need to be told by those most affected, those doing the work for truth and justice. The stories here are by and about the Wet’suwet’en peoples who have been working for years to protect their lands in British Columbia from the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Who continue to face harassment and arrest by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

This is a clear example of the struggle for LANDBACK. “Many did not return and those who survived have fought for our right to all that we had been robbed of – land, language, culture, pride.“

I wrote this case study 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.

A healing center has been built. And in the last few days the newest addition of homes in Lhudis Bin yintah is now set up at the drill pad site near Wedzin Kwa. (Video below).

We Fight for Our Children
Wedzin Kwa belongs to our children.
For over 50 years, Wet’suwet’en children were taken from the land, from their families, and from Wedzin Kwa to attend residential schools. These “schools” were not to empower us, but to take the Indian, to take the Wet’suwet’en, out of the child. Many did not return and those who survived have fought for our right to all that we had been robbed of – land, language, culture, pride. Today, we continue to face state violence from governments and industry who still want our land to themselves. Their plans to eradicate us however, have failed and we are still here!
Every day we remember. We carry that pain, that strength, and we work to rebuild our pride, to rebuild our nations and reconnect with our lands.
On September 30th, we came together in a day of remembrance to honour the children, to remind ourselves that we will never give up/be defeated.

https://twitter.com/quakers_seekers/status/1444992452906082308?s=20

Many did not return and those who survived have fought for our right to all that we had been robbed of – land, language, culture, pride.

https://twitter.com/quakers_seekers/status/1445007787226972171?s=20

“I’ve always said there are two types of people on Sept. 30,” said Métis NDP MP Blake Desjarlais. “Those who’ve been robbed of their children, their culture, their language, and those who’ve been robbed of the truth. Sometimes you’re both.

“We can’t truly have reconciliation until we have that truth,” he said.

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation coincides with Orange Shirt Day, which honours the story of Phyllis Webstad, a young girl whose new orange shirt was stripped from her on her first day at St. Joseph’s Residential School in 1973. On Sept. 30, 2013, Webstad spoke publicly about her experience, and Orange Shirt Day was born.

The federal statutory holiday was established after ground-penetrating radar uncovered the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, confirming what Indigenous people have known for decades.

“The amount of pain in the Indigenous community is massive, we’re only scratching the surface,” said Desjarlais, the newly elected MP for Edmonton-Greisbach and the first two-spirit person to sit in the House of Commons.

We can’t truly have reconciliation until we have that truth By Natasha Bulowski, National Observer, October 4th, 2021

On September 30th, we came together in a day of remembrance to honour the children, to remind ourselves that we will never give up/be defeated.
— Gidimt’en Checkpoint (@Gidimten) October 3, 2021

There is no negotiating happening. Who is the source of this misinformation and who do they claim to be negotiating with?
— Gidimt’en Checkpoint (@Gidimten) October 1, 2021

The newest addition of homes in Lhudis Bin yintah is now set up at the drill pad site near Wedzin Kwa. pic.twitter.com/3PATz7tBAV
— Gidimt’en Checkpoint (@Gidimten) October 4, 2021

Listen with open ears

These past several days have brought attention to the concepts of truth and reconciliation as the land known as Canada held its first observation of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

September 30th was also Orange Shirt Day, which focuses on those who were forced to attend the Indian Boarding Schools, those institutions of forced assimilation.

Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of this project. As spokesperson for the Reunion group leading up to the events, former student Phyllis (Jack) Webstad told her story of her first day at residential school when her shiny new orange shirt, bought by her grandmother, was taken from her as a six-year old girl.

The annual Orange Shirt Day on September 30th opens the door to global conversation on all aspects of Residential Schools. It is an opportunity to create meaningful discussion about the effects of Residential Schools and the legacy they have left behind. A discussion all Canadians can tune into and create bridges with each other for reconciliation. A day for survivors to be reaffirmed that they matter, and so do those that have been affected. Every Child Matters, even if they are an adult, from now on.

It all started right here in the Cariboo, and as a result, School District No. 27 was chosen by the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) to pilot curriculum changes for all Grade 5 and Grade 10 students reflecting the residential school experience, which have now been implemented province-wide.

On this day of September 30th, we call upon humanity to listen with open ears to the stories of survivors and their families, and to remember those that didn’t make it.

The Story of Orange Shirt Day

On this day of September 30th, we call upon humanity to listen with open ears to the stories of survivors and their families, and to remember those that didn’t make it.
the story of Orange Shirt Day

What does it mean to listen with open ears? This implies that we often do not really listen. When was the last time you changed anything based upon what you were hearing? James Allen says, “we need to radically rethink the stories we tell ourselves”. As my friend Lucy Duncan says here, we white Quakers believe a number of myths. Listening with open ears requires a conscious effort to jump over the barriers of those myths we tell ourselves.

During our gatherings for Quaker meetings for worship we listen for the voice of the Creator. Are we really open to the leadings of the Spirit? Are we looking past the myths? Are we listening with open ears? And then do we have the courage to do what the Spirit is asking of us?

“We White Quakers like to revel in our myths about ourselves. These include “we were all abolitionists”; “we all worked on the Underground Railroad”; and “none of us were slaveholders.” Often there are kernels of truth in myths, but the truth is more complex. Myths exist to veil the complexity and contradictions of our history, to obfuscate the differences between who we think we are and who we really are and have been… Perhaps the revolutionary Quaker faith we imagine ourselves to inhabit has never really existed, and if we tell the whole truth and commit to the healing the truth-telling calls us to, perhaps together we can embody and create the prophetic religion we thirst for.” –Lucy Duncan, “A Quaker Call to Abolition and Creation”

Query: What myths are you facing? What truths are you embracing?

If we are to find a new kind of good life amid the catastrophes these myths have spawned, then we need to radically rethink the stories we tell ourselves. We need to dig deep into old stories and reveal their wisdom, as well as lovingly nurture the emergence of new stories into being. This will not be easy. The myths of this age are deeply rooted in our culture. The talking heads (even the green ones) echo these myths with the dogmatic fervour of zealots. They talk of “saving the planet” through transitioning to a “sustainable” future, primarily through new renewable energy technologies. They seem only able to conceive of a good life that mirrors our lives more or less as they are now, where the living standard continues to improve and rate of consumption continues to grow, yet somehow decoupled from all the pollution, destruction and guilt.

Pontoon Archipelago or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Collapse By James Allen, originally published by Medium, June 18, 2019

I think about what I want for my children and grandchildren. What I want
for them is to be loved and love other people in this country. Not to tolerate
them, not to go to our respective corners and stop hurting each other, but
to be wrapped up and engaged in each other’s lives.

Douglas White
Kwulasultun (Coast Salish name), Tliishin (Nuu-chah-nulth name),
Director of the Centre for Pre-Confederation Treaties and Reconciliation
(VIU), former Chief of Snuneymuxw First Nation

Orange Shirts and Wet’suwet’en Arrests

It is good that the land called Canada went through years of work related to the Indigenous residential schools. Passed legislation and budgeted funds. Has designated September 30th as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, celebrated for the first time a few days ago. Many wore orange shirts that symbolize the children who were forced to go to those schools.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission ran from 2008 to 2015 and provided those directly or indirectly affected by the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools policy with an opportunity to share their stories and experiences. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has become the permanent archive for the statements, documents and other materials the Commission gathered, and its library and collections are the foundation for ongoing learning and research.

The Commission released its final report detailing 94 calls to action. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a direct response to Call to Action 80, which called for a federal statutory day of commemoration. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html

And yet, the Canadian government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police continue to harass and arrest Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

As Wet’suwet’en members of Cas Yikh and their supporters maintain control of a Coastal GasLink drill site that threatens their unceded territories, the RCMP has utilized excessive use of force and torturous pain compliance for an hour on a land defender. This is happening as the “National Day of Truth and Reconciliation” takes place across Canada today, putting on full display the ongoing colonialism that Indigenous peoples are facing. Gidimt’en Checkpoint

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A post shared by Gidimt’en Checkpoint (@yintah_access)

The world is on the brink of climate catastrophe and all people must rise up to protect what little is left for future generations.
Sleydo’

Listen…to the story

Many tragic stories were told yesterday, the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in the land called Canada. Although rooted in tragedy, it felt like the time has come to begin to bring these stories into the light. A sense of relief, in a way, that these deeply buried traumas are being told. Yet also triggering grief as these memories are revisited. Telling and listening to these stories are the truth part of truth and reconciliation.

People can be transformed by being open and human. We believe that people have a need to be heard, but how they are heard really matters – if they take the risk of telling their story, it needs to make a difference.
Denise Altvater

And yesterday was Orange Shirt Day. The following is from my friends of the Great Plains Action Society.

My friend Lucy Duncan wrote the following years ago, on the occasion of the seating of the Maine-Wabanaki Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Listen…to the story

All they knew was the reservation
The bit of land that wasn’t stolen
They lived surrounded by the sea
The few that had survived
They were poor, but this was home

One day, the state came
No one said where they were going
They rode in a car for the first time
Taken from all they knew, and from those they loved
To strange homes and ways
Where some were cared for, others beaten and broken
But either way, they longed for home, for the places they belonged
Taken far from who they were, far from their heart mother
Into places that would demand that they forget
But the heart keeps beating like a drum

Hard won, the journey home has begun
With each story told of the pain of separation, of loss, of hurt
With each story held lovingly
And carried with tenderness by those who listen
They are slowly coming home
Home to look each other in the eye and say, “I see you.”
Home to family lost
Home to ways of being that rest on their limbs like skin

As each story is told, another story rises
A mother tells of being taken
A son tells how her hurts were passed on to him
How he passed them on to his children
Recognition comes, the hurts so deep begin to heal
The children waiting to be born will learn the story
But not carry this deep weight of pain

The stories together
Tell the whole truth
The truth that stings as it heals
And maybe, just maybe, if all of us can hear
In our bones, in our being
Even those descended from the ones who plotted decimation
We will remember
To honor the mother, all mothers
To honor the land, all land
To honor the Spirit, rising

Shh…. listen….

Lucy Duncan

The journey home: a prayer for healing by Lucy Duncan, American Friends Service Committee, Feb 7, 2013

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Today, Sept 30, 2021, is the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in the country known as Canada. There is a lot of publicity now related to the institutions of forced assimilation. The remains of thousands of children being located by ground penetrating radar on the grounds of those institutions. Articles about the history of the residential schools, stories of those who attended, those who never returned. The suffering of those living today who are survivors of those schools. Those suffering today from the intergenerational trauma that has passed from generation to generation.

And the suffering continuing today as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police side with Coastal GasLink pipeline employees as they forced construction through Wet’suwet’en territory (video below)

These stories and events should be told by those who have been affected. People can re-traumatized. You can hear some of those stories in the following.

The National Residential School Crisis Line 1-866-925-4419

Included below are:

the reports from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its calls to action
the video from CBC/Radio, We Know the Truth: Stories to inspire reconciliation
and a video of the Royal Canadian Mounted police painfully removing a land defender locked under a bus on the Wet’suwet’en territory. There cannot be reconciliation when the government continues to enforce construction of pipelines through Indigenous lands.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

September 30, 2021 marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The day honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.

The creation of this federal statutory holiday was through legislative amendments made by Parliament. On June 3, 2021, Bill C-5, An Act to amend the Bills of Exchange Act, the Interpretation Act and the Canada Labour Code (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation) received Royal Assent.

Commemorating National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Illuminating Parliament Hill

To commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and to honour the Survivors, their families and communities, buildings across Canada will be illuminated in orange September 29 and/or September 30, from 7:00 pm to sunrise the next morning. This will include federal buildings such as the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.

Truth and Reconciliation Week

This 5-day, bilingual educational event will include programming designed for students in grades 5 through 12 along with their teachers and feature Indigenous Elders, youth and Survivors. The event will be pre-recorded and webcasted, allowing for schools and classrooms participation from across the country and the involvement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Broadcast

A 1-hour bilingual primetime show in partnership with, and broadcast on, CBC/Radio-Canada and APTN will be devoted to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Programming will include presentations on the importance of this day as well as cultural and artistic performances in support of healing and giving voices to Indigenous peoples.

APTN Sunrise Ceremony

APTN will present pre-taped Sunrise ceremony featuring drummers, singers, Elders and various Indigenous traditions.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its calls to action

There were 140 federally run Indian Residential Schools which operated in Canada between 1831 and 1998. The last school closed only 23 years ago. Survivors advocated for recognition and reparations and demanded accountability for the lasting legacy of harms caused. These efforts culminated in:

the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
apologies by the government
the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
the creation of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

The Commission released its final report detailing 94 calls to action. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a direct response to Call to Action 80, which called for a federal statutory day of commemoration.

On the inaugural National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, we’re introducing Canadians to Indigenous people who are flipping the conversation on reconciliation.

We Know the Truth: Stories to inspire reconciliation.

CBC/Radio is a Canadian public broadcast service.

There were also residential schools in the land called the United States. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, has initiated an investigation of these institutions of forced assimilation and the remains of the children.

Today only, Jason Eaglespeaker is making his graphic novels (there are three versions) “UNeducation, Vol 1: A Residential School Graphic Novel” available free of charge.

UNeducate Yourself!

There cannot be reconciliation when the government continues to enforce construction of pipelines through Indigenous lands

How incredible is it that the Royal Canadian Mounted police continue to attack land defenders resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through the Wet’suwet’en lands in British Columbia?

Gidimt’en Access Point

On September 27th, a land defender blocking a fracked gas pipeline was tortured by police.

This is the second arrest at the drill pad site access road, where Coastal Gaslink (CGL) plans to drill under Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), the sacred headwaters on Wet’suwet’en yintah. The arrest was brutal.

The RCMP officers used “pain compliance” for an hour on the person locked under the bus in a hard lock, insisting the person just let go, which very clearly they were not able to do.

The RCMP then had CGL contractors, instead of an extraction team, come in to extract the person. The injunction very clearly states that RCMP are the only ones to enforce the injunction. This is in violation of that.

This comes on the heels of the RCMP being at fault for the injunction renewal denial for the Fairy Creek defence based on their tactics against peaceful people.

Tomorrow is the “National Day of Truth and Reconciliation” in Canada, and here we clearly see that violence and forced removal from Indigenous lands are on full display.

This is about our yintah (land). It always has been. They have been trying to steal our lands and resources since contact and they will bulldoze and torture their way through to get it, because all they care about is money. We will never give up. Join us. Yintahaccess.com

CW: VIOLENT ARREST OF LAND DEFENDER
https://youtu.be/h4gK5scLMhk

UNeducate Yourself!

I have purchased a number of books and graphic novels from Jason Eaglespeaker. https://www.eaglespeaker.com/

In honor of National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (September 30th, in Canada), Jason is offering all three versions of UNeducation, A Residential School Graphic Novel, Vol 1 for free! See where to get them below. This offer is good for September 30th only. The three versions are explained below. There is a PARENTAL ADVISORY regarding the uncut version.

Jason and I corresponded about one of his books, Young Water Protectors, A Story About Standing Rock by Aslan Tudor. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I got a few photos of Aslan when we were both at a gathering in Indianapolis related to the Dakota Access pipeline.

This is a link to a story about Aslan and the book. New book about Standing Rock written from child’s perspective by Rhiannon Johnson, CBC News, Aug 25, 2018

You may have heard about, read about or even own the book that started it all – “UNeducation, Vol 1: A Residential School Graphic Novel”. Launched over 10 years ago, from one single handmade copy, UNeducation is now in libraries, schools, universities and retailers throughout North America and beyond.

It comes in three versions:

In honor of National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (September 30th, in Canada), you can get all three versions of UNeducation, Vol 1 for free!

Simply use the links below to head to the download pages:

UNeducation UNcut – for the mature reader
*eBook version, requires free Kindle App to read
**free download ends Sept 30th at midnight
Amazon USA
Amazon Canada

UNeducation PG – for the sensitive reader (schools choose this one)
*eBook version, requires free Kindle App to read
**free download ends Sept 30th at midnight
Amazon USA
Amazon Canada

UNeducation A Coloring Experience – for youth and adults
Download from my website

Why a Truth and Healing Commission

Key Provisions of the Bill

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Minute approved by Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative)

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Quaker Lobby Backs Indian Boarding School Investigation Legislation by Timothy McHugh, FCNL, October 4, 2021

Bill Advances to Protect Native American Cultural Heritage

Indigenous Land Acknowledgement

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The National Residential School Crisis Line 1-866-925-4419

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Commemorating National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Illuminating Parliament Hill

Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its calls to action

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