The American Indian College Fund remembers generations of Native students who were forced to attend American Indian boarding schools by marking Orange Shirt Day. Celebrated in Canada, it commemorates the experiences of residential school survivors, their families, and their tribal communities. An orange shirt, ribbon, flag, or other item if a shirt isn’t handy, was chosen in honor of Phyllis (Jack) Webstad (Shuswap – Canoe Creek Indian Band), who was taken to a residential school at age six. Upon her arrival Phyllis’s new orange shirt, bought for her first day of school by her grandmother, was confiscated.
Though Webstad attended a Canadian residential school, Native peoples in the U.S. faced similar ordeals, as illustrated by the repatriation of the remains of three young students who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania to their home in the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana.
The U.S. Department of Interior released its second volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Final Report this July. It provided a preliminary accounting of the number of American Indian children forcibly taken from their parents to “attend” the 451 federal boarding school sites located across 37 states or territories between 1819 and 1969.
Thus far, the Department of Interior estimates a shocking 18,624 Native children attended these schools. The report also noted that at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children are known to have died at these facilities. The numbers could be far greater. In fact, The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition estimates that more than 60,000 children may have attended these schools.
This dark period in the nation’s history has remained largely unknown or rarely discussed by non-Natives. Yet, Indigenous individuals and communities have had no choice but to face the aftermath, which often presents as physical and mental health struggles.
But there is healing and a way forward. The advancement of tribally controlled education allows communities to not only keep their children with them and rooted in their culture while creating a space for healing from the past. And tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) act as community hubs, offering not just a higher education steeped in Native cultures, histories, languages, and spirituality, but also a wide range of community services, from early childhood education facilities and libraries to food and health services. The culturally appropriate education and additional support offered by TCUs leads to healthier students, families, and communities. A 2019 Gallup Survey of TCU alumni underscores this, showing greater wellness outcomes among TCU graduates than their peers, and a greater sense of being supported by faculty and staff while attending a TCU.
Tiffany Gusbeth, the College Fund’s Vice President of Student Success Services, said, “It is important to acknowledge and respect that there is deep hurt and skepticism about education for Native people due to our experiences with residential schools. To this day, our people continue to have experiences that make them feel invisible or misunderstood. However, we continue to encourage our people to seek an education because we also see it as a way to heal and uplift our communities. TCUs and Indigenous-led education in particular are an act of sovereignty, in which the founders of these colleges and schools knew Native people could achieve higher education and do it in ways that acknowledged and embraced our identities. Creating colleges and universities that are truly for the people, with culture and place as the foundation, is an act of reclamation and resistance.”
Today on Orange Shirt Day we ask our allies to honor the memory of the Native students who never made it home, while also uplifting the successes of tribally controlled education today. One way to support Native students is to contact your federal elected officials and ask them to support U.S. recognition of a day to commemorate the Native boarding school student experience. In acknowledging the dark legacy of boarding schools, we have an opportunity to work towards healing together for the benefit of Native students, families, and communities.
To view Volume II of the DOI’s report, visit https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/media_document/doi_federal_indian_boarding_school_initiative_investigative_report_vii_final_508_compliant.pdf
Photo by Tandem X Visuals on Unsplash
