Student Stewart Indian School is seen in a classroom in Carson, Nev., in an undated photo. The state of Nevada plans to cooperate fully with federal efforts to investigate the history of Native American boarding schools.
Courtesy of the Stewart Indian School Museum and Cultural Center via AP
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Courtesy of the Stewart Indian School Museum and Cultural Center via AP
Student Stewart Indian School is seen in a classroom in Carson, Nev., in an undated photo. The state of Nevada plans to cooperate fully with federal efforts to investigate the history of Native American boarding schools.
Courtesy of the Stewart Indian School Museum and Cultural Center via AP
CARSON CITY, Nev. – When it was time for Winona James to go back to school, her family hid her in a brush near their home in Carson Valley to prevent Stewart Indian School officials from finding her.
James, a member of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, was among more than 20,000 students sent to boarding schools as part of a federal program designed to force Native Americans to assimilate into the culture. Europe and America dominate. She attended school for a year, but her family feared for her life.
“I can remember that my grandmother didn’t want me to go back to Stewart because she thought I would never go back home,” she said in an interview for the University of Nevada, Reno’s historic initiative last year. 1984.
The Stewart School in Carson City is among more than 350 boarding schools that the U.S. Department of the Interior plans to inspect as part of the Federal Boarding School Initiative Review, which includes an investigation into student deaths and known and possible burial sites.
On Friday, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak heard stories from tribal elders about the school’s history. Governors, tribal leaders, heads of state and Home Affairs officials discussed how the state, which funds school construction and helps collect children to send to schools Boarding.
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak speaks at the Stewart Indian School on Friday in Carson City.
Samuel Metz / AP
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Samuel Metz / AP
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak speaks at the Stewart Indian School on Friday in Carson City.
Samuel Metz / AP
Descendants of the Paiute, Washoe and Shoshone peoples attended the Stewart School during its 90 years of operation, recounting stories of bonuses given to send Indigenous children to school; students try to run away because they are hungry; and overcrowding in dormitories.
“It is a tragedy that it took so long for the federal government to do an honest accounting of things,” said Sisolak at the Stewart Indian School, which now houses a cultural center and museum. an unethical program that has existed here for generations.
The governor apologized on behalf of the state and promised to cooperate fully with the Department of the Interior and the first Native American secretary, Deb Haaland, as they review the records and investigate past policies of the federal government. and overseeing Native American boarding schools.
The lack of records hinders the calculation of child deaths at Stewart Indian School
Stacey Montooth, executive director of the Nevada Indian Commission, said it was unclear how many children attended or died at the Stewart Indian School.
Although the federal government was never focused on tracking students, Montooth said that it took all the records and archives when the school closed in 1980, making it difficult to calculate the deaths. death becomes difficult.
Despite the lack of available archives, Native Americans in Nevada continue to examine the history of boarding schools, she said: “There is not a single Paiute, Shoshone or Washoe in this state that is not connected. directly to this campus. “
Since the children’s remains were discovered at a boarding school in Canada, tribes there and in the United States pushed the government to acknowledge the lasting effects of policies that Pennsylvania boarding school founder Richard Pratt described in the 19th century as “Killing Indians , save the man.”
Indigenous children under the age of 4 are forced from their families and sent to boarding schools without reservation. Their hair was cut. They were converted to Christianity. And they are forbidden to speak their native language. They were often subjected to military discipline and, until the reform of the mid-20th century, curricula focused heavily on vocational skills and, for girls, housework.
Historians say many schools were overcrowded, physical abuse was common, and many students died and were buried in unmarked graves.
Tribal leaders believe the children have been secretly buried somewhere on the Stewart School grounds but have not yet decided whether to dig and repatriate the bodies to their homes or to honor them with way of leaving them underground as was customary for many tribes, including the Shoshone. In New Mexico, Utah and elsewhere, researchers are using ground-penetrating radar to search for remains. Sisolak says it will be up to the tribal leaders to decide how to investigate the history.
Amber Torres, president of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, said assimilation policies like boarding schools have robbed Native Americans and their descendants. She wants Nevada to teach languages like Washoe, Paiute, and Shoshone in public schools to make sure the language survives.
“If it dies, we die,” she said.
