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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales
Tribal college students at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. recently held a walk and remembrance for those who did not return home from Indian boarding schools – and for survivors and their families.
Students walked the campus wearing orange shirts to recognize the experiences of Native people and celebrate Indigenous resilience.
The shirt also represents the notion “every child matters”.
The federally funded, church-run schools in the U.S. mirror residential schools in Canada.
This summer in Canada, Pope Francis apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church to Indigenous people in Canada for the abuses they suffered at residential schools.
Haskell student government association president Daryn Berryhill says the pope needs to do the same for Indigenous people in the U.S.
“I think it should be highly acknowledged for boarding schools all around the U.S. It’s like a very big impact that’s happened to Indigenous people everywhere and it impacted the future generations and here we are as of today we are our own people. And we have that history and I think anybody with a boarding school and other countries should all be involved and highlighted about the history of what happened.”
Berryhill says the event at Haskell not only raised awareness of boarding schools, but also brought students together for reflection, as Haskell has its own history as a boarding school.
“At the same time, you have to understand how sensitive the subject matter might be talked about, but it’s also like one of the main importance of Haskell Indian Nations University. I love the idea that we bring this up, we have a prayer and a song about it because it really brings us all together as of what happened in our history, and we are also embracing what happened here before it was a university.”
Similar events were held across the U.S. and Canada known as “Orange Shirt Day” on September 30th.
In Canada, the statutory holiday National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is observed.
The Interior Department is planning to hold its next boarding school healing event in South Dakota.
Officials will gather testimony about the impacts of boarding schools at the October 15 event on the Rosebud reservation.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is traveling across the country hosting listening sessions as part of her investigation into federal Indian boarding schools.
The Biden administration is holding a government-to-government summit in Washington, D.C. Tuesday and Wednesday with tribal leaders.
The two-day event hosted by the Department of Energy is to explore tribal energy sovereignty.
Wahleah Johns is director of the agency’s Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs.
She says there are many opportunities for tribes to invest in clean energy.
“There’s opportunities in geothermal, there’s opportunities in small hydro and energy storage, there’s also looking at the built out of making sure that the supply chain is coming from the United States internally. There’s a lot of incentive for manufacturing and repurposing of former coal mine sites. Tribes, we all have a beautiful relationship with everything around us our mother earth, and our environment and many of the climate goals fit in line with the vision communities have in caretaking.”
Johns says the Energy Department will be managing more than $100 billion to rollout clean energy and the agency wants to make sure tribes are involved.
Tribal leaders at the summit will be interacting with top officials including Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
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