‘ EMOTIONAL FOR EVERYONE’
OK METHODIST LEADERS REFLECT ON BOARDING SCHOOL VIGIL
It was easy for the minister to picture the small tombstones as they were described at a recent prayer vigil.
The Rev. David Wilson said he had seen for himself the “itty bitty headstones” of Native American children believed to have died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Delores Subia BigFoot, a member of the Caddo tribe who is a child psychologist, spoke of seeing the gravestones tied to the Carlisle School during her presentation at a Sept. 30 remembrance service for youths who experienced the Native American boarding school era.
BigFoot said it was particularly tragic that some of the small tombstones were simply marked “unknown.”
Her words, Wilson said, evoked powerful images of thousands of children who were taken from their families and forced into federally run residential schools where they were treated harshly and stripped of their Native American identity and culture.
“It was an emotional day for many individuals, including Dr. BigFoot as we thought about relatives who have gone on and relatives who were part of the boarding schools,” he said.
“The title of her address was ‘We want to know you by name.’”
The recent remembrance event was hosted by the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church and held in the open-air tabernacle at Thlopthlocco United Methodist Church near Okemah.
Wilson, assistant to Oklahoma United Methodist Bishop Jimmy Nunn, said the event was one of many held across the U.S. and Canada for a day of remembrance for Native American children who died at boarding schools. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which has been working to educate the public about the boarding schools and their legacy, called for Sept. 30 to be observed as National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools
This date coincided with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation that is dedicated in Canada to residential school survivors, created after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves by Canada’s Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First Nation at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. That discovery prompted U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo Laguna tribe, earlier this year to call for a reckoning of sorts, in the form of a comprehensive review of the federal boarding school legacy.
Wilson said about 45 people attended the solemn ceremony near Okemah. He said it was essentially invitation only to limit the spread of COVID-19. He said the Five Civilized Tribes were invited to send representatives and several members of the Chickasaw Nation and Muscogee Creek Nation were in attendance. Wilson said the Muscogee Creek participants are part of the Methodist Church’s Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.
Many people wore orange shirts and others were given orange ribbons because orange shirts and the color orange have come to symbolize how the residential school system took away the indigenous identity of many of its students. The custom was inspired several years ago by the recollections of a Canadian survivor of a residential boarding school.
“The weather was great out there in the open-air tabernacle and it was a good reflective event,” Wilson said, adding that attendees seemed to appreciate that Oklahoma Methodists hosted the observance.
Bigfoot, an associate professor directing the Native American Programs at the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at the OU Health Science Center, served as keynote speaker.
Wilson said it seemed appropriate that a remembrance event was held in Oklahoma because the state has more than 83 former and current boarding school sites, more than any in the nation, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
Ahead of the day of remembrance, leaders with the United Methodist denomination condemned church sponsorship of U.S. “abusive” Indian boarding schools and called for remembrance of victims and survivors
While authorized and primarily funded by government, some of these schools were also sponsored or operated by religious organizations, including several with Methodist affiliations, the United Methodist group said in a statement.
Along with Wilson, Nunn, bishop of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference and Oklahoma United Methodist Conference, also spoke at the vigil.
In his remarks, Nunn said it was important to note that some of the residential schools were connected to Native American tribes and those were reportedly run different and not viewed as harmful like the schools that were only run by the U.S. government. Wilson agreed with the bishop’s assessment.
Nunn also said the remembrance service was a way of acknowledging the truth about the way Native Americans were treated in the boarding school era that roughly began in the 1820s and lasted until the 1980s.
Meanwhile, Wilson said they hope to have the event again.
“After it was over, one of our superintendents said we need to do this every year, except go to different parts of the state,” he said.