Patty Grant, an elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, speaks about historical grief and trauma during the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation event held in Cherokee, N.C. on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 30. The event featured a walk and informative speeches on the subject of Indian Boarding Schools, specifically the Cherokee Boarding School. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – Hundreds of people turned out, wearing orange shirts, to commemorate the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation event hosted by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in Cherokee, N.C. on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 30. The event, also known as Orange Shirt Day, featured a walk and informative speeches on the subject of Indian Boarding Schools, specifically the Cherokee Boarding School.
Orange Shirt Day originated in Canada, and according to its official governmental website, “The day honours the children who never returned home and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.”
During Tuesday’s event, EBCI Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) Michell Hicks, standing in front of an enlarged black-and-white photo of students at the old Cherokee Boarding School, stated, “I think the pictures, without question, they tell a lot of stories. Especially if you pay attention to the earlier pictures – not a lot of smiles.”
He spoke of the ongoing work that the EBCI is doing to document the boarding school days. “As we go through the work that we’re doing, we have folks that are doing some tremendous research with the things that we saw today and will see in the future. It’s warming to me that we’re able to recapture this element of our history that’s so important that I don’t think any of us fully understand. We’ve heard the stories. We’ve captured a lot of the things. But, as we continue to put these items together, there is going to be times of emotion.”
Ugviwyuhi (Principal Chief) Michell Hicks speaks during Tuesday’s event.
Ugvwiyuhi Hicks went on to say, “As we look at where we are, a lot of our boarding school folks, they’re moving on. So, I was telling the guys yesterday, we have to do everything we can to capture a thought, to capture a memory, to capture a picture, to capture whatever we can so that we can help ourselves heal. That’s what this is about. It’s about that healing process that every one of us needs.”
In May 2022, then-Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Bryan Newland issued a 106-page report entitled “Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report”.
He states in a foreword to that report, “This report confirms that the United States directly targeted American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children in the pursuit of a policy of cultural assimilation that coincided with Indian territorial dispossession. It identifies the Federal Indian boarding schools that were used as a means for these ends, along with at least 53 burial sites for children across this system- with more site discoveries and data expected as we continue our research.”
The Cherokee Boarding School operated from 1880 to 1954.
According to an informational kiosk at the event, “From 1892-1933, the Cherokee Boarding School structure followed a militaristic model. Students wore military style uniforms on certain occasions, marched to military style drills between classes, performed manual labor, and were harshly punished for not meeting certain standards or disobeying the rules. The military education model is reflected across most boarding schools nationwide, as seen in Carlisle Industrial training school in Pennsylvania and the Chilocco Indian Industrial School, for example.”
Renissa McLaughlin, EBCI youth and adult education director, commented, “What we began here is more than just a walk. It is the start of building community resources and education around the Cherokee boarding and day schools.
This walk is our first official step to raise awareness, to educate, and to create space for healing together as a community. The collective past of our families and ancestors is marked by both resilience and deep sorrow.”
She added, “Today, by walking together, we acknowledge those wounds while affirming that healing and education can move us forward. In contrast to the past, today’s educational landscape for our enrolled members reflects sovereignty and choice. Parents may decide whether their children attend public, private, BIE, or charter schools. After high school, our young people can choose again – trade schools, vocational programs, universities, and colleges all across the country. More than 500 enrolled members annually are currently pursuing post-secondary education. There is nothing more powerful than the power of choice. We get to choose the education for our children.”
Over 200 people came out for the event which began with a walk from the Cherokee Welcome Center to the Cherokee BIA Agency which is near the site of the old Cherokee Boarding School.
Patty Grant, an EBCI elder, spoke on historical grief and trauma and noted, “We know that this historical event of the boarding school era, and the generations that occurred in this community, has had its long lasting impact. Some of the things that we know that is impactful is for our parents to say, or grandparents to say, ‘my parents did not teach me how to speak Cherokee because they did not want us to go through what they went through’… Because the trauma was deep-seeded and is, through research we know that it is in our DNA and it is being passed from generation to generation.”
She further commented, “I do know that there are individuals who say, ‘well, my parents or grandparents never spoke of the severe punishment that they experienced, only of the good things’. And, I’m not here to stand before you and say that the boarding school was all bad, because it wasn’t. The boarding school, for what it stood for, taught the students a lot of good things. However, if you read the sign, the origin of the boarding school was to ‘kill the Indian, and save the man’. And, they went about this process by beating and severing the families from each other.”
Grant said the trauma affects all relationships. “I wanted people to understand that there was a reason for the way we are today, and it’s not our fault. We get raised up by our parents who are traumatized and who are wounded and who are hurt, then they raise us and that’s how we feel as we come up through the ranks of childhood into adulthood.
As we take this journey and all of you are so graciously willing to learn about the boarding school – whether your parents went to the boarding school, or grandparents, or you know someone who went to the boarding school – but it’s easier to understand now that their trauma oftentimes plays out in their relationships with us.”
