Indian Boarding School News
Check this page for the latest news from Nevada and around the countryNews Features
Harvard announces return of Native hair samples
Indian Country Today, Mary Annette Pember, November 28, 2022
Tucked in hundreds of envelopes is the hair cut from Native children as they arrived at boarding schools. Hidden away for nearly 100 years in the recesses of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, the collection of hair samples offers tangible evidence of the trauma of assimilation.. ….Click to read more.
NABS Statement on Harvard University’s Peabody Museum Announcement
The Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, November 19, 2022
We join our relatives in grief over the disturbing revelation from Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, indicating their possession of hair cuttings from hundreds of Native children who attended boarding schools between 1930 and 1933. We have learned that these materials consist of hair taken from nearly 700 children, most of whom have been documented with their names and Tribal affiliation. ….Click to read more.
RGJ releases 2022 newsroom diversity figures
Reno Gazette Journal, Peggy Santoro, August 1, 2022
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports on the ethnic and gender makeup of our staff each year to be transparent about our diversity and inclusivity. In short, over the past year we have made strides in some areas and lost ground in others. ….Click to read more.
Native tourism destinations: 10 places to support with your vacation dollars
Elko Daily Free Press, Kalle Benallie, Indian Country Today July 25, 2022
The museum — located in Carson City, Nevada — is dedicated to the first children and families from the Great Basin tribes who experienced the effects of the Stewart Indian School when it opened in 1890. It closed 90 years later in 1980.
“This museum is not a museum in the Western sense, but a gathering place for Stewart alumni and their families,” the website states. ….Click to read more.
Confronting Nevada’s boarding school legacy through art and investigation
The Nevada Independent, by Daniel Rothberg, June 9, 2022
Five girls in a circle. They are wearing pastel-colored gowns. They sing. They dance.
And then the room goes silent. The matron enters the stage. She is a strict woman, dressed in all black and wielding a ruler that tilts in her hand as she barks orders at the five children who were supposed to be cleaning.
“That’s a disgrace,” the matron scolds. “Keep scrubbing. This better be clean when I get back.”
As the matron exits stage right, the girls begin singing again. ….Click to read more.
The Art of Jean LaMarr: representing the lives of Native Americans
KOLO 8, by Karlie Drew, May 18, 2022
Through her paintings, murals, and sculptures, her art expresses the life of Native Americans on a large scale.
The Art of Jean LaMarr exhibition is filled with pieces that give the whole community a chance to learn, but also gives the indigenous people in the area an opportunity to connect.
Jean LaMarr is from Susanville and describes Reno as her backyard. She finds inspiration from the elders. LaMarr depicts how wonderful life was for them along with the struggles they faced being Native American….Click to read more.
The History of Native American Boarding Schools Is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals
Time, by Olivia B. Waxman, May 17, 2022
Last week, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a more than 100-page report on the federal Indigenous boarding schools designed to assimilate Native Americans in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. Between 1819 and 1969, the U.S. ran or supported 408 boarding schools, the department found. Students endured “rampant physical, sexual, and emotional abuse,” and the report recorded more than 500 deaths of Native children—a number set to increase as the department’s investigation of this issue continues. …Click to read more.
The Nevada Independent, by Humberto Sanchez, May 14, 2022
Of the nation’s 408 federally backed Indian boarding schools, an initial Department of Interior (DOI) investigation report released Wednesday found marked or unmarked burial sites at 53 schools. Tens of thousands may have died systemwide, the report said.
According to the report, three schools were in Nevada. The report is part of a DOI initiative to explore and reveal the sinister history of the boarding school system, created to strip Native children from their families as part of a forced-assimilation policy. …Click to read more.
Sisolak commits to addressing Stewart Indian School’s legacy
Nevada Appeal, May 13, 2022
Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday commended the federal Interior Department’s efforts to address the legacy of federal Indian boarding schools, including Stewart in Carson City.
He also committed to addressing that legacy at the state level. …Click to read more.
Interior Department report details the brutality of federal Indian boarding schools
Nevada Current, by Shaun Griswold, May 13, 2022
The atrocities committed at boarding schools designed and run by the federal government to eradicate Indigenous people were outlined by the U.S. Interior Department for the first time in a report published Wednesday.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland held back tears as she described the scope of the investigation that identifies 408 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states that operated between 1819 and 1969. New Mexico had at least 43 of these schools, the third most in the country behind Oklahoma (76) and Arizona (47). Nevada had three schools. …Click to read more.
Indigenous advocates: Feds need to expand Indian boarding school initiative
WXXI News | by Noelle E. C. Evans, May 13, 2022
A few years ago, Michael Galban, the curator at Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor, did some digging into records and newspaper archives from the turn of the last century.
He wanted to learn more about the Stewart Indian School in Nevada — the Indian boarding school where his grandmother went. …Click to read more.
U.S. counts Indian boarding school deaths for first time but leaves key questions unanswered
NBC U.S. news, by Graham Lee Brewer, May 11, 2022
At least 500 Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died while attending Indian boarding schools run or supported by the U.S. government, a highly anticipated Interior Department report said Wednesday. The report identified over 400 schools and more than 50 gravesites and said more gravesites would likely be found. …Click to read.
Tulalip woman helped uncover dark history of Indian boarding schools
The Daily Herald, by Isabella Breda, May 11, 2022
When she was about 9 years old, Deborah Parker’s grandmother taught her how to hide beneath the dining room table.
Parker, then a tall elementary school student from Tulalip, crouched down beside her grandmother. The tablecloth draped over the edges, acting as a veil from the outside world. …Click to read.
“Tribal Art and Culture from the Great Basin”
Nevada Magazine & Visitors Guide, Summer 2022, p. 59-63.
…Click to read.
The Brutal Past And The Effort To Heal At A Nevada Indian School
Forbes, by Regina Cole, February 2, 2022
The residential schools established across North American to assimilate and Christianize the children of the native tribes are well-known for the terrible suffering they caused: earlier this month, Pope Francis issued a formal apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church to survivors and families impacted by Canadian residential schools. …Click to read more
Silver State, Golden Life: The Ultimate Guide to Carson City’s Museums
Visit Carson City NV- February 2, 2022
Self-recognized as an eco-museum, the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum was formed as an act of collaboration with alumni of the school to honor the past, present, and future of the people who attended, as well as their families. I cannot recommend a trip to this museum enough. ...Click to read more.