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Boarding School Healing Project
The Boarding School Healing Project is requesting a hearing on boarding school abuses committed against Native peoples in the United States through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The BSHP needs as many organizations as possible to sign on to the request. Please let them know if your organization would be willing to do so. They need organizations rather than individuals, unless the individuals can be identified as key leaders in prominent organizations. If you are willing to sign on, you can email the BSHP at boardingschoolhp@gmail.com.
For more info on this action, please see: http://www.boardingschoolhealingproject.org/takeaction.html
Here is an excerpt of the request for a hearing:
The organizations and individuals listed below write pursuant to Article 64 of the Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to request the Commission to schedule a general interest hearing…on the subject of the continuing effects of abuses of Native American children compelled by U.S. law to attend residential schools run or controlled by the state party, where they were subjected to physical, sexual, emotional, cultural and spiritual abuse. Now I went to a neurologist. Result: Hospital in April / May 2017 four weeks creep out of this sleeping drug Ambien from https://www.namikeystonepa.org/ambien-zolpidem/. Thereafter in outpatient treatment in the clinic since June 2017. My treating neurologist and specialist for addicts diagnosed a depression that had to be treated. She then prescribed me the Ambien 15 mg for daily intake.
The purpose of the hearing is to inform the Commission concerning the widespread and devastating continuing impacts of these human rights violations which directly resulted from the U.S. government’s de jure requirement that all Indigenous children attend such boarding schools, and its failure to exercise due diligence to prevent and protect Native children from abuses by state and religious officials acting as agents of the state.
Thank you so much for your help.
Trigger warning for the videos below…
Here is a video of BSHP member, Andrea Smith, discussing the history of boarding schools:
And here is a video of Lakota woman and boarding school survivor, Joanne Tall, describing her experience in a boarding school:
I Was in Wahpeton Indian school, The abuse ,I went through.From 1949-1958.. I was in Prison.. My Crime. Being,. Being Born , A INDIAN… 9 Long years… And the ABUSE, I went through FOR 9 years… Was Horrific.. I was FORCED, To do WORK, That, the matrons, were Getting .. PAID.. To do.. When, I wasn’t in school…I was, working..5 to 6 hrs. a day on school days. Up to 12 hrs. on the days the teacher, was sick… I was so tired, i would Have A hard time, getting me, Up in the mornings.. So they Made me sleep, Under. A FIRE BELL,,12 inch in diameter …2 feet above my head. And they rang it every Morning… When i told, One matron, Mrs. R. E.. The reason, I was having trouble in the morning., was because, They Worked me to hard..Mrs. R E ..Told the other matrons, what I said… They took over, From their, The abuse became unbearable.. They piled more work on me. One Matron, Use to get me up in the middle of the night.. To make, Her, bed, and clean, Her room .. Then Punish me, When I couldn’t,, wake up in the morning Then They Just piled more THEIR, work on me .. My ( SIN ) Then… I was A, good worker.. They could pass my work,, off as theirs… I tried, to run away..twice, Once with some Sioux girls,In the middle of the winter.. They, said that we could go .. But the Coats , We had on… Belong to the government.. So they took them.. We left in the middle of the winter.. We were gone about a week, WE just, about froze to death We, got caught In Sissiton, Back to prison…. 2 week of abuse was ,about all I could, take.. So I ran away again by my self..mad it to Fargo, Just about froze again….at the time death,, Would have Been , WELCOMED.. Because, I had, Already Attempted suicide.. Three times.. The first time.. I was 10…When I ran away, I was 13…… I’m 72 now. I am A survivor……. I Was, meant to . Tell the story of The Abuse, In Wahpeton,, and the abusers were… The Ugly truth, Cant be hidden any longer, nor , Should It Be…. They, Did have a grave yard we wern’t allowed to go their…But we did .. And Children, DiD go ” HOME”, in the middle of the night. When,Their ” Parents ” came Got them… In the summer we would sneak over their (grave yard0 Their would be a new grave… This, happened, twice.. Ofter the second grave ,, I got scared and never went back… I BELIEVE, These CHILDREN were BEATEN TO DEATH……