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A new federal Indian boarding school report found nearly 1,000 Native American children died while attending the schools created to strip them of their culture.
The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.
The report identified nearly 19,000 children who attended a boarding school between 1819 and 1969. But the government acknowledges there were more.
At the schools. teachers were known to do everything from cutting students’ hair to beating them for speaking their Native languages.
This investigation, led by the Interior Department, found marked and unmarked graves at 65 different school sites.
The agency says it is working with tribes that want remains repatriated.
Stacy Laravie. (Courtesy South Dakota Archaeological Society / YouTube)
Stacy Laravie (Ponca) is a member of a national tribal historic preservation group.
She urges the government to focus on…
“…coming up with solutions and ways to heal the trauma. And one part of apologizing or acknowledging would be future investments into tribal nations.”
In fact, the report recommends the U.S. provides funding for culturally based programs centered on intergenerational trauma, violence prevention, and revitalizing Native languages.
Research from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition shows that by the 1920s, there were more than 60,000 children in the schools.
Lavina Willie-Nez, AMBER Alert Coordinator for the Navajo Department of Police, shares her impactful testimony at the FCC’s August Open Meeting.
The Federal Communications Commission voted this week to establish a new alert code for missing and endangered people by delivering messages to the public over TV, radio, and wireless phones.
The alert code will help law enforcement agencies draw public attention to missing people of all ages who do not qualify for AMBER Alerts.
According to the FCC, the decision will support efforts to raise public awareness of missing Indigenous people.
2024 Tri-Ute Games participants. (Courtesy Tri-Ute Games / Facebook)
The Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Ute Indian tribes recently got together for their annual friendly sports competition for young people.
Clark Adomaitis has more.
At the Ignacio High School gymnasium, young people from three tribes are playing volleyball against each other at the annual Tri-Ute Games.
This year, the Southern Ute Tribe is hosting its sister tribes, the Ute Mountain Ute and Ute Indian Tribes, in Ignacio, Colo.
Other sports taking place throughout the three-day gathering include archery, skateboarding, golf, and hand games.
K’ia Whiteskunk is the recreation director for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. She says that the three sister tribes gathering for this annual event shows unity.
“We have relatives from the other tribes that we don’t get to see. But this is a time that it helps to youth get to know each other and come together.”
Over at the Southern Ute Bear Dance trail, athletes in colored shirts are running the Ute Warrior Challenge.
“Almost there, almost there, just good job, good job.”
Darnell Muniz is a recreation specialist at the Sun Ute Community Center. He’s guiding kids running along the road after they just slid through a slip and slide.
“The challenge is having them running bout half a mile on our Bear Dance trail, and then there at the park we have various events like army crawl, slip and slide.”
Muniz says that this year’s Tri-Ute games was the first one since the COVID-19 pandemic with all three tribes.
In 2022, the games only included two of the three sister tribes.
“They still had the temperature checks and also the mask mandate still so at that time there wasn’t that many participants.”
This year, the Southern Ute and Ute Indian Tribes opened up youth registration to second descendants of tribal members.
Muniz says over 300 youth athletes participated this year.
Next year’s Tri-Ute Games will likely be hosted by the Ute Indian tribe in Fort Duchesne, Utah.
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