09/30/2025
Today (and this week), Canadians commemorate the injustice perpetrated towards Native peoples through observing National Truth and Reconciliation Day/week.
The day honors the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.
We share a similar history in the US. The truth about the U.S. Indian boarding school policy has largely been written out of the history books. There were more than 526 government-funded, and often church-run, Indian Boarding schools across the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their Native languages. You can learn more in the book, Medicine River, by Mary Annette Pember.
My hope is that we can learn from the stories of Native American families impacted by this tragedy.
