Judy: Over the course of more
than a hundred years beginning
in the 1800s, hundreds of
thousands of native American
children in the U.S. Were
removed from their families,
placed in federal boarding
schools and forced to abandon
their native languages and
culture.
One college in Colorado which is
also one of the top native
American degree conferring
institutions in the country is
reckoning with that history.
Special correspondent hari
sreenivasan reports for our
rethinking college series.
>> On a recent evening, the
pounding of drums signaled the
start of an annual tradition at
fort Lewis college in durango,
Colorado.
After a two-year hiatus due to
the pandemic, a sold-out crowd
packed the stands to watch the
powwow which dates back to the
1960's.
While the mood was celebratory
the night's theme was somber:
Remembering those who never made
it home.
Those being honored: The unknown
of
native American children who
died at Indian boarding schools
around the country including one
with a historical connection to
the college.
There has been a huge reckoning
in this country to say that
institutions must take a look at
their own racialized history and
understand the implications of
that racialized history.
For fort Lewis college, that
racialized history is embedded
in the fact that we started as
a.
Federal Indian boarding school
and those histories are a tragic
and sad one.
>> Tom stritikus is the
president of fort Lewis college.
Over the last three years, the
school has been engaged in an
effort to explore and
acknowledge that history and
provide a more supportive
learning environment for native
American and Alaska native
students
who make up about half of the
school's enrollment.
Nationally, only about a quarter
of 18 to 24-year-old native
Americans are enrolled in higher
education.
Stritikus says over the years,
the college's history and
long-standing native American
tuition waiver weren't a secret
but they also weren't widely
understood by the campus
community.
>> The native American tuition
waiver is actually connected to
the fact that the students who
are attending today potentially
had ancestors who were abused
and traumatized by native
American boarding schools, those
things are connected. So it's
really our job as the leaders of
the place to talk about the
waiver, to talk about that in
the context of no, this isn't
free.
The indigenous communities paid
a tremendous price
because of federal Indian
boarding schools.
>> This is the original boarding
school site a rural stretch of
land about 15 miles from the
fort Lewis college campus which
moved to the current location in
the 1950's.
Today, the land is used by the
college for agricultural
education.
Only two of the original
buildings remain.
>> For twenty years, from 1891
to 1910, several thousand native
American children went to school
here where they were stripped of
their language and culture. The
impact of that cultural genocide
is still being felt today.
>> My father grew up not
learning the Dakota language
because his parents again made a
difficult decision that my dad
would be better served if he
just spoke English without any
accent.
Many, many descendants of
boarding school survivors know
that experience.
>> Fort Lewis college associate
professor majel boxer's
grandparents attended boarding
schools in other locations
around the country.
She's an enrolled member of the
fort peck assiniboine and sioux
tribes of northeastern Montana
her research is focused on the
history of the boarding school
which was called the fort Lewis
Indian school.
>> This building here would have
been used for agricultural
purposes.
>> While the original boarding
school grounds have not yet been
searched for unmarked graves a
bill has been introduced in the
Colorado legislature that would
fund culturally appropriate
exploration later this year
boxer says that process will be
an important part of the
healing.
>> The stories that are shared
with me by tribal elders are
that they know children have
passed away. It's reason why
chief Ignacio did not want
children to come to fort Lewis
Indian school is because parents
knew that their children did die
from disease. And so part of
that reconciliation includes
that truth telling.
>> The campus-wide
reconciliation process now
underway is due, in large part,
to this woman.
>> I'm joslynn Lee and I am
assistant professor of chemistry
here at fort Lewis college I am
enrolled for the Pueblo of
Laguna they are one of the 19
tribes of New Mexico.
As a student at fort Lewis
college in the early 2000sd
returning as a new faculty
member in 2019 she was troubled
by panels under the colleges
prominent clock tower that
depicted the boarding school
history with photo captions that
included the children are well
clothed and happy.
I was riding my bike through
campus and I decided to visit
the clock tower to go back and
see what the imagery,
photography and language used.
So I spent about five minutes
and did get upset again of this
is an inappropriate
representation, and I'm not too
sure why we're still allowing
that to be shared.
She says her relatives and many
other native Americans
at boarding schools contradict
the photo captions and
impressions of that era
including the children are well
clothed and happy.
One big step in that process was
removing the boarding school
panels during a special ceremony
last year.
Majel boxer has been part of the
on-going reconciliation work
which includes faculty, staff
and students.
>> It felt good to be listened
to after many years of raising
the concern, then to have our
college president just simply
say, you're right, let's remove
them. And then we spent a good
year in town halls and listening
sessions to really listen to
students, faculty and staff to
see how we could improve our
campus and our understanding of
the Indian school history.
So in many ways, little small
efforts are coming together
--an indigenous language
revitalization program. Funded
through a grant from the Mellon
foundation.
--Three new faculty hires in the
native American and indigenous
studies department.
And a land acknowledgement
before college events and in
classes at the start of each
>> We acknowledge the land that
fort Lewis college is situated
upon is the ancestral land and
territory of the nuuchiu (Ute)
People who were forcibly removed
by the United States government.
>> I feel more recognized. I
feel more acknowledged on this
campus rather than, um, you
know, how it was before was just
like, oh, there's just some
Indian kids over there, you
know, they're not doing nothing.
They're just, they're just here,
you know?
But he says there is still work
to be done.
For president stritikus, a big
part of the work still to be
done is getting students across
the finish line.
Before the pandemic, the school
was starting to see some gains
in first-year retention rates.
>> The pandemic has eroded those
gains.
I think that when we put the
notions around academic support
together with sort of the broad,
culturally responsive work we're
doing in terms of acknowledging
the importance of native culture
that we're going to continue to
pick back up the gains that we
started to see before the
pandemic
>> For joslynn Lee, the work
over the last few years has been
meaningful
>> I'm hoping that this is a
more holistic approach to
learning about each other so
that we can all start to get
along better than the last.
>> There's been a steady uptick
in the number of native
American students enrolling over
the last four years and the