Revealing a photo of her family and recalling her grandparents attended Native American boarding schools during the late 1920s into the 1930s, Deidre Whiteman spoke about her “guides.”

They were survivors, she said.

“I knew they loved me, and I felt a lot of love from them all the time when I was around them, and I always think of it as a privilege and just a blessing that I got to be around my grandparents, because they really taught me a lot in the short time I was with them,” Whiteman said. 

“I just wanted to share this picture, so, you know, as we move forward, this is who guides me in everything that I do and how I remember and do this difficult work, because I can’t imagine what it must have been like for them going through these school institutions during that time.”

Whiteman, Meskwaki, Dakota, Ojibwe and Hidatsa, is the director of research and education at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and a Haskell alum.

She spoke at an event Monday evening as Sept. 30 is recognized in the U.S. and Canada as the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, in honor of the children who survived the federal Indian boarding school system.

Dozens of community members, from toddlers to middle schoolers to college students to elders, gathered at Haskell Indian Nations University for the event.

The university that today represents students of more than 140 tribal nations was founded as a federal Indian boarding school. It opened as the United States Indian Industrial Training School in 1884.

Native American children en masse were forced into these institutions to be assimilated into white American society. They were disallowed from speaking their native languages, wearing traditional clothing and carrying out their customs. Abuse and neglect were prevalent, and students who were sick with infectious diseases were sent home to spread them.

Many children were killed or died while at boarding schools, characterized as genocide. A 2022 federal report found that residential schools in the United States were responsible for the deaths of more than 500 students between 1869 and 1969, although more were unrecorded.

Asked who learned about boarding school history in school, fewer than five attendees raised their hands. Acknowledging this history is essential to address the present, Whiteman said. 

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition has developed curriculum resources for teachers and families to utilize, and is working on a report about healing and justice.

Whiteman said they hope to fill gaps in written documentation and collect testimony from survivors and descendants.

Haskell Cemetery today remains a cemetery for 103 Native American children buried between 1885 and 1943, the report also found. The school had undergone several phases before finally becoming a university in 1993.

Sierra Two Bulls, Oglala Lakota, said the very presence of the Native American communities in Lawrence is proof of progress. Community gatherings, Haskell powwows, awareness events and more are regularly happening around town and often open to the public.

“We know that the U.S. government, or the Canadian government — I mean, we’re still here — they tried to get rid of us,” Two Bulls said. “We’re still here, though, you know, and we’ve come a long way. And there are places like here at Haskell, being a former boarding school, and it has flourished. It has grown to what it is now, you know, it’s no longer assimilating us. We are here and thriving in our culture.”

Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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