Truth & Reconciliation Commission Launch
Since the launch of the Commission, we have had several successful events across Michigan. Our launch event took place in July 2022 alongside the 2nd Annual Children’s Remembrance Walk in the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. A dinner at Zeba Hall preceded the walk, with speakers Lacey Kinnart from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), and Linda Cobe, a survivor of the Holy Childhood in Harbor Springs, Michigan, as well as Melissa Isaac from the Michigan Department of Education.
‘“I went through a lot of personal problems, and it was a struggle to get back on my feet, to make something of myself, after you’re told all the negative, ‘You’re no good, you’ll never amount to anything,” she said.’
– A quote from Linda Cobe, a Lac Vieux Desert Band tribal member. Children’s Remembrance Walk addresses impact of Native American Boarding Schools.
We have also supported events in other communities such as the Lac View Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Our Stories Heal – Ginoojimomin Apii Dibaajimoyang
The full recording can be found here.
In 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. This initiative, which includes gathering records from the boarding school era, and compiling an official list of boarding school sites, makes visible on a national scale the intergenerational impact federal Indian board schools have had on tribal communities. Currently, there are five schools in the state of Michigan that were identified from the federal investigation process (Holy Childhood Boarding School, Baraga Chippewa Boarding and Day School (Holy Name), Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School, Mackinac Mission School, and Catholic Otchippewa Boarding School). This is not an extensive list of all the other entities, schools, and programs that operated in Michigan through the Indian Civilization Act of 1819.
The Native Justice Coalition’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was launched in July 2022. It seeks to expand its reach to strengthen relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in an effort to seek the truth behind the Indian boarding school policies and corresponding actions taken by the government and church. Through this work, the NJC provides safe, supportive, and culturally competent spaces that offer opportunities for healing and uniting our Native communities on this journey. Our goals are to create an Indigenous-led process that is grounded in mutual respect, culturally sensitive, and focused on meeting clearly defined, jointly agreed upon metrics. Our key four priorities are truth and reconciliation, healing our people and our communities, strengthening ICWA and ensuring a cultural identity for our children, and building a strong ecosystem through investment in the Native Justice Coalition.
Without support from community partners such as the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, Native American Institute, and American Indian and Indigenous Studies at Michigan State University, this work would not be possible. This one-day symposium honors that work on a local scale, providing Michigan State University, and the greater Lansing community an opportunity to learn about the intergenerational trauma caused by federal Indian boarding school policies. Attendees will hear first-hand accounts from boarding school survivors and others who can provide the legal, social, and historical context of the Indian boarding schools. By joining together in community to share stories and voices, the symposium provides a space for knowledge and healing.
“‘We have many children that experienced this horrific process have an inability to connect with who they were as Indian people and a loss of their identity as Native people,’ said Wenona T. Singel, MSU associate professor of law, associate director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center and a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBB).”
“‘These truths are so painful that many cannot share them during their lifetimes,’ Singel said.”
– Native boarding school survivors share experiences and healing at MSU panel
3rd Annual Children’s Remembrance Walk
“ASSININS, Mich. (WJMN) – Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Native Justice Coalition held its third annual Children’s Remembrance Walk on Friday morning at the Old St. Joseph Orphanage and School in Baraga County. A ceremony and walk were held to remember and honor boarding school survivors.
“The ground we’re standing on is the St. Joseph’s Orphanage that used to be here for years,” said KBIC Tribal Council Member Rodney Loonsfoot. “Our generations, our families, our relations had come through here and because of the attention now that has been brought to boarding schools and orphanages. In those prayers and those thoughts and the things we were doing from that came a dream about this eagle staff that we’ve created to remember our children. And from that is we’ve got this gathering today and the opportunity here is not just to not forget the young ones and children that was here, but also a chance to be able to heal and be able to come together for this is the third year, now roll up our sleeves and get ready to do the work and address the issues and things that we need to do to heal.”
– KBIC honors boarding school survivors with annual Children’s Remembrance Walk