Special | 56m 43s | Video has closed captioning.
KUED takes a moving and insightful look into the history, operation, and legacy of the federal Indian Boarding School system, whose goal was total assimilation of Native Americans at the cost of stripping away Native culture, tradition, and language.
Aired: 02/16/16
[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: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
