Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Sikowis Nobiss, founder of the Great Plains Action Society, based in Iowa. Here she talks about the history of Indian schools in both Canada and the U.S., what steps both countries have taken – or not – to deal with the fallout from what she describes as acts of genocide against the indigenous peoples of North America.
SIKOWISS NOBISS: I’m Plains Cree-Saulteaux of the George Gordon First Nation. I grew up in Winnipeg, and spent time at my reserve in Saskatchewan and I’ve been living in Iowa City for 15 years, so I feel like I do have experiences from living on both sides of the border. Basically what’s happened here in the U.S. and Canada is an attempt to assimilate a people to the British imperialist ideology of what civilization is and then also to annihilate any indigenous culture that would get in the way of that assimilation.
MELINDA TUHUS: Can you describe what these schools were like, and who went there?
SIKOWISS NOBISS: These schools were called boarding schools in the U.S. and residential schools in Canada. Essentially, they weren’t schools; I call them internment camps. They really were places of great violence and the perpetuation of genocide against indigenous people. Really, the settler invaders who came to this land really had no intent of truly wanting to provide indigenous people with a different way forward, which in itself is extremely problematic. I think that the real agenda, as we all know based upon the millions and millions of people who were genocided, is the want to exterminate us. Like, the process of colonization is to take land and the resources of that land and in the process mitigate the local population with whatever means is necessary. That was really the real goal of these schools, and they did horrific things to children that truly, I don’t even think modern day horror movies could even begin to explain.
MELINDA TUHUS: So, even though it might be hard to hear, can you talk about some of the things that were done to these children?
SIKOWISS NOBISS: Absolutely. These religious entities allowed for sick people to perpetuate sexual abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, all very tortuous things, and then when they wanted to hide something, they just murdered these children.
MELINDA TUHUS: Sikowis Nobiss, what has been the response in Canada and the U.S. to the discovery of hundreds of human remains, mostly children, found at these institutions?
SIKOWISS NOBISS: In Canada, for instance, they did put forward a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with these things. They allowed for testimony. They allowed for all sorts of cultural activities. They put a lot of money into therapy, education, all these aspects of what reconciliation would look like. And they told the truth, so they said, about what happened. They tried to take accountability – or they looked like they were taking accountability – for what they did. The one thing the indigenous people were asking for was for them to sonar the grounds and find the bodies, and they refused to do that. They said it was too expensive at the time. And so now, it is coming to light, because such evil never really goes away and it always comes back in some way. Here we are, and people are being retraumatized, and it’s a very difficult time in all of our communities because of it, and the government and Christianity are to blame.
MELINDA TUHUS: Do you know any more about the U.S. response?
SIKOWISS NOBISS: I think there’s about 350 schools in the U.S., and none of them are being searched by the government. There’s no Truth and Reconciliation plan here. There’s never been any type of attempt by the U.S. government to do something even close to what Canada had done. It’s only because of the, I think, because of the recent blow-up in Canada that the U.S. government felt the need to respond. And so, because we do have an indigenous Secretary of the Interior now, Deb Halaand, I think that’s really the one thing that has brought the U.S. to move towards that. Recently, she announced that she will implement a Truth and Healing Commission.
