Indigenous Communities, Child-Family Separation, and the Catholic Church: What Do Truth and Healing Require?

• Time: 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST 

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For centuries, Indigenous children were removed from their families and sent to boarding schools or placed in adoptive non-Indigenous families. Hundreds of thousands of American Indian, Alaska Native, Canadian First Nations, Native Hawaiian, and Aboriginal children in Australia were forced to attend Catholic mission schools, where many experienced hunger, violence, forced labor, and sexual abuse. Indigenous parents and children who resisted child-family separation were harshly punished. The goal of forcible removals was to assimilate Indigenous children into Western society, erasing Indigenous identity, languages, cultures, and religious practices. This was a legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery and a series of papal bulls that had been used since the fifteenth century to justify colonization by European powers and missionaries. Forced child-family separation was endorsed by the governments of Australia, Canada, and the United States, a history which each country continues to reckon with today.

During this webinar, participants will explore the role of the Catholic Church in the separation of Indigenous children from their families and the long-lasting effect on Indigenous communities. How has this history been felt and experienced by those who were separated and their descendants? How did the Catholic Church justify the separation of Indigenous children from their families at the time? How are the Catholic Church and governments addressing this history now? What is necessary to move towards a future grounded in truth, justice, restoration, and healing?

These resources are meant to help participants learn and explore the depth and complexity of the history of Indigenous boarding schools, any progress that has been made and the challenges faced by survivors to this day.

Articles and Reports:

• ‘War against the children’: The Native American boarding school system – a decades-long effort to assimilate Indigenous people before they ever reached adulthood — robbed children of their culture, family bonds and sometimes their lives. Zach Levitt, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Simon Romero, and Tim Wallace. The New York Times. August 30, 2023.

• ‘12 years of hell’: Indian boarding school survivors share their stories: Forced by the federal government to attend the schools, Native American children were sexually assaulted, beaten and emotionally abused. Dana Hedgpeth. The Washington Post. August 7, 2023.

• Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s charged mission of healing: The first Native person to serve as a Cabinet secretary, she leads a department that once oversaw the removal of Indigenous people from their land. Karen Heller. The Washington Post. July 17, 2023.

• Native adoptions can give priority to tribal families, Supreme Court rules. Ann E. Marimow and Robert Barnes. The Washington Post. June 15, 2023.

• ‘...and yet there’s still no peace’ Catholic Indigenous Residential Schools in Canada. Stephen J. McKinney. Journal of Religious Education. October 29, 2022.

• Full text: Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous Peoples in Canada. America: The Jesuit Review. July 25, 2022.

• Troubling past: The Church’s role in America’s Indian boarding school era. The Catholic Spirit. Maria Wiering. April 26, 2022.

• ‘I Feel Shame’: Pope Apologizes to Indigenous People of Canada. Elisabetta Povoledo and Ian Austen. The New York Times. April 1, 2022.

• Atoning for sins against Indigenous people begins with confronting the past. Red Cloud Indian School is showing the way. Maka Black Elk and William Critchley-Menor, S.J. America Magazine. October 8, 2021.

• US Catholic Bishops Approve Development of Native American Pastoral Plan. Peter Jesserer Smith. National Catholic Register. June 23, 2021.

• Children's graves in Canada reflect Catholic logic of Indigenous vanishment. Kathleen Holscher. National Catholic Reporter. June 22, 2021.

• My grandparents were stolen from their families as children. We must learn about this history. Deb Haaland. The Washington Post. Jule 11, 2021.

• Indigenous Peoples and Boarding Schools: A comparative study. Andrea Smith. Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

• Struggling with Cultural Repression. Chapter 3: Boarding Schools. National Museum of the American Indian.

• Walking Toward Truth and Healing: The Jesuits are committed to examining the history of our boarding schools for Native students as an important step on the path toward healing. Jesuits.

Books:

• Our Shared Future: Windows into Canada’s Reconciliation Journey. Laura E. Reimer, Robert Chrismas, eds. Lexington Books. 2020.

Podcasts:

• Buried Secrets: America’s Indian Boarding Schools Part 1. Reveal. October 15, 2022.

• Buried Secrets: America’s Indian Boarding Schools Part 2. Reveal. October 22, 2022.

• American Genocide: A podcast about the crimes of Native American boarding schools. Illuminative. 

• The Church and Indian Country. Tekakwitha Conference.

Press Statements:

• Religious Groups Who Operated Indian Boarding Schools Endorse Bill to Establish a Truth and Healing Commission. Jesuits. 

• International Conference Seeks to Enrich Ministry to Catholic Indigenous Populations. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. September 22, 2023.

• Homily of the Holy Father: Lac Ste. Anne. July 26, 2022.

• Jesuit Conference Issues Statement on Boarding Schools for Indigenous Students. Jesuits. August 11, 2021.

U.S. Government Response:

• S. 1723 Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. Introduced May 18, 2023.

• Federal Indian Boarding Schools Initiative. U.S. Department of the Interior.

• Federal Indian Boarding Schools Initiative Investigative Report. U.S. Department of Interior Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland. May 2022.

Websites:

• Catholic Operated Native Boarding Schools in the United States, pre-1978. Catholic Truth and Healing.

• National Native American Boarding Schools Healing Coalition

• List of Indian Boarding Schools in the United States. National Native American Boarding Schools Healing Coalition. August 2023.

The forum on Faith and the Family: Propagating and Preventing Child-Family Separation across Time and Context is convened by Catholic Relief Services and Georgetown University’s Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, in coordination with the Changing the Way We Care initiative and strategic partners. This webinar is co-sponsored by the Georgetown University Indigenous Studies Working Group.