Unity perseverance do anything
through US and we're still going to
be here today is the unofficial day
of remembrance and recognition for
what has happened in boarding schools.
Here are remembering the
stories of lost loved ones.
Makes me grateful today I'm here compared
to all the ones that were taken. Stories
of indigenous children stolen
from their families forced into
government run boarding schools. I had
that haircut to Matilda
Sampson, a grandmother and community leader.
Survived one of those schools we
met her here at Fort Spokane,
a former indigenous boarding school.
Everything was taken from me.
Native boarding schools were created
by EU S and Canadian governments.
In the late 1800s, the goal,
according to the Department of Interior,
forcibly relocating the children
to schools where their identities,
languages and beliefs were
to be forcibly suppressed,
wasn't used to wearing the uniform
clothes and not allowed to talk
her language or teller stories.
There are accounts of physical and
psychological abuse at these schools.
Matilda, a member of a Canadian tribe,
called the Adam Lake Band,
attended Kamloops Indian Residential School
in British Columbia in the early 1970s.
They always said there was
children buried behind the school.
The tragic hidden truth of some
Native American boarding schools.
More than 1000 bodies found in
mass graves at schools in Canada
seen the headlines about the mass
graves found at her old boarding school
last summer, brought Matilda back
when I first saw it.
I was like I couldn't believe it.
It's so heartbreaking.
I have a lot of hurt.
Had a lot of heat.
Mangri because I was brought up.
The Lotto abused. Years
of alcohol abuse. A coping mechanism
to drown out the unsettling memories.
It's been too long, my life hating.
That's not who I am today.
Matilda's. Experience at the
school was not one of a kind.
There were hundreds of
them across North America,
including more than 350 indigenous
boarding schools across the United States.
Mostly government funded,
some run by churches,
more than 60,000 Native American
children were placed in these schools.
That's nearly 83% of all school.
Aged indigenous children by the 1920s.
Here we are on the western
Navajo Indian Reservation.
Historic videos show those children
side by side with government officials.
Stripped of their native identities,
their traditional songs
replaced by humiliating names.
One of those schools is still open
chemawa Indian training school in
Salem OR it started out in Forest Grove
OR about 40 miles West of Portland.
More than 300 indigenous children
were forced to go there.
Many like these Spokane children
never made it out alive.
This is a photograph of students
who were on route from Spokane to
the Forest Grove Indian School.
Eva Gamos is an archivist at Pacific
University in the city of Forest Grove.
Martha lot. Also known as Maddie.
Lot died within about six months
of this photograph being taken.
We think it's probably her
over the past ten years.
Eve's research has been locating
the remains of indigenous
children like Maddie law.
We believe she is buried right about here.
The government relocated Forest
Grove to Salem in 1885 and changed
the name to Chemawa Indian School.
But the mistreatment of the children
continued and the number of deaths
rose were on sacred ground.
Frederick Lane from the Lacrimas
tribe attended Chihuahua in the 1980s.
On Indigenous Peoples Day,
Lane came to Jamal it to pay his respects.
They were killed,
they were somebody's child.
These children were stolen.
They lie right here
for half a century.
They'll I hear their stories
buried along with them.
In the 1960s, a bulldozer was
sent into the neglected cemetery
at Chemawa and wiped out the
original headstone plates
and the plates were put back in an order
that they assumed copied an old map. Sue
Ann Radica, former Chemawa
employee, was distraught about
the destruction of the cemetery.
These plates do not necessarily
relate to the location of
the remains of the children,
so we're hopeful that some of this
research can help narrow down what
are probably unmarked graves.
Sue Ann and David teamed up to convert
old cemetery maps and information into a
digital database to find unmarked graves.
Based on our list of who died,
these ones, we don't know where they
were buried makes me feel sad and.
Also, I guess honestly just a little
bit angry that more wasn't done
now families from all over the country
can find out who exactly is buried at
this cemetery, their tribal affiliation,
their burial location and cause of death to
stand here and. Think about that
family coming to this school.
Losing that child while they were there. It.
There aren't any words for it,
it's it's a kind of pain that only.
Only parents who have lost their children.
Can understand.
You just wish somehow you could
comfort somebody, and maybe that is
the whole purpose of the work
that Eva and I are doing.
We reached out to school officials
to ask about Chihuahuas history.
They referred us to the Bureau of
Indian Education, which did not respond.
I guess it's bittersweet with the
sad history of Chemawa Indian school
Lane says the Chihuahua of today has evolved
into a refuge for young Native Americans
tomorrow as enlightened, my ability to
move forward as an indigenous. Person
today, indigenous students learn
their culture and history.
Here the cemetery a reminder of what the
children who came before them endured.
They have no voice, but their
voice is right here right now.
Through the good work that we're
trying to do to protect tomorrow.
Indian school.
I've been sober 30 years now.
Today, Matilda Sampson has found
strength in her recovery and healing
from a past no longer buried.
One would be the best I can.
With what I have.
And share with others.
Right now I just gotta
keep moving forward.
Can't keep that hating
me 'cause my dudes and they win.
The investigation by the Department of
Interior will identify burial sites
such as the Jamala Cemetery and consult
with tribes on how to protect them.
The assigned task force will submit a report
to Secretary Holland by April 1st about
what they discovered and how to proceed.
If you have a story idea
for our facing race team,
send it by email to race at king5.com.