President Joe Biden delivered an historic apology Oct. 25 on behalf of the United States for the nation’s dark past with Indian boarding schools, which sought to wipe out Native people, culture and language. Calling the federal boarding school policies “a sin on our soul,” Biden drew cheers, tears and at least one protester among […]
Mary Annette Pember
Posted inNews
Harvard Announces Return of Native Hair Samples
Tucked in hundreds of envelopes is the hair cut from Native children as they arrived at boarding schools. Hidden away for nearly 100 years in the recesses of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, the collection of hair samples offers tangible evidence of the trauma of assimilation. According to the hygiene practices of the day, […]
Posted inNews
Deaths at Chemawa
Charlie Feister, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, was a runaway from Chemawa Indian School when he was shot dead in 1907 while trying to steal food from a store in Chemawa, Oregon. A short article in the Weekly Chemawa American student newspaper describing the incident fails to mention that Charlie was 11 years old […]