Thousands of captured Ukrainian children sent to Russia for adoption

As horrific as that is, it’s happened here, too

Russia troops have absconded with thousands of Ukrainian children who were separated from their families during the war, the Washington Post reports. While the numbers aren’t clear, Ukraine’s top children’s rights official said family and friends have reported more than 10,000 unaccompanied Ukrainian children have been sent to Russia.

For example, Oleksandr, a 12-year-old boy injured in a Russian attack in Mariupol, was separated from his grandmother while seeking medical help, the Post story said. Troops took him to a hospital in Donetsk, in Russian-occupied Ukraine, where he was told Russian parents would adopt him.

Lyudmila, the grandmother, somehow was able to save him before he left for Russia. She shared her grandson’s experience: They “told him that Ukraine is bad and Ukrainians are evil,” she said. “They forced the children to speak Russian.”

I couldn’t read this story without thinking about the legacy of Indian boarding schools and other U.S. assimilation policies.

We rightfully condemn Russia’s actions, which are war crimes. At the same time, we need to take a hard look at our own history, and our failure to repair the deep harm U.S. actions have inflicted on Indigenous children, families, and communities.

We can’t condemn the one, and ignore the other.

News: Supreme Court to hear ICWA case, abusive priests sent to Indian mission schools, and more

In this post:

• U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments in critical ICWA case Nov. 9
• Abusive priests clustered at Indian mission schools
• U. of M. Regent worried Morris campus is ‘too diverse,’ later apologizes
• Bemidji City Council to discuss displaying Tribal flags at City Hall

Pope’s Residential School apology draws mixed reaction around Turtle Island

Pope Francis apologized to the Indigenous peoples of Canada this week for the evil and atrocities committed against their children through the Catholic-run residential school system.

“I am deeply sorry — sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,” the Pope said, according to the Washington Post. “It is painful to think of how the firm soil of values, language and culture that made up the authentic identity of your peoples was eroded, and that you have continued to pay the price of this,” Francis said, in his native Spanish.

Some in Indian Country accepted the apology. Some saw it as long overdue. Others felt it was a good step, but lacked specificity. Still others are waiting to see if the Pope’s words would be followed by concrete actions.

News and Events: Boarding schools, treaty rights, the importance of Aunties, and more

In this post:

• Webinar Thursday: Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ Resilience: The Legacy and Impacts of Indian Boarding Schools
• Webinar July 20: Tribal Treaty Rights and Energy Infrastructure, July 20
• All My Relations Art presents Noojimo (She Heals) celebrating the importance of Aunties in Indigenous spaces, opens July 19
• Minnesota Chippewa Tribe to vote on blood quantum enrollment rules this summer
• New quarter will honor Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Nation’s first female principal chief

American Indian population increases in Minnesota and nationally, climate crisis in Indian Country, and more

In this blog:

• U.S. Census: American Indian/Alaska Native population increased in the past decade
• Indian Country Today: Climate crisis in Indian Country
• MPR: St. Benedict nuns apologize for Native boarding school
• The Conversation: Indigenous land defenders get much more police scrutiny than right-wing protesters
• Registration open for 2021 Overcoming Racism Conference

Momentum is building for truth telling and healing around the cultural genocide that took place in Indian Boarding Schools and the trauma that continues today

First in a two-part series.

The Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC) is moving into a decade-long commitment to truth telling, education, and repair with Native American and African communities. Those communities suffered deeply from America’s original sins: Slavery and Native American genocide. Those sins have never been fully acknowledged or addressed, let alone healed or repaired.

Christine Diindissi McCleave, CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, gave one of two keynote addresses at MCC’s inaugural event, “Minnesota’s Racial Legacy: Finally Telling the Truth,” Sept. 24-25 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis.

McCleave (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) put the work ahead in stark terms: “Why don’t we tell the truth about genocide in this country?” she asked. “Because people have things they will lose. It’s tied to Empire and control and money and land.”

At the same time, there’s a tremendous amount of healing that can happen and actions that could put this nation and its religious institutions on a more solid moral foundation.

Haaland, Dept. of Interior, launch review of ‘troubled legacy’ of U.S. Indian boarding schools

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced this week she has ordered a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding schools, which operated for much of the 19th and 20th centuries with the primary goal of assimilating Indian children into European culture.

Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and the first Native American person to hold a cabinet level position. She has directed her staff to research historical boarding school records, with an emphasis on cemeteries or potential burial sites, and publish a report, according to a Department media release.

The Twin Cities-based Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) applauded the news.

“NABS believes this investigation will provide critical resources to address the ongoing historical trauma of Indian boarding schools,” the organization said in a media release. “Our organization has been pursuing truth, justice, and healing for boarding school survivors, descendants, and tribal communities.”

A webinar, a rally, a play, and Canada’s double standard on treaty rights

In this blog:

• Webinar: Indian Boarding School Cemeteries and Missing Children, May 26
• Rally: Grandmothers to meet at Governor’s mansion to oppose Enbridge Line 3, May 26
• Play: The Missouri River Water Walk, May 21-23 at Hidden Falls
• Canada’s double standard on treaty rights
• Carbon sequestration helps Yurok Tribe in California grow its land base

How the U.S. stole the sacred Pipestone quarry from the Ihanktonwan

In researching the history of Indian Boarding Schools in Minnesota, I came across the story of how the U.S. government stole the sacred Pipestone quarry from the Ihanktonwan people. (The federal government calls them the Yankton Sioux Tribe.)

In Dakota, Ihanktonwan means “People of the End Village People,” according to the Ihanktonwan Community College. “The Ihanktonwan are also known as the ‘Land of the Friendly People of the Seven Council Fires,'” known in Dakota as the Oceti Sakowin.

Historically, the Ihanktonwan’s role included protecting the sacred Pipestone Quarry, Wikipedia says,

The U.S. government took away that sacred duty.

Indigenous organization seeks church partners for truth telling, healing, around Indian boarding school trauma

Part of an ongoing series on healing and reparations

Can you remember when you were 8 years old, somewhere around third grade? Put yourself in that frame of mind.

Imagine adults you don’t know come to your door. They grab you and take you away from your family. Your parents are distraught, weeping and seem powerless. You don’t know what’s going on.

You are taken to a place you have never been before. Nothing is familiar. You are immediately scrubbed with lye soap as some aggressive adult snaps about “filthy savages” to no one in particular.