President Biden on October 24, 2024, issued a formal apology for the federal government role in operating government boarding schools that mistreated children during a 150-year period. From 1819 to 1969 at least 18,000 children were taken from their homes to attend 400 boarding schools in 37 states. About 973 students died while at school. The Catholic Bishops made a formal apology June 14, 2022, to indigenous people for trauma and abuse in their 87 boarding schools. In 2020 Pope Francis apologized to the Canadian First People for the Catholic Church’s part in administering Canadian boarding schools.

There were three boarding schools located on the Spirit Lake Reservation. All are now closed. The first (1868) was St. Michael, located in the north central part of the Rez, the second, (1885-1926) Seven Dolors Mission was located close to Fort Totten, now known as the Water Tower area. The third was in the Old Fort Totten (Government School) was the last to close circa 1960.

A boarding school is a school (Wayawatipi en Wotapi) where pupils live on campus in a dormitory away from home. They are supervised twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The St. Michael and Water Tower (Mission) schools were Catholic Schools and Churches staffed by Priests (Benedictine Order from Indiana) and Nuns (Grey Order from St. Boniface, Manitoba). The St. Michael school had a farm that supplied produce to the school. The boys worked the farm half a day and received instruction the other half. The girls were taught homemaking skills and did all the work to keep the school running properly. The Fort Totten School was in the vacated Military fort (1890-1959) staffed by government employees. The premise of all three schools was to stamp out Indigenous culture and traditions, replacing it with the English language and white customs.

The pupils were kidnaped from their homes, some say at five years of age by the police. They had their long hair cut off, fumigated for lice, given Christian names and sometimes last names, such as Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln. In their exuberance to reach their goal they inflicted cruel punishments. For example, if a child wet their bed, he was humiliated in front of his peers, by making him stand in front of the assembly of students with his wet drawers on. If they were caught speaking Dakota, the pupil was given a small piece of lye soap to foam up in their mouth. Other infractions required the pupil to kneel on a broom stick, for a specified time, a very painful experience. Through interviews I was able to learn

how at St Michael, the younger students crying themselves to sleep, were heard by the older ones in the floor above. One man told me that he enjoyed the Fort Totten boarding school, as he had his own bed, a school uniform, three meals a day, and marching around like soldiers saluting the Flag of the United States. He formerly lived in a log house with a dirt roof. When it rained, he woke up all wet.

The school experience produced lifelong mental pain much the same as victims of war. In many cases they refused to pass along their school day memories. Many returned to their families to find that grandparents had died while they were in school. This potentially caused a loss of language and customs. Even funerals were changed as a Priest presided with the recitation of the Rosary. The staff taught the students to celebrate birthdays, Easter, Halloween, Christmas and New Years. Powwows were also changed introducing new non-indigenous ideas.

At the present time the boarding school experience is recently made known to the public. How could the American citizens allow this atrocity to occur? The indigenous people nationwide have been re-introduced to this knowledge that they tried to bury in their sub-conscious. Failing to pass on their suffering to the next generation. The Covid-19 pandemic pained the people, with the deaths of many of the last boarding school students. This resulted in a slow death of the Dakota language which has completely disappeared because of boarding schools. Dakota is taught presently as a foreign language in local schools or not at all. Presently the younger generation seem to be embarrassed about their language. Some have a vocabulary of about ten words. They fear making a pronunciation mistake and being laughed at. A small group of families try to keep the culture and language but appears to be a losing battle. If things continue as they are now, the Dakota language will be gone. The powwow events hold the last vastitudes of culture but has taken over as a prize-winning event. Each dancer must wear thousand-dollar regalia to be noticed by the judges. The Dakota people are priced out of their culture. The historic trauma has been passed on to their grandchildren, who now disobey in every form their Seven Teachings. I hope with all my heart that future generations will bring back the language and culture.

Bibliography

Internet search for “Boarding Schools”.

Lajimodiere, Denise K. Stringing Beads: The history, the Unforgivable, and the Healing

of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors.

Fargo: North Dakota State University Press. 2021.ISBN: 978-1-946163-43-1

(This book contains interviews with Spirit Lake boarding school survivors).

The Seven Values: Woksape (Wisdom), Wicowahba (Humility), Wawaditake (Courage), Wawokiya (Generosity), Wowaditake (Fortitude), Wahoda (Respect), and Ohan Owotana (Honesty).

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR