[NARRATOR]
THE NATIVE AMERICAN BOARDING
SCHOOL ERA IS A DARK CHAPTER OF
AMERICAN HISTORY. THE POLICY WAS KNOWN
AS ASSIMILATION. EVERYTHING NATIVE
WAS TO BE STRIPPED AWAY. THE THOUGHT WAS TO KILL THE
INDIAN AND SAVE THE MAN. THEIR LANGUAGE
WAS TO BE "UNSPOKEN". ♪ ♪ ♪ [Announcer]
This program is made
possible in part by: ♪ [NARRATOR]
If the Great Spirit had
desired me to be a white man, he would have made
me so in the first place." Sitting Bull [NARRATOR]
STORIES ARE TOLD OF NATIVE
CHILDREN DOING EVERYTHING THEY COULD
TO ESCAPE BOARDING SCHOOLS. HOME WAS FAR AWAY. THEY LONGED FOR
ANYTHING FAMILIAR. MANY WERE UNSURE AS TO
WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO THEM. THEY CAME FROM ANOTHER WORLD. CHILDREN TOOK PRIDE
IN THEIR LONG HAIR. IT WAS A SYMBOL
OF STRENGTH AND DIGNITY. THEIR HAIR WAS CUT TO ANGLO
STANDARDS, NATIVE CLOTHES CHANGED
TO MILITARY-STYLE UNIFORMS. THEY WERE FORBIDDEN TO
PRACTICE THEIR WAY OF LIFE IN THE EARLY BOARDING
SCHOOL YEARS. PREVIOUSLY, RELATIONSHIPS HAD
BEEN BASED UPON THE NATURAL WORLD
AND EACH OTHER. PRAYER AND CEREMONY WERE
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF LIFE. THE EARLY SCHOOLS WERE RUN
WITH MILITARY PRECISION. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
It was, more accurately, should be called ethnic
cleansing than assimilation. And it has had devastating
effects on my people. ♪ [Amanda Blackhorse]
I think that was a time when
the government really felt like they could, that was
their last option, you know, with the so-called
Indian problem that they had to deal with,
and it was the last option to go for the children. ♪ [NARRATOR]
THIS PHOTO FROM THE PINE RIDGE
SIOUX RESERVATION SHOWS FAMILIES CAMPED
NEAR A BOARDING SCHOOL IN SOUTH DAKOTA. CLOSE FAMILY PROXIMITY
WAS DISCOURAGED. [Forrest Cuch]
Assimilation affected the Utes
in a very tragic way. It was so ineffective that
it did not train us to become competent
in the white world, and it took us away
from our own culture, so much so that we weren't
even competent as Indians anymore. ♪ ♪ [NARRATOR]
IT'S A SUMMER DAY ON UTAH'S
SAN JUAN RIVER. CLIFFS AND ALCOVES
ALONG THE RIVER OFFER GLIMPSES
OF PAST CIVILIZATIONS. BEGINNING THOUSANDS
OF YEARS AGO, ANCESTRAL PUEBLOANS
WERE SOME OF THE FIRST INHABITANTS
OF THIS AREA. THE DWELLINGS OF RIVER HOUSE
PROVIDED SWEEPING VISTAS FOR ANCIENT PEOPLE
WHO LIVED HERE. PETROGLYPHS
ETCHED INTO STONE TELL STORIES
OF ANCIENT TIMES. ANCESTRAL PUEBLO FAMILIES
LIVED HERE SEEKING SURVIVAL. ♪ [NARRATOR]
EUROPEAN EXPLORERS
ARRIVED IN THE AMERICAS. THEY ENTERED A WORLD INHABITED
BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. ♪ [NARRATOR]
ENCOUNTERING THE
EXPEDITION LED BY MERIWETHER LEWIS
AND WILLIAM CLARK WAS A PIVOTAL EVENT IN THE
HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICANS. LEWIS AND CLARK EXPLORED
THE VAST LANDS ACQUIRED BY THE UNITED STATES
FROM FRANCE IN THE LOUISIANA
PURCHASE OF 1803. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
For Native Americans,
I think it was the beginning of a very significant shift
in their way of life, in all areas of their life, from governance to cultural. [NARRATOR]
LEWIS AND CLARK EVENTUALLY
ARRIVED AT THE PACIFIC. IT WAS A SIGNIFICANT
MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE
AMERICAN WEST. THE LEWIS AND CLARK
EXPEDITION PUBLICIZED THE WEST. SETTLERS AND ENTREPRENEURS
WOULD FOLLOW. CHANGE ARRIVED, FROM THE
STARK, REMOTE BADLANDS TO THE UNFORGIVING DESERTS
OF THE AMERICAN WEST. THE UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT SAW WESTWARD EXPANSION
AS PROGRESS. NATIVE AMERICANS
FELT ENCROACHMENT. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
Native peoples have experienced many trails of tears, which were
movements, violent movements, to remove indigenous people
from their homelands because white settlers
desired their lands. ♪ [NARRATOR]
THE NAVAJO WERE MARCHED
TO A BARREN RESERVATION CALLED BOSQUE REDONDO, ON THE PRESENT-DAY
TEXAS/NEW MEXICO BORDER. NEARLY TWO THOUSAND NAVAJO
DIED AT BOSQUE REDONDO. THE NAVAJO WERE ALLOWED
TO RETURN HOME. ♪ ♪ ♪ [NARRATOR]
THE 1868 TREATY WITH THE NAVAJO
INCLUDED THE PROVISION THAT THEIR CHILDREN
MUST ATTEND SCHOOL. NATIVE AMERICAN BOARDING
SCHOOLS HAD BEEN STARTED MUCH EARLIER BY
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. THE 1887 DAWES ACT REINFORCED
THE RESERVATION SYSTEM AND ENCOURAGED ASSIMILATION. [Forrest Cuch]
With us, there was immediate
declaration of war on our culture. We were forbidden to speak
our language, and practice our religion, and it's like our war
was prolonged, and assimilation policies
were how they implemented it, how they carried it out. It was very destructive. And it caused historic trauma
among most of our people, including myself, to this day. [Harry Walters]
And I remember at the church
being told that what my parents practiced
would send them to hell, where they will burn forever. And when you're seven years
old and you hear that, that was really the most
devastating, terrifying experience for me. ♪ [Joseph Abeyta]
But some of the isolation
or separation from parents was very difficult. But that was part
of the agenda. If we're going to,
as they say in the past, 'Separate you from the Blanket,' you know, we need to have
full control, control of everything you do,
everything you learn. ♪ [NARRATOR]
THE CARLISLE INDIAN BOARDING
SCHOOL IN PENNSYLVANIA WAS FOUNDED IN 1879. CARLISLE HAD BEEN
A FORMER MILITARY SITE. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
The native children who were
sent to Carlisle, I think they, for the most
part, arrived on the train. And so they probably
endured hundreds of miles and long hours on the train before they arrived
at their final destination, which was Carlisle. [NARRATOR]
RICHARD HENRY PRATT
WAS SUPERINTENDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA'S
CARLISLE INDIAN SCHOOL. PRATT PREVIOUSLY EXPERIMENTED
WITH NATIVE AMERICAN EDUCATION, PRACTICING ON CAPTIVES
IN FLORIDA. PRATT FELT THEY COULD
BE ASSIMILATED INTO SOCIETY IF GIVEN VOCATIONAL AND
RELIGIOUS TRAINING. RICHARD HENRY PRATT
WROTE IN 1892: “A great general has said that
the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the
sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is
in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him,
and save the man .” Kill the Indian in him,
and save the man .” THREE OF THE MOST FAMOUS
BOARDING SCHOOLS WERE CARLISLE IN PENNSYLVANIA,
HASKELL IN LAWRENCE, KANSAS, AND SHERMAN IN
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA. HASKELL IS NOW THE HASKELL
INDIAN NATIONS UNIVERSITY. IT WAS FOUNDED IN 1884 AS THE UNITED STATES INDIAN
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SCHOOL. IT OPENED ITS
DOORS FOR 22 STUDENTS. BOYS STUDIED FARMING
AND LABOR TRADES. GIRLS STUDIED
HOMEMAKING AND SEWING. THE LAST HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS GRADUATED IN 1965. LORENA CHARLES WENT TO
HASKELL IN KANSAS. IT WAS FAR AWAY FROM THE HOPI
MESAS SHE CALLED HOME. [Lorena Charles]
Sometimes the teachers
would get a ruler and, you know, hit us
on the hand, or on your leg, and they would tell
the principal, and we would get an extra,
another detail to do, like washing the dishes,
or washing the dish towels. [NARRATOR]
SHERMAN STARTED OUT AS THE
PERRIS INDIAN SCHOOL IN 1892 IN PERRIS,
CALIFORNIA. IT WAS MOVED TO
RIVERSIDE IN 1901. IT'S NOW THE SHERMAN
INDIAN HIGH SCHOOL. [Forrest S. Cuch]
My mother was taken away
when she was nine years old and was not allowed
to return until she was 18. [NARRATOR]
BOTH CARLISLE IN PENNSYLVANIA
AND HASKELL IN KANSAS HAD CONFINEMENT ROOMS
FOR UNRULY STUDENTS. [Amanda Blackhorse]
At one point, I really began
to understand the trauma that had
happened there, when I had seen a picture of
a jail that was at Haskell. And it was just a very small,
little cube, cell jail. I actually still
have the picture of it. [NARRATOR]
THESE SMALL HANDCUFFS
WERE RECENTLY DISCOVERED AT HASKELL. IF TRULY AUTHENTICATED, THEY
APPEAR TO FIT A SMALL CHILD. [Forrest S. Cuch]
I have learned that the worst
thing was the sexual abuse, and then the emotional
abuse that accompanied it, in many of the schools. A lot of the schools
were staffed by people who were, many times, isolated
from society themselves. [NARRATOR]
NAVAJO LEADER MANUELITO
AGREED TO UPHOLD THE 1868 TREATY REQUIRING
AMERICAN EDUCATION FOR NAVAJO CHILDREN. HE SENT HIS SONS
TO CARLISLE. [Dr. Jennifer Denetdale]
Within a year of arriving
at Carlisle, Manuelito's son contracted a
disease and died at Carlisle. And so Manuelito, upon learning
of his son's death, immediately ordered that
the surviving children be returned home. His second son came home. He was ill when he
returned home and died within a matter of weeks
after returning home. [NARRATOR]
THERE WERE 25 FEDERALLY FUNDED NON-RESERVATION NATIVE
AMERICAN SCHOOLS BY 1902, WITH SOME
6,000 STUDENTS. ESTIMATES INCREASE THAT
POPULATION TO 60,000 BY 1973. BOARDING SCHOOLS BROUGHT
NATIVE CHILDREN FROM MANY DIVERSE CULTURES
TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE. [Forrest S. Cuch]
In many ways it did
the reverse. It strengthened our
culture and our relationships with
other tribes, strengthened our culture. And so it created an intertribal
Pan-Indian relationship across our country. [NARRATOR]
COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
JOHN COLLIER WROTE IN 1923: "The administration of Indian
affairs is a disgrace - a policy designed to rob
Indians of their property, destroy their culture, and
eventually exterminate them." THE MERRIAM REPORT IN 1928
DOCUMENTED ABUSES AND MADE RECOMMENDATIONS
TO CORRECT THEM. [Patrice Sandoval]
You know, there were a lot
of people out in the larger, the United
States, that kind of rallied on behalf of Native Americans. They saw what was going on. [NARRATOR]
AMANDA BLACKHORSE
ATTENDED HASKELL IN A LATER ERA THAN THE
BOARDING SCHOOL DAYS. [Amanda Blackhorse]
And so today, what remains are some unmarked graves
near Haskell, and a lot of people still
talk about the ghosts or the spirits that still
roam around there. And a lot of students that go to
school there will have stories of hearing things
and seeing things. And so I think that the
healing process there is still happening. [Patrice Sandoval]
It's amazing that we still exist
as Native American people. That was not the intent. The intent was to destroy us
as native people. [NARRATOR]
BOARDING SCHOOL
WAS NEVER FORGOTTEN BY NATIVE AMERICAN
CHILDREN. [Roy Smith
They all looked at me when they
were giving me my haircut. My long hair, you know,
the clipper going through that. My long hair falling off. And I was really hurt. The teaching from my grandfather
was your hair, your long hair, is your strength, and your long hair is your
wisdom, your knowledge. [Davina Spotted Elk]
It was almost violent,
in a way. And that's not only for him,
it's for other, my other family members
that have gone through the boarding school experience. [Darlene Smith]
When I was at boarding school,
they chopped off my long hair, and I remember crying
and crying and crying, and my mother was so upset. [NARRATOR]
DEE SETALLA WENT TO KEAMS
CANYON BOARDING SCHOOL ON ARIZONA'S HOPI
RESERVATION. [Dee Setalla]
Just remembering how hard they punished us or disciplined us, it's just that I didn't
want to go through it. That's why I just always, you
know, ran away from there. [Roy Smith]
There was a whip, there was
spanking, there was a punishment
where you stand on your knees, and then there was
a place where, if you got caught doing things, they would put a dictionary
on your head and you get your hand out
like that, and you stand out there. That was some of the punishment
we did. I think the worst, the worst
punishment I experienced was, you know, standing on
my knee in one place. I blacked out. [Forrest S. Cuch]
She did not pass that
down to me. She was told not to teach me
Ute because it would interfere in my mastery of English, which we've found is
not true, at all. And so that has
caused harm to me. It's affected me emotionally,
physically, culturally, it's been very disruptive
in my life. ♪ [NARRATOR]
NAVAJO KATHLEEN WOOD RETURNS
TO THE CHUSKA BOARDING SCHOOL IN TOHATCHI, NEW MEXICO. [Kathleen Wood]
This was Dormitory 3.
It used to be right here. It's no longer here, but it used
to be the big girls' dorm. There was another dorm
to my left that was the little girls' dorm. [Kathleen Wood]
At school if you made a mistake, you know, sometimes it's
harsh punishment. You just have to learn quickly. To this day, I still get sad
about it. My mom, my dad, I don't
know what happened, but sometimes, they
didn't pick me up. And I still get emotional
on this because I would be at the dorms with maybe
four other students. Christmas
was the hardest. One, two years, a
couple of years maybe. She left me there,
and looking out the window, no one coming to
pick you up. So that was hard. And it was sad for me
because it's like, "Who's coming to get me?" [Kathleen Wood]
There were three boys that
ran away from this school. They wanted to go home. Apparently they got so lonely,
they wanted to visit family. They were three brothers,
they were from Naschitti. They ran away from here
as winter, January. I remember helicopters
going around, flying over this plateau. We were told to stay inside
the building. They did find the boys
after awhile, but the sad part is,
all three boys lost their legs due to frost-bite,
froze their legs. They did come back
to school here, but they were in wheelchairs. And then later on, they went
to the fake legs. They still finished here
with us. And I still remember
who they are. And they're not forgotten. May they rest in peace now. They're no longer around. But you know, sometimes,
when you get so lonely, you know, you do desperate
things to go home. ♪ [Yvonne Setalla]
When I was in second grade that was my worst nightmare. I know I was
traumatized from that. But going to Sherman, being
with students that I know from the same village, you know,
from the same area and meeting new students, to me that was the
greatest time of my life. [NARRATOR]
THE CLOCK NO LONGER TICKS AT THE PHOENIX INDIAN
SCHOOL IN ARIZONA. THE HISTORY OF THE
SCHOOL DATES FROM 1891. ARLEN POLACCA OF THE HOPI
TRIBE ATTENDED THE SCHOOL. [Arlen Polacca]
Nothing but good I can say
about boarding schools. My dad just told us that's
what we need to survive today, and he was right
about that. I was glad I listened. You know, there's many different
tribes there, and make friends with
pretty much every tribe, I had a friend in every tribe. [NARRATOR]
IT CLOSED IN 1990. [Carrie Paddock]
I always thought I was
going to get beat or get hit with a board
or something. But that never happened
to me, luckily. I've witnessed a whole
classroom, witnessed one of our classmates
get so badly beaten by our teacher. And so we were just like,
that was awful, terrible. But we just sort of went back
and continued our class. I don't know what happened. We didn't know anything about
reporting or anything like that. [NARRATOR]
DAVINA SPOTTED ELK ATTENDED
TUBA CITY BOARDING SCHOOL IN ARIZONA AS A
YOUNG GIRL. [Davina Spotted Elk]
I would say my worst
experience was when -- after Tuba City Boarding School
I had gone on to the Seventh-day
Adventist Boarding School in Holbrook, Arizona. A lot of girls that
were away from home, I would hear them sometimes
cry in their bed. I probably only lasted
half the year 'cause I had cried so hard. There was a group of girls,
young girls, that ran away. You know, we didn't know
how far away home was. So we thought, maybe it
wasn't very far. But they said, "No,
they caught us. We went to the main -"
I don't know if he was the principal or the director
of the boarding school - But they said that he
had whipped each and every one of them
with a, it was like a cord. It was like an electrical cord,
I think they described it as. And they showed us
whipping marks. Some of them were very deep. That was very scary for us,
so I think they wanted us to see that, so it would show,
you know, if anyone ever leaves again,
this is what's going to happen. So we were terrified. And for me, that was
very traumatic. [Harry Walters]
And we didn't know
a word of English. And they tried to tell us
something, but we didn't understand. And they kept telliing us,
and sometimes, they would lose their patience, and start talking hard
and yelling. And then we'd start crying. So it was a terrifying
experience. [NARRATOR]
CHERYL MARZAC VISITS NAVAJO
CARL BEGAY. CARL IS A SHEEP HERDER
WHO LIVES NEAR CHINLE, ARIZONA. CARL REMEMBERS THE
INTERMOUNTAIN INDIAN SCHOOL WHICH HE ATTENDED IN
BRIGHAM CITY, UTAH. [Carl Begay]
Navajo - speak English,
English, English, all the time. I used to - but when we're out
there in the sticks somewhere, we'd always sing, you know,
we'd always tell jokes, Navajo jokes, and all that. ♪ [NARRATOR]
TODAY THE INTERMOUNTAIN
INDIAN SCHOOL IS ONLY A SKELETON
OF ITS PAST. INTERMOUNTAIN OPENED
IN 1950 AND CLOSED IN 1984. IT WAS CONVERTED FROM A WORLD
WAR II MILITARY HOSPITAL. [Forrest S. Cuch]
The Intermountain Indian School
in Brigham City, Utah, I'm happy to say was
one of the best schools because it served
the intermountain west. We got kids from all
over the western states. ♪ [NARRATOR]
MANY NAVAJO WERE
BUSSED TO INTERMOUNTAIN FROM THEIR HOMES IN
ARIZONA AND SOUTHERN UTAH. DARLENE SMITH MET HER HUSBAND
ROY AT INTERMOUNTAIN. [Darlene Smith]
They had their own theater. They had their own dance halls. It was just the best time
for me. That's where I met my husband. He wasn't going to school
there. He had graduated from there. He was in college at
Utah State University. But I loved it.
I loved Indian school. I don't know how long they
had it open after that. Then they closed it down. [NARRATOR]
BOARDING SCHOOLS FACED ISSUES OF OVER-CROWDING AND
FUNDING SHORTFALLS. MANY PARENTS WANTED
THEIR CHILDREN EDUCATED CLOSER
TO HOME. ♪ [Forrest S. Cuch]
All of a sudden the budgets
were shut down. And we were really
upset about that because it's like we
finally got a hold on the federal schools
to serve our kids, and then they shut them down. They pulled the rug
out from under us. ♪ [NARRATOR]
FOR SOME, THE BOARDING
SCHOOL EXPERIENCE WAS AN OPPORTUNITY
FOR EDUCATION. [Carrie Paddock]
The teachers were good. For them to come out onto the
reservation and teach us, I thought that was, you know,
pretty - how would you say it? It was pretty courageous
for them. Once in awhile, they would say
something negative. At the time, I thought that
was okay to do. But now I don't think it's okay,
it was okay, you know. But we would just forget. ♪ [NARRATOR]
DAVINA SPOTTED ELK AND
AMANDA BLACKHORSE VISIT THE HOME OF
DAVINA'S GRANDMOTHER IN BIG MOUNTAIN, ARIZONA. DAVINA'S GRANDMOTHER
IS A RESPECTED NAVAJO ELDER. SHE HAS WITNESSED
TREMENDOUS CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF
HER MANY YEARS. AMANDA BLACKHORSE VISITS
DAVINA'S GRANDMOTHER FOR THE FIRST TIME. [Amanda Blackhorse]
And we're still feeling the
effects of boarding schools today. Boarding schools actually
still do exist to this day, and it has completely
demolished the indigenous familial
system. And many of our people
are suffering, and they don't, the thing is, they don't realize
that they are suffering from the boarding
school syndrome. Many of us don't even
understand it, in that perspective. ♪ ♪ [NARRATOR]
IN THE 1960s, THE CIVIL RIGHTS
ERA BROUGHT CHANGE. NATIVE AMERICANS WERE
PART OF THAT MOVEMENT. [Harry Walters]
And I remember reading
Bobby Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, who was
Attorney General at that time, you know, saying that there
should be day schools where students can be bussed
to their homes. He says, if you take the child
away from their environment, you kill the spirit. He says, how can you expect
a child to learn when you kill the spirit? [NARRATOR]
THE INDIAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
PASSED IN 1968. THE OCCUPATION OF
ALCATRAZ AND WOUNDED KNEE WERE SIGNIFICANT
POLITICAL EVENTS, WHICH BROUGHT NATIVE ISSUES
TO PUBLIC ATTENTION. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
In the 1970s, the American
public became aware of
discontent, the rage, at hundreds of years
of American policies of genocide
and ethnic cleansings. [Christie Abeyta]
It's not true for all Americans
or Westerners that the intent of Native
American policy was to obliterate all natives,
take their land, and this and that. There was some very, you know,
caring and compassionate people during that time that advocated
for Native Americans. ♪ [NARRATOR]
CONGRESS PASSED THE INDIAN
SELF-DETERMINATION AND EDUCATION ACT IN 1975. GIVING TRIBAL COMMUNITIES
GREATER CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN AFFAIRS. THE SANTA FE INDIAN
SCHOOL IN NEW MEXICO WAS STARTED DURING THE
ASSIMILATION ERA. PUEBLO GOVERNORS ACKNOWLEDGED
DEFICIENCIES IN EDUCATION. COMMITTED EDUCATORS PROVED
TO BE CATALYSTS FOR POSITIVE CHANGE. [Patrice Sandoval]
I'm uniquely qualified to know
what the kids are going through because I went through
the same thing, you know, being away from home. You know, so I know what
the kids are going through, But I also know what the kids
are capable of doing. [NARRATOR]
THE SANTA FE INDIAN
SCHOOL IS OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE NINETEEN PUEBLOS
IN NEW MEXICO. THEY HAVE TAKEN RESPONSIBILITY
FOR EDUCATING THEIR CHILDREN. THE PUEBLO COUNCIL
NAMED JOSEPH ABEYTA AS THE FIRST
SUPERINTENDENT. [Joe Abeyta]
Those people have failed our
kids for over 200 years. If we fail once or twice, relative to how many times
our kids have been failed, we deserve the right.
So, we took it on. [Alicea Olascoaga]
I am from the Tlingit and
Haida tribe in Alaska and I'm affiliated with
the Mescalero Apache tribe. [NARRATOR]
ALICEA IS A
BOARDING SCHOOL STUDENT AT THE SANTA FE INDIAN SCHOOL. [Alicea Olascoaga]
When you go to the Santa Fe
Indian School you experience what
it feels like to be genuinely cared about
and to have the support from teachers and from
staff and from your friends. [Joe Abeyta]
Self-determination means
self-determination. A condition for
self-determination is that we learn how
to do for ourselves, accept responsibility, and when we do good,
it's our success. And when we do bad,
it's our failure. And creating that kind
of attitude, I think really motivated
a lot of kids to show people who we are, that we are capable. [Alicia Olascoaga]
It's definitely difficult to
think about what boarding schools were
compared to what they are today, because it was so different. A lot of terrible things
took place, and a lot of terrible things
were inflicted on Native Americans. And I think it changed from
wanting to assimilate Native Americans into, you know,
white culture, to now, which is, you know,
really nurturing who we are as a people,
and supporting who we are. [NARRATOR]
ALICEA ATTENDS CARLOS
SANTISTEVAN'S PHYSICS CLASS. ALICEA ENDS HER DAY
AT THE DORM WHICH IS HER HOME AWAY
FROM HOME. SHE CATCHES THE TRAIN
TO ALBUQUERQUE ON MOST WEEKENDS
TO RETURN TO HER FAMILY. [Alicea Olascoaga]
I feel like whenever I was
going to schools in Albuquerque, the
public schools, I was able to click
with people but not on this
particular level because going to the
Santa Fe Indian School and being Native American and being surrounded by
Native American students, you build connections with them that you can't with people
that don't understand and don't relate
to who you are on a very spiritual
and personal level and I think it just gives you
a lot of room for discovering who you are and figuring out
who you want to be. [Joe Abeyta]
That's our school. It belongs to us, in a way that schools have
never been our schools. [Christie Abeyta]
And we're at this tipping point, that I think is,
could go either way. And it is essential that
our young people understand their responsibility, and as a teacher, I remind them
and I tell them, and I say, think about
the future. [Patrice Sandoval]
We're uniquely Native American. How do we take those Native
American values, and belief systems, and put them
into this school, the Santa Fe Indian School,
so that you come onto campus and you know we're an
Indian school, you know we're an Indian
boarding school, and that we're okay with it,
we're good. ♪ [NARRATOR]
DARLENE SMITH TEACHES
A CLASS IN NAVAJO HISTORY TO GRADE-SCHOOLERS. NAVAJO LANGUAGE,
CULTURE, AND HISTORY ARE EMBRACED HERE. [Darlene Smith]
In the boarding school days, the government didn't
want us to speak Navajo. So I think a lot of the
parents from back then, the ones that went to
boarding school, I think they're
grandmothers now, a lot of them don't want
their kids to learn Navajo. ♪ [NARRATOR]
DACIAN SPOTTED ELK
IS DAVINA'S SON. ROY AND DARLENE SMITH
ARE HIS GRANDPARENTS. HE ATTENDS EAST HIGH
SCHOOL IN SALT LAKE CITY. GEORGE HENRY TEACHES A
DIVERSITY CLASS AT THE SCHOOL. [Dacian Spotted Elk]
In my class this year,
I think Mr. George Henry is a great teacher. He does a great job of
teaching different cultures, and explaining,
you know, how it is to be a person of color. [classroom chatter] [Dacian Spotted Elk]
I've been taught to, you know,
always take pride in it, and I think it's awesome
that I'm Native American. And I hope people, other Native Americans,
realize that also. Growing up, a lot of kids
would say racist things. And I can recall one day,
a kid told me to, "Get your Native American butt
out of here and go home." And I didn't want to be mean
or say anything mean back, so I told him, I gave him a
brief history lesson about Native Americans,
and I told him, I said, "This is my home." And I told him how Native
Americans, you know, how we struggled and how we were
pushed away from our homes. And he was shocked, and he didn't say another word
about it ever again. [NARRATOR]
DACIAN PLAYS ON THE
BASKETBALL TEAM. [clapping] [Davina Spotted Elk]
There are little signs, like when I pat my heart, it's telling him, play with your
heart. There are other times when I'm,
you know, pointing to my eyes, it's like, focus. I know my son's, has had some
history with students that have name-called him
or his native friends. I know that for a fact because
he's told me. And so he uses sports
as a way to cope. [cheering] [Davina Spotted Elk]
The imagery I see at
basketball games is very offensive for me. I know my son, he's
had to encounter with that times when he's traveled. There's a high school
not far from here that has the imagery, and I've seen football games when you've seen
the painted faces on them or at basketball games
either they're making the whooping noise. [Dacian Spotted Elk]
Some of the things I hear and see people doing
the chant and calling me racist names
and it hurts sometimes. I can recall one game where
I let it get to me and I didn't want
to play or finish the game. I couldn't believe someone would say something
like that to me. [Forrest S. Cuch]
I, for the most part in
general do not support using Native people and tribes, Indian tribes as
mascots or nicknames. However, in the case
of the University of Utah and the use of the Ute
nickname, I'm totally in support of it. The University of Utah did
consult with the tribes back in the '70s, and more recently met
formally with the tribe and obtained a resolution, which is our official form
of business. [cheering and clapping] [NARRATOR]
AMANDA BLACKHORSE IS
POSSIBLY BEST KNOWN FOR PARTICIPATING IN
THE LAWSUIT REGARDING THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS NAME. [Amanda Blackhorse]
For generations, we're taught
to believe that we're savages. We're taught to believe
that we were less than. That we were redskins.
That we were primitive, and we really believe that. You know, that has
been beaten into our heads. You have mascots, you have cowboys and Indians
in Hollywood. The only representation
out there of Native American people
in the national media is our stereotypes. We're looked at
only through that lens. And so I think
sports mascots has a huge
responsibility in that. [Davina Spotted Elk]
It's not okay. It's not. Although I know there are tribes
that say, oh no, it's honoring us. No, look at the statistics.
Read the statistics. It really does impact
our younger generation. It impacts them to where
they are ashamed. [talking and laughing] [talking and laughing] ♪ ♪ [NARRATOR]
SAMUEL HOLIDAY RIDES
IN THE NAVAJO TRIBAL PARADE. HE AND DAN AKEE ARE NAVAJO
CODE TALKERS WHO PARTICIPATED
IN WORLD WAR II. CODE TALKERS USED
NATIVE LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE VITAL
INFORMATION, WHICH ENEMIES COULD
NOT DECIPHER. PEOPLE FROM SEVERAL
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES WERE CODE TALKERS IN WORLD
WAR I AND WORLD WAR II. THE SAME LANGUAGE THAT
WAS DISCOURAGED DURING BOARDING SCHOOL DAYS. [Dan Akee]
They called it brown soap. If they hear talking Navajo, they smash it right
into your face, like so. Brown soap was bitter. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
They are regarded with
a great deal of respect, for using the Navajo Language
to create code, which many people say then
was very significant to ending the war. [NARRATOR]
THE BOARDING SCHOOLS
CONTRIBUTED MANY FORMER STUDENTS
TO THE MILITARY. IRA HAYES PARTICIPATED
IN THE FLAG-RAISING ON IWO JIMA
DURING WORLD WAR II. HE WAS A MEMBER OF
THE PIMA TRIBE, AND ATTENDED
PHOENIX INDIAN SCHOOL. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
Native Americans, including the
Navajo people, are some of the most
patriotic people, patriotic citizens
of the United States. I believe that it is a part
of the processes of American assimiliation. And so it's very difficult to
separate our sense of who we are as citizens of our respective
and distinctive tribal nations and being citizens
of the United States. [NARRATOR]
LOW SELF-ESTEEM, POVERTY,
DRUGS AND HOPELESSNESS ARE CONTINUING PROBLEMS
FOR NATIVE AMERICANS. [Amanda Blackhorse]
That's why we have a lot of,
sort of, quote/unquote mental health
problems today. You see high rates
of depression and anxiety, and I believe that's
where that comes from, because their trauma
has been passed down and we really are feeling what
they're feeling at times. [Roy Smith]
Some of them, they accomplished
what they needed to do. But some of them, they became
alcoholics. One of the very, very close
friends, when I got married, when I had the family, we were driving downtown
in Flagstaff. There was this man carrying
a gunny sack, carrying aluminum cans,
and it turned out that was one of my very, very
best friends. And he was out there. He was homeless,
and begging for money. [NARRATOR]
THE BOARDING SCHOOL ERA
WASN'T SIMPLY A TIME OF ADVERSITY. ACCOMPLISHMENTS ALSO
ACCOMPANIED IT. CARLISLE'S JIM THORPE
RECEIVED OLYMPIC AND PROFESSIONAL
INTERNATIONAL FAME. HE IS WIDELY KNOWN AS ONE OF
THE WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETES. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
For someone like Jim Thorpe
to come out of that and to be acknowledged for
his feats as an athlete, I think was a point or place
where people could feel some sense of pride, that one of their own had indeed
accomplished something great against such adversity. [NARRATOR]
HOPI DISTANCE RUNNER LOUIS
TEWANIMA EXCELLED AT CARLISLE. HE WON THE OLYMPIC SILVER
MEDAL IN 1912. LOUIS EVENTUALLY RETURNED
TO THE HOPI MESAS. ACCLAIMED SCULPTOR,
PAINTER, AND ILLUSTRATOR ALLAN HOUSER WAS A PRODUCT OF
THE SANTA FE INDIAN SCHOOL. HE LATER TAUGHT AT THE
INTERMOUNTAIN INDIAN SCHOOL. LAKOTA SIOUX DISTANCE RUNNER
BILLY MILLS WAS RAISED ON THE PINE RIDGE RESERVATION
IN SOUTH DAKOTA. HE ATTENDED THE
HASKELL INSTITUTE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. BILLY MILLS WON THE
1964 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL IN THE TEN THOUSAND
METER EVENT. HE SERVED IN VIETNAM WITH
THE MARINE CORPS. [Davina Spotted Elk]
We're very bright.
We're very intelligent. I know that because i see that
everywhere I've travelled. I know there are, we have
bright children. But the thing is, it doesn't
pertain to the white American society. But the task that we are given
doesn't pertain to who we are. I mean, Columbus didn't discover
America. Sorry. [NARRATOR]
SOME APOLOGIES HAVE
BEEN MADE FOR THE POLICIES
OF ASSIMILATION. BUT MANY NATIVE
PEOPLE SEEK MORE. [Forrest S. Cuch]
First and foremost
is an apology. The President of the United
States has already issued that, but I think most states
need to also do that. [President Barack Obama]
I've often acknowledged
the painful history, the broken promises,
that are part of our past. And I've said that while we
couldn't change the past, working together,
nation to nation, we could build
a better future. [NARRATOR]
SOME REFUSED TO RETALIATE
WHEN THE OPPORTUNITY CAME. [Kathleen Wood]
And I told myself that
one of these days, I'm going to go get her back. But I did see her,
and she's an old lady now. And I thought, I can't
do that. But at the time, you know,
I was angry. It's like, no one just goes
and slaps you for no reason. I was doing what I was
supposed to be doing. [Forrest Cuch]
This is a great country,
and we need to remember that. But it requires maintenance
to keep it great. Because I'm a big Thomas
Jefferson fan, when he said, "Our democracy hinges
upon the quality of our education of the public." And we're starting to see that
today. [NARRATOR]
THE PAST IS MARKED BY
THE GRAVES OF CHILDREN, THE CEMETERIES FAR AWAY
FROM THEIR HOMES AND FAMILIES. THEY ARE REMEMBERED ONLY IN
THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF A FEW. [Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale]
When we remember the stories
of their experiences, we remember the children
who died there, who never returned home. Many of them not only died
from sicknesses and diseases, but they also died from
loneliness and heartbreak. Their stories remind us that
we should always do better. And that we should cherish
and love our children, and that they are the next
generation. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ANNOUNCER]
This program is made possible
in part by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
