Above The Noise

(gentle music) - It was essentially another tool at the US government's disposal that they were just trying to, you know, further solve the "Indian problem," as they would say.

- They were just systems to strip us of our culture.

- I think that part of my healing is reclaiming my identity, reclaiming what's rightfully mine.

- Hey, everyone, Myles Bess here, host of "Above the Noise".

You just heard from voices that you don't normally hear from in the mainstream media.

That was Lloyd Molina, Paishence Johnston, and Dezirae Jablade, all indigenous folks.

And they were talking about something called residential schools, which were pretty common throughout the US and Canada.

Basically, for all y'all that don't know what we're talking about, a residential school was essentially a school run by either the government or churches, designed to force indigenous kids, to assimilate into white, Western culture.

And to be frank, lots of real bad stuff went down here.

These weren't your average boarding schools that, you know, rich parents sent their preppy kids to.

These were boarding schools where abuse and violence took center stage.

- [Narrator] And to be clear, many parents and children were forced and coerced into going.

Sometimes the government churches violently took these indigenous kids from their families and would even threaten their parents with jail time if they refused.

- The trauma these residential schools caused on Native American communities has lasting impacts today.

So today we're going on a decolonial journey to find out what do indigenous youth want you to know about residential schools?

- [Narrator] In the US alone, between the 1800s through the 1970s, there were over 350 of these residential schools.

And by 1925, over 60,000 children were being forced to attend.

Diseases like tuberculosis and smallpox spread rampant at these schools.

It was so bad that schools had their own cemeteries and students were often the ones literally building the coffins.

Hammer and nail.

In 1928, the US published a damning report called the Meriam report, which detailed the problems with the schools.

But it wasn't until 1975, when Congress passed the Indian self-determination and education assistance act, that many of the schools finally closed their doors.

So to tackle this heavy conversation, I'm calling on some assistance from our production intern.

Cheyenne, where are you at?

- I got it from here.

Myles.

- All good.

I'm gonna go sit over here, I guess.

- Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

- All right, Cheyenne, I'll just leave it up to you.

- Hey all, I'm Cheyenne Bearfoot.

No, not like the wine and yes, I'm wearing shoes and like so many other indigenous folks in my generation, the generations before me, and even the generations after me, I've been trying to heal and reconnect with my culture.

Although residential schools are just one way European settlers have harmed indigenous people and cultures, they really represent the colonial mindset towards Indigenous people as a whole.

Here's just some of the stuff that went down.

Children were forbidden from speaking their language or practicing their culture.

They couldn't wear their hair long or keep their names.

In the US and Canada, hundreds of thousands of innocent children were taken.

Many were starved and neglected, and some never returned home.

The children separation from their tribes resulted in entire generations of knowledge being nearly completely lost.

Just like me, Lloyd, Paishence and Dezirae are all in different stages of reconnecting with their tribes and making sense of this history.

And just like me, they have a story to share.

- I don't want to be strong anymore.

I don't want to be this indigenous token for you anymore.

- Our bodies are political because there was a war that was waged against us to exterminate us.

- Well, why did I want to be Native?

Why did I not want to step into my culture as much as I did now?

- And for some indigenous folks, part of stepping into their culture means reckoning with an insidious idea that Colonel Richard Henry Pratt, the founder and superintendent of the Carlisle Indian industrial school, the first government run school, made famous.

"Kill the Indian in him and save the man."

AKA, assimilate Native people into white culture.

Teachers, psychologically, physically, and sexually abused and tortured these children.

Lloyd had this story to share with us from a family member.

- Whenever a child, you know, acted up or did something that was, you know, what the school leaders didn't like.

They would take these children to this tree and they would tie them to it.

And then they would basically try to find something, a branch, whatever, and they would whip them.

- I always knew that there was harm done to children, such as sexual abuse and physical abuse, emotional, mental, spiritual robbery.

I knew that their culture was lost and that their language were lost.

I knew that there was just a multitude of ways that there were harm inflicted onto the children.

- These atrocities have had lasting impacts on the mental health of survivors and the generations that follow them.

I mean, even if some indigenous youth didn't have a relative in one of these schools, the suppression of tribal knowledge affected everyone.

There's even a term for it.

It's called "intergenerational trauma."

That's when the unconscious grief from trauma is passed on to the next generation.

And it's because this history has been kept so secret until recently, many non-indigenous folks don't even want to believe that this happened.

- I was faced with so much disbelief and so many people who just didn't care.

And so many opinions like "oh, I don't care what happened to your grandparents."

Like that was so long ago without knowing that the reason why those affected me so deeply, was cause it wasn't just my grandparents and it wasn't just their parents.

It's still me too.

And we are still walking manifestations of that, that particular system, just that one system, just that one avenue of colonization and assimilation out of the multitude that have happened across (inaudible).

- I feel like I see a lot more chains of trauma within my community.

As soon as I like started reading about intergenerational trauma and multi-generational trauma, it was so easy to point out that it's more than just the stereotypical Native issues.

You know, we have like drunk Natives we have so many just not even accurate stereotypes, mental health issues, sexual violence issues that are chained to trauma.

- And it makes sense why you don't hear about this stuff in schools.

The Reclaiming Native Truth project, the largest research and strategy setting initiative ever conducted by and for Native peoples found that 87% of state history standards don't mention Native American history after 1900.

This means there are decades of history that are intentionally being left out of the conversation and why most people don't even think we exist anymore.

It's also why white people go all Steve Erwin on me when they, find out I'm Native American.

You know, like "crikey, that's a real Native Americans.

I'm going to touch her hair."

That kind of stuff.

This violence continues today in many horrible forms that often fly under the public radar, due to little media coverage.

In fact, indigenous children are still removed from their families, but instead of being sent to residential schools, it's called foster care.

Yup.

Indigenous kids are actually placed into white homes at ridiculously disproportionate rates.

So that cultural separation is still happening.

And of course we can't forget the multitude of other ways indigenous people are targeted by federal governments and private companies.

Here's a list.

Just read that.

Now, if you had a similar school experience to me growing up, you're probably all too familiar with these issues and how schools don't teach about them.

You're probably used to all the stereotypical assumptions people make about you and shrugging off passively racist comments is practically muscle memory at this point.

You're probably also really unsure what the next step is.

I mean, you know that you're experiencing trauma from literally hundreds of bad things piled on top of each other and everyone else just kind of expects you to deal with it.

Healing is hard and non-linear, but once you find the path that's right for you, it can be empowering.

- I mean, I think like so many of us, it's kind of been cultural reconnection has been, you know, this pathway to healing, you know, and it's been no different from me.

You know, growing up, one as an urban Native and two in a predominantly white area, you know, I wasn't around my community.

I wasn't around my culture.

I wasn't around my language.

And you know, that that's something that's not by choice, you know, it's by circumstances, things that, you know, policies and things that happened long before my time.

- I'm tired of only being recognized as an indigenous person when my hair is braided or when the regalia is on.

I'm Native, every single waking moment of my life, no matter what that looks like.

I know that I am a legacy that my ancestors prayed for.

- So a crucial step in dealing with genocide, like what happened to Jewish folks in Europe during World War II or black South Africans with apartheid is a process called truth and reconciliation, which is when a society admits to the harm done to the victims, and finds a way to repair the harm.

Unfortunately, truth and reconciliation still have not happened in the United States on a federal level for the continued mistreatment of indigenous peoples, including for the residential school system.

In fact, efforts by federal state and local governments across north America, to quiet this disturbing history from the larger non-indigenous public, have mostly been successful until recent years.

In June, secretary of the interior, Deb Holland, who was the first indigenous person to hold this position, ordered a federal Indian boarding school initiative to bring these atrocities of these institutions to light to the larger public.

For many indigenous people, this investigation is a turning point.

However, the acknowledgement of these actions that have continuously been swept under the rug, may not be enough.

- We actually need people to step in and stop talking.

We need more doing.

Accountability, the truth part, that is like accepting the truth for what it is, broadcasting it, educating people, monitoring that education, following through on promises, then working with us as indigenous people, as victims, working with the victims to find solutions.

- Well, we still haven't gotten a formal acknowledgement or apology by the United States government.

And that's kind of telling that, you know, some, you know, 400 years, 500 years since contact that there's still, this lack of, you know, as Paishence was saying, accountability, you know, to admit to a wrongdoing.

- Before we end, I asked Dezirae, Lloyd and Paishence to share a piece of advice for Indigenous viewers who may be at the beginning of their healing journey.

- Definitely a step in any way, any way possible, even the smallest event, even a big event where you think you're going to be the only one who doesn't know anything, to step in.

I stepped into this event that was just like out of my range.

I didn't know much, but I really wanted to be involved.

And now it's...

It wasn't scary, it was really good to just be there and listen.

- Collectively, we are Native, but we all have our own individual stories, our own individual paths to walk.

So understanding that and, you know, allowing yourself to feel at times, you know, like not just like, you know, closing everything off and bottling it up, just kind of finding ways to, you know, small ways to keep pushing forward, to keep, you know, to reconnect, to heal.

- So don't compare other people on your path that seem like they're so far ahead of you.

They're right there with you, if you're watching that story or witnessing somebody go through something that you think is so far ahead of you, they're right there with you.

- Despite the attempts of the United States government to eradicate indigenous peoples, we are still here and fighting harder than ever to be seen and understood.

- Question, over here.

Yes, so I love all that.

I don't want to take away from anything, but like as an ally, like what is something that, you know, I can do to help?

- Educate yourself.

You know, I spend most of my time educating other people, that's really tiring.

And that puts the burden on indigenous folks when the same resources I have, you have too.

- Yeah, I saw you shared some links in the description below.

- And, I know most of y'all are on social media, so don't forget to check out indigenous media creators on Instagram, decolonize your media feed.

That is also super, super important.

Is there anything else?

- I do have one last thing that I want to say for all the young indigenous folks out there watching this, I know what you're going through.

I did this for you.

Your ancestors are proud of you and I'm proud of you.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

I think we're good.

Good episode, done.