This month's Focus

When deciding who and what would be the website's first featured focus, the answer became very obvious. Indigenous people and their culture. A bit of backstory…I have always had a fascination and appreciation for Indigenous culture. The music, attire, and connection to nature has always stood out to me. However, I didn’t know much else. That changed after taking an ethnic studies class. There isn’t enough time (or room) to discuss ALL that I learned, but the main takeaway I’d like to share is how vast and influential the realm of Indigenous culture is. I am prefacing with this point so that as you read, you understand the resilience required of Indigenous populations to exist, despite tactical efforts made by the U.S. government to destroy them. 

While many of us have some sort of knowledge regarding the role the U. S. government played in the destruction of Indigenous populations, few of us understand the how. Let’s take this moment to learn a bit of history. During the mid 1800s, the U.S. government began building what was referred to as “Indian boarding schools”. These “schools” had two goals: First, the forced assimilation of Indigenous children/young adults into Western society, and second, to provide white settlers with unpaid slave labor. 

In this post, I want to focus on the forced assimilation, so that we can start to understand the separation between Indigenous people and their culture. 

The effort to achieve that separation required layers of meticulously planned violence. Indigenous children were taken from their families, oftentimes at the threat of parents being arrested and jailed. They were then sent to labor camps to leave behind their “savage ways of life”. “Students” were forced to cut their hair, not permitted to speak their languages, and under one especially cruel rule, not allowed to interact with siblings without being severely punished. One interesting fact is that “individualism”, an ideology not regularly practiced in Indigenous culture, was forced onto these “students”. Indigenous youth were forced to say “I” instead of “we,” “me” instead of “us,” and “mine” instead of “ours” . Efforts made to rip Indigenous “students” away from their heritage became a rule of law in 1887, when Indian Affairs Commissioner J.D.C. Atkins banned Indigenous languages from being spoken in mission and government ran “Indian schools’. The punishment for speaking your native language? Physical discipline, starvation, and/or confinement in the designated campus jail. Yes, these schools designed for the youth, had on-site detention centers. 

So..let’s recap. Indigenous youth were essentially kidnapped from their homes and families, sent, oftentimes, thousands of miles away to “boarding schools” where they were forced into enslavement. (I use the word, “enslavement” because they had no control over their lives; everything was decided for them, including not being paid for their hard labor.) Most importantly, participating in any form of their culture was completely forbidden.

I ask that after reading this, you take a moment to try and imagine the impact this *one* form of violence would have on the community you come from. If you come from a marginalized community, you may not have to imagine much. 

 Source: “The “Outing Programs” Human Trafficking at California’s Native American Boarding Schools” 

Supportive Testimony H.R. 5444 / S. 2907 the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the US by Jean Pfaelzer, from “California; A Slave State” Yale University Press , 2022-3

Despite modern day legislation to “support” Indigenous populations, the battle for equality is ongoing for many Indigenous communities. Thankfully, the Indigenous are a resilient people. Today, Indigenous populations are focused on reclaiming their power through cultural preservation, land management, and mental health therapy. Here are just a few of the initiatives that exist today:

Language reclamation: the effort to preserve Indigenous languages. 

Organizations like the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, and Cherokee Nation Immersion School provide community classes and immersion programs to protect living Indigenous languages. 

Food Cultivation: the effort to maintain traditional food and farming practices. Organizations like the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance and the Cheyenne River Youth Program host Indigenous led gardens, workshops, and seed exchanges. 

Community Advocacy: the effort to sustain Indigenous communities through mental health initiatives.

 Organizations like The Thunder Valley CDC provide sustainable housing, wellness centers, and promote youth empowerment rooted in traditional Lakota Values. Other groups, such as the Native Wellness Institute provide workshops and trainings for those providing mental health therapy in Indigenous communities.

Through allyship and education of course! There are many organizations that encourage non-Indigenous people to get involved in community-led efforts to support our Indigenous communities. Visit "Initiatives" to learn about outreach opportunities.