| Special Edition 2024 |

Circle of Hope

Dear Friends and Relatives,

As you read this, our country will be anticipating change – one way or another, we will be close to knowing who our next President of the United States will be. This election has dominated our conversations, our attention spans, and for many, our emotions.

As a result, I fear a critically important opportunity has been lost in these winds of change; specifically, the critical moment for Tribal Nations and Native people to advance national reconciliation and healing through the July release by the Department of Interior of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Final Report.

Generational Trauma is Real – and Important to Acknowledge

Generational Trauma
is Real – and Important
to Acknowledge

This landmark report concludes a three-year investigation resulting in the federal government accepting responsibility for helping to create a system of more than 400 schools across 37 states in which Native children experienced abuse and mistreatment for decades. The report also confirms the deaths of at least 973 children at these schools, and suggests the actual figure is far greater.

Interestingly, not only did the report’s release occur during a highly contentious election, but it also coincided with the 2024-25 Student Ambassador training at our offices in Denver, at which students developed and shared their individual stories. I connect these two things because this year’s Ambassadors, like many Native people, bonded strongly through their common story of living with and fighting the effects of generational trauma, which stems from the painful boarding school era.

I know some people are hesitant to name generational trauma, but it is real, and it touches far more Native people than not. The pain caused by ripping families apart and losing children forever is not a pain you forget or set aside. It lives with you every moment of every day and is present in every decision you make. It can cause some to turn to drugs and alcohol or it may cause debilitating depression, leaving you powerless to take care of yourself or your family. It may manifest as physical pain or as significant health problems.

I listened to every student’s story of family histories of addiction, sexual assault, poverty, homelessness, suicide, and physical and mental health challenges. Many people do not understand the strong and deep connection between the abused and traumatized relatives in boarding schools and the challenges Native people and Tribal Nations experience today. But the connection is there. And the stories did not always end well for our students’ ancestors, nor for their children, grandchildren, and beyond.

The common thread in the Ambassadors’ stories that touched me most deeply was how education saved their lives – not just changed their lives but saved their lives – and their educations are at the core of their conviction that generational trauma and the manifestations stop with this generation. Our young people see education as the path to healing, confidence, safety, security, determination, and reclaiming their voices.

Many of our students have children, and the passion with which they speak about creating an environment of love, safety, security, and opportunity for their children is inspiring. It gives me so much hope for our future as Native people. Using education as the path to a better life for themselves and their children means something real – it is visible and tangible, and, most importantly, attainable.

You are the reason education is attainable for so many – you are supporting students as they end generational trauma and create a new era of healing, security, and opportunity for their children, their grandchildren, and for generations beyond. What an incredible difference you are making.

While I am sad the release of the Boarding School final report was lost in the election fervor, I do hope you will make time to read it. It is a painful story that has lived on in my people and is sometimes hard to read and digest – but it is also the pathway to healing and reconciliation, which is something we can all embrace.

I am deeply grateful for the appointment of Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) as Secretary of the Department of the Interior and for her commitment to providing closure to this very painful part of our shared history. I remain optimistic this closure will accelerate the healing we long for and need to move forward as healthy, thriving Nations.

And I am also deeply grateful for you. By supporting education, you are saving lives – not just today, but for generations to come.

Wopila, thank you.

You won’t want to miss our annual celebrations of Native culture at EATSS!

These special evenings delight the senses with incredible food, amazing performances, and brilliant art. All proceeds benefit our Native scholars!

If you are able to travel, be sure to join us for an EATSS experience bigger and more exciting than ever before – we promise to surround you in Native culture: traditional, modern, and everything in between!

EATSS TWIN CITIES

POSTPONED
Spring of 2025

Historic Guthrie Theatre
Featuring musical guest Rufus Wainwright

Guest chefs:

– Chef Anthony Bauer (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) a serial restauranteur and owner of Traditional Fire Custom Cuisine
– Chef Bradley Dry (Cherokee)
has cooked for some of the nation’s largest Powwows and the crew of Reservation Dogs.

EATSS DENVER

POSTPONED
2025

Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Featuring musical guest Nathaniel Rateliff

Guest chefs:

– Chef Paul Natrall (Squamish Nation) the award-winning chef behind Vancouver’s first Indigenous food truck, Mr. Bannock.
– Chef Ben Jacobs (Osage Nation) a nationally renowned chef and co-founder of Tocabe, An American Indian Eatery, the country’s largest Native American restaurant chain.

Save the date: EATSS New York City! May 14, 2025

MAXIMIZE Your Philanthropic Goals

Let us help you tailor your charitable gift to your financial, tax, or estate planning objectives.

Visit our Legacy page to find the planned giving opportunity that best fits you.

Thank you for continuing to give dedicated students the resources to pursue their educational goals and dreams. Your generosity creates a lasting impact!

The Promise
of Tomorrow

There came a day when I woke up TIRED – tired of smelling meth being smoked in the room next to me, tired of being bitten by bedbugs, tired of making my siblings sleep in my room to protect them…I was tired of living a life that seemed to have no other options.”

Promise had dreams for a better future – but they began with the bare minimum. To escape abuse. To have a safe place to live. To have food on the table.

Like too many Native children, she found it hard to tend that flicker of hope, surrounded by a kind of generational trauma that felt like fate.

Her grandmother had survived boarding school but lost her identity, her language, and her way. Hardship followed them into the next generation, caught up in the same familiar patterns of addiction, violence, and poverty.

Teachers suggested to Promise she set her sights only on high school graduation and finding stable work. But Promise persevered, determined to find another path. “Hope felt scary, but what felt more terrifying was the thought that this would be it for my life: random jobs, minimum wage, a life that seemed to have no value.”

She taught herself to read, and worked tirelessly to improve her 2.1 GPA, even while holding down shift work and caring for the little ones at home. Without support from home or school, Promise applied to her tribe’s community college, Sinte Gleska University, and was accepted.

“I took this chance on myself because I want the world to see what I see when I look in the mirror. I do this for the little Promise who was silenced – she gets to be as loud as possible now.” Seeing a way out, she applied herself to school single mindedly. She quickly found herself on the Dean’s list and even in leadership roles for Native youth!

Today, the bare minimum is no longer her dream. It’s her reality: Promise will be the first person in her family to avoid jail, keep her children out of foster care, and graduate high school. But she is her ancestors’ wildest dreams.

“I get to heal the hundreds of years’ worth of generational trauma. I pave the ways for all my relatives, my future is bright like the stars at night on the Ihawnktowan lands where my feet were molded in the grass. Success is in my future; in the past I thought it could never be in my grip. Now, it’s in abundance overfilled in my hands.”

This year, Promise will complete her bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Special Education before moving on to pursue a graduate degree in Education Administration. She plans to give back to her tribal community by bringing culturally sensitive educational support to her reservation, ensuring every child can have a glimpse of their full potential from the earliest age.

When Native students are able to overcome it is inspiring – but is hard fought. People they love and trust may dampen their dreams, knowing no other path. What you do is invaluable to students. You believe in them against all odds, you speak encouragement into their lives, and you offer real help. It is because of your support that more American Indians than ever are on the path to a degree. And, like Promise, so many plan to pay it forward into the next seven generations and beyond.

Promise

(Yankton Sioux, Santee Sioux)
Sinte Gleska University
Special Education, Early Elementary

“Having the support that I have now is what gives me hope.
You are filling my cup so I can fill others. You actually believe I can do it – so I am going to do it!”

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