Exhibit on Native American Boarding Schools to open March 11 at Michigan Tech Library

Old orphanage building at Assinins. The orphanage in Assinins, built by Father Gerhard Terhorst in 1881, was originally meant to house orphaned boys. (Photo courtesy Baraga County Historical Society)

HOUGHTON -- A traveling exhibit on Native American Boarding Schools will be in the Opie Reading Room of Michigan Tech's Van Pelt Library from March 11 to 22, with an opening from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 11. This opening event will include the 25-minute film Remember the Children followed by a facilitated discussion with boarding school survivors, refreshments and visiting the exhibit.

On Monday, March 16, a second film, Indian Horse (104 min), will be shown in the Van Pelt Library’s Opie Reading Room with a discussion, refreshments and visiting the exhibit from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

All events are free and open to the public. The exhibit is open 24/7.

Native American boarding schools’ legacy continues to impact Native American people today. Known survivors in the UP are listed on an exhibit panel. When visiting the exhibit, participants can scan a QR code with their smartphones to listen to boarding school survivors tell their stories.

Holy Family Orphanage in Marquette opened in 1915. This orphanage was designed to serve only white children, however some of the first residents were 60 Anishinaabe children. These children came from St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Assinins after being sent away because of overcrowding.

The Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (KUUF) is partnering with Biskaabiiyaang Collective, a Michigan Technological University student organization (formerly the American Indian Science and Engineering Society), Trinity Episcopal Church Houghton, Canterbury House, and the Michigan Tech Van Pelt Library to host this Walking Together Finding Common Ground Traveling Exhibit. The exhibit was created by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, the Great Lakes Peace Center and the Beaumier Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University and describes the impact of Native American boarding schools.

After being shutdown for several years, the Holy Childhood of Jesus School in Harbor Springs reopened in 1884. It no longer served just as a day school, but also operated as a boarding school.

The traveling exhibit and related events are intended to raise awareness of the fact that there were at least 417 federal Indian boarding schools in the U.S. from 1819 to 1980, four of which were in the Upper Peninsula and two in lower Michigan. 139 Indian residential schools operated in Canada from 1828 to 1997. Tens of thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly abducted from their families and sent to faraway boarding schools run by the federal government or by religious organizations where they were given English names, forced to cut their hair, and forbidden to speak their languages. Many children were beaten, starved and abused in these schools. More than 1,000 children died.

On January 3, 1893, the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial School opened its doors. Initially, it only served seventeen students. Mount Pleasant eventually reached an average enrollment of more than 300 students a year with students from multiple states including Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York. Mt. Pleasant focused on vocational training, such as Agriculture, Home Economics, Carpentry, and Welding. Extracurriculars included a Brass Band and a number of sports teams. (Image courtesy Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University)

"The federal government took deliberate and strategic actions to isolate children from their families, deny them their identities, and steal from them the languages, cultures and connections that are foundational to Native people," said former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

For more information, visit https://nmu.edu/walking-together/home or contact Joan Chadde at jchadde@gmail.com or call her at 906-369-1121. 

Editor's Note: Photos and captions here are courtesy https://nmu.edu/walking-together/boarding-school-era.