MENDED #11 | Oklahoma Boarding School Edition
The Alliance of Mental Health Providers of Oklahoma represents the largest network of mental health providers in the state. We đŁ advocate for better mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Chief Seattle, 1854
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
First Look: And Our Mothers Cried (Chickasaw.tv)
EXCERPT: They were young. They were innocent. And all they had to give up for an education was their cultural identity. The devastating impact of the Native American boarding school era right here in Oklahoma.
(This 2018 production aired on OETA on July 24, however, you can watch it on the Chickasawâs YouTube Channel.)
Thousands of Indigenous children perished in âgenocide boarding schoolsâ
EXCERPT: My grandmother told of her mother speaking of her Oklahoma boarding school experienceâŠ
Continue reading on Peopleâs World (August 12)
These Indigenous children died far away more than a century ago. Hereâs how they finally got home.
EXCERPT: The bones were scattered in and there was no dignity,â says Rhodd, 69, a citizen of the Potawatomie Nation, who also was forced into boarding school at the Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma. âIn one instance there was even a cow bone in one of the boxesâŠâ
Continue reading in National Geographic (August 6)
Indian boarding schools, once 'used for torture and death,' now help kids achieve potential
EXCERPT: âSo what about Oklahoma? Oklahoma is now home to 39Â tribes and has had many Indian boarding schools. Many are still operational. The oldest is the Riverside Indian School located in Anadarko, originally a Quaker School that opened in 1871 and renamed Riverside in 1878. Riverside is still operating and has a wait list for students to get in.â
Continue Reading in The Oklahoman. (July 18)
At Schools Where Native American Children Died, New Hope for Answers
EXCERPT: For years, alumni from the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma have been searching for information about the students who died at their old boarding school, one of hundreds once set up by the U.S. government to assimilate young Native Americans.
Continue reading in The Wall Street Journal (August 11)
Honoring The Dead Falls To Alumni
Reckoning with the theft of Native American children
EXCERPT: âHaalandâs plan is a starting point. But as a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma who has grown up in the system, I donât know what the secretary of the interior could do to give me my life back. My mother and her siblings are from Oklahoma and were all taken from their family and placed into the boarding school system starting in the late 1920s, and they remained there throughout their childhood.â
Continue reading on Vox (July 27)
The One You Feed
An old Cherokee told his grandson, "My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside of us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy & truth."
The boy thought about it, and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?" The old man quietly replied, "The one you feed."