St. Ignatius vigil acknowledges Indian boarding school trauma

ST. IGNATIUS — The recent discovery of hundreds of bodies of children at the sites of multiple Indian boarding schools in Canada has heightened public awareness of the widespread abuse Indigenous children suffered at many such schools in both Canada and the U.S.

During a vigil Saturday at St. Ignatius Mission Church, the site of a former Indian boarding school, it was clear that memories and the destructive effects of that time are still fresh, raw and personal for those who experienced it, and for their descendants and community.

The vigil was organized by Karissa Trahan-Sorrell and Claire Charlo to honor the thousands of Indian children who were taken from their families and forced to stay at one of the Indian boarding schools. Several members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes shared personal family stories and historical accounts that addressed the terror, torture, loneliness and even death that these children faced, and the trauma that continues to affect their families and community, even after decades. Flowers, teddy bears and LED candles were placed in a memorial on the grounds in their memory.

The St. Ignatius Mission school was one of 17 American Indian boarding schools in Montana listed by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, of 367 in the U.S. The schools were funded by the federal government, but mostly run by churches, part of an overt U.S. government effort to strip Indigenous people of their culture and language and assimilate them into white culture. Many students were subject to severe punishments, starvation, neglect and sexual abuse as they were denied the use of their own language, culture, and families. Often, children were shipped to far away schools or adopted out and raised away from their families and culture. Some are still trying to find their way back.

What happened at the boarding schools, said Claire Charlo, “was an act of genocide. And it continued on and on for decades.” The children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who survived “are still suffering from the trauma of the Ursuline boarding schools.” Ursulines was the order of nuns who established and ran many of the schools, including the one at St. Ignatius.

The St. Ignatius school first opened as a girls’ school in 1864. A boys’ school was added in 1878, and later the two were combined until its closure in the 1970s.

Tribal Councilman Martin Charlo, Claire’s brother, said at the vigil that he had been an altar boy at the church and had many good memories. But his father attended during an era from the 1940s to early 1970s, when abuse of students — physical, emotional, and sexual — was rampant at the school. A lawsuit was filed in 2011 on behalf of 232 of the survivors of that abuse or their descendants, some of whom, now adults, provided detailed testimony to the court. The suit was resolved with a multimillion-dollar settlement in 2015.

“It seems like that was so long ago,” Councilman Charlo said, “but our parents are part of the survivors from that generation that we’re not that far removed from. It’s something to be aware of, our history, both good and bad, with this place here. This is always going to be our homeland, this will always be who we are. I think we can acknowledge the bad things that went on and hopefully, as people, we grow and heal and move on from this. But never forget the people who sacrificed their lives for our generation. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”

“We always gotta be cognizant of our history,” he said. “Make sure we don’t repeat it, make sure we continue to grow as people. We are resilient people. No matter what, we survive, and succeed and do well. We wouldn’t be who we are without our history and our past.”

Cheryl Eagle, a Blackfeet and Lakota Indian, learned of the vigil and came over from Butte. Eagle is a survivor of sexual abuse. Her brother’s murderer has never faced justice, and she said she is keenly aware of the trauma experienced by the generations before her.

“I feel like we need to prepare ourselves for what is going to be revealed here in the United States,” Eagle said. “As Natives, our true healing will come by addressing what has happened in boarding school to our great-grandparents, our grandparents and our parents. We are a powerful people. We have been attacked. They tried to kill us off and we’re still here. What’s happening now is a good thing, not a bad thing. While we address the pain, we are walking toward our healing. We are in a change.”

Patrick Matt Jr., director of the Familes First Program for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said he was disturbed by reading the accounts of those who testified in the lawsuit.

“Their stories are horrific,” Matt said. “It makes me shake right now, what these children had to go through. So when they call our people ‘survivors,’ they mean survivors.

“As these children are being found on this land of ours we call Turtle Island, one of the saddest aspects of it is that it doesn’t surprise me. ... There’s fresh rage, fresh anger. Indian Country needs some answers.”

Matt called for a “powerful reconciliation in America,” asking for people in the faith community to come forward along with Tribal, state and federal government leaders to “come together and sit at the table. People need to be heard, people need to be felt, people need to be spoken to, and so this is that time. The time is now.”

As he read the statements from survivors who testified in the lawsuit, Matt said, “It wasn’t the monetary. What they really wanted was for their stories to be heard, and for society, and a judge or jury to stand up and say, ‘You were wronged. We recognize as a people that you were wronged.’”

“We don’t want to put the faith of our elders on trial,” Matt added. “We don’t want to put the faith of anybody on trial. That’s not what this is about. These were institutional crimes.”

The crimes, he said, were perpetuated because of “racism, hatred for our people, ‘Manifest Destiny’ and because we were people standing in the way of what other people wanted. And our children weren’t valued as much as theirs.”

Clair Charlo, who works with the CSKT Tribal Defenders Office, spoke of those who were traumatized by the schools not knowing how to parent when they grew up, as they were “lost in their own trauma that led them into addiction.” Alcohol, she said, was responsible for probably 70% of crimes seen in Tribal court. Working with the grandchildren of boarding school survivors, she said many were disconnected from their culture, turning to substance abuse and perpetuating “intergenerational trauma.”

Claire’s father was one of the local “day students” who got to go home at the end of the day. But he heard stories of what happened at night, and still suffers guilt from not being able to help. A lot of deaths that were listed as caused by pneumonia were actually suicide, she said.

Karissa Trahan-Sorrell read a love letter she wrote to her four children and to “all the children stolen by the boarding schools.” She found herself thinking, as she comforted her own baby, “It really hurts that there were children and babies that weren’t able to be comforted at the boarding schools. That’s where it hurts me the most, is as a mother. Because at the end of the day, these are all children and babies, whether you’re Indigenous or not, they are still babies.”

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland recently announced a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies. This will include reviewing historic records with an emphasis on cemeteries or potential burial sites in preparation for future site work that many expect will lead to finding and identifying children who died at the schools.

“The Interior Department will address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools to shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past, no matter how hard it will be,” Haaland said. “I know that this process will be long and difficult. I know that this process will be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak and loss we feel. But only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace.”