![]() We never hear what happens to the items that are confiscated from the children. "The stories of children crying as their hair is cut come from the children as adults, not from the records of those doing the cutting. Records covered personnel issues, equipment and supply requests, but never children's names. Superintendents, who were both good bureaucrats and "shrewd political players," sent messages to Washington, D.C. Not everything was written down, the report pointed out. This is not done to excuse any deaths or other impacts on Native people subjected to these institutions. This report seeks to contextualize what happened to these children, and to understand not only the conditions within the Fort Lewis and Grand Junction schools but also the social, political, and other conditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. "Every single death was a tragedy to the families who lost their loved ones. "There is no threshold where the death of children at the boarding schools is acceptable," the report said. The reports sent to Washington never identified the name or even the tribal affiliation of children who died they were often referred to instead as an "Indian child." More than 65 students died at the two schools, the report said, ranging in age from 5 (which was too young to even have been enrolled at the school) to 22, which the federal government said was too old to be enrolled. In all, the two boarding schools enrolled students from 22 tribes, the report said. I would caution that oral histories must serve a greater purpose than simply recording the trauma of already victimized people, who do not owe the state their emotions or stories," the report said. "Oral histories should be first hand accounts of survivors. In addition, family members of the survivors said their relatives did not speak of the experience. Since the two main schools researched for the report - Fort Lewis and the Teller Institute - had both closed by 1911, there are few, if any living survivors of the schools, the report said. The report also asked why the state government needed the oral histories at all. "Given the short time frame" for the report, and "the need to intentionally approach oral history interviews from a perspective grounded in knowledge of the history of schools in Colorado, cultural sensitivity, and trauma-informed approaches, it was not a directive that could be accomplished responsibly this state fiscal year," the report said. Superintendents used these letters and the distance from DC to conceal internal issues except the ones they wanted to bring to the attention of Washington."Īs for oral histories, the report said that wasn't doable. The report noted, for example, that the almost complete autonomy by superintendents meant they "were able to weave their own narratives about the everyday experiences of students under their care, and indeed we see those stories pushed forward to Washington. ![]() The history of the Fort Lewis boarding school was not recorded by students or their families, so researchers had to rely on government reports sent by the superintendents, which often presented only the best light, or contemporary newspaper accounts. The latter task was the one that was the most difficult to complete, the report noted. The projects included identifying and mapping graves of Native American students at Fort Lewis and "off-campus cemeteries," to research "Native American student victims" at Fort Lewis, and to review written and recorded history, including oral history, that described the experience and trauma of students who attended Fort Lewis, as well as their families. The report noted eight different schools that had Native American students between 18, but focused primarily on Fort Lewis and the Grand Junction Indian Boarding School, also known as the Teller Institute, which operated from 1888 to 1911. HB 1327 gave History Colorado a list of research projects, beginning with events, abuse, and deaths that occurred at the federal Native American boarding school at Fort Lewis, which was located in nearby Hesperus and operated from 1880 to 1911. The final report, 139 pages, was released this week by History Colorado, although tribal representatives and the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs were given copies back in June. House Bill 22-1327 went into effect on Jwith a deadline for a final report of June 30, 2023.
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