{"id":27,"date":"2012-10-22T18:59:09","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T18:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/ciis\/?page_id=27"},"modified":"2015-08-07T14:13:31","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T14:13:31","slug":"reflections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/carlisleindianschoolsymposium\/reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attendee Reflections<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“A Reflection on Visiting the Carlisle Indian School“<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Warren Petoskey, Little Bay Bands of Odawa Indians<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

…I have mulled over what I might write and pass on regarding what we saw, experienced and understood during our visit. We heard powerful Native and non-native speakers talk about the history of Carlisle and its impact on Native children. The data we saw said that over 10,000 children passed through that school in the nearly forty years it was open. We also saw that the two tribes with the largest number of children who attended Carlisle was the Sioux with over a thousand of their children attending and the Chippewa with 998 children who attended.My grandfather and his sister, my great aunt attended. My grandfather graduated in 1902. It is our belief that when my grandfather’s dad walked on, his two children were taken to Carlisle. Our lives as a family would never be ordinary or normal due to the psychological effects my grandfather displayed. Not only was he dealing with all the conditions brought on our people by the foreign occupation and take-over, in addition, he had to try to process what he was forced to go through at the military style boarding school and the abuse he experienced.<\/span><\/p>\n

Due to the behaviors of my grandfather, he and my father had no relationship at all. It is not important why. I used to think it was, but when Carlisle came into the picture and after hearing all the stories from the elders who experienced Carlisle I knew why my grandfather was the way he was.<\/span><\/p>\n

My grandfather walked on when I was three. They tell me he would come to visit when I was born and wanted to hold me and be a grandfather to me, as much as he knew how, but that was limited because he was raised in an institution with no parents or elders around him to teach him or be examples… [H]e appeared suspended between two worlds, one his Native origin, and the other the false world that was taught him. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, what is to be done? I believe the First Nations and Metis of Canada have already laid the ground work for the work that needs to be advanced in the United States. Healing, reparation and reconciliation needs to take place. Crimes committed need to be made public. The actual number of children who died in the boarding schools need to be published. Apologies need to be made and religious and political institutions held morally and legally accountable. For the entire article published in Native News Network, go here.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Joy’s Reflection<\/em><\/span>
\n I’ve been doing this work for five years… I also work with the living survivors of the mush hole and the salum. On Day Two of the conference I woke up around 5am and I had been crying in my sleep… but then when I was at the conference itself many amazing things occurred, and many amazing people spoke of their experiences. I believe I can safely say that many of us found healing there at Carlisle this weekend, while we struggle to find the words to tell the students\u2019 stories. And Maurice Kenny read us one of his poems and had us in stitches, before, during and after his presentation. Two amazing women gave me strength through their convictions. I’ve never seen such activism! It was a good time for us all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpt from Professor Gurel’s Reflection<\/em><\/span>
\n I have been meaning to write you and let you know what a big impact last week’s conference had on me and everyone else. It was simply the best conference I have observed — the stakes were clear throughout; the speakers were excellent; I didn’t look at my watch once. It is making me re-think my plans for my second book and how I have been teaching my flagship course, Transnational America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Committee Reflections<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Sharon O’Brien<\/span>
Professor of American Studies<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

This was the most extraordinary symposium I\u2019ve ever attended. Because of the non-academic, native structure and sessions, mingling stories with poems with videos with papers with the most heart-felt audience response I\u2019ve ever seen, this symposium engaged us all as whole people: \u00a0mind, heart, and spirit. Several attendees and participants spoke of \u201chealing\u201d as a process that took place during it, and I think that process was connected with the creation of a safe and native \u201cspace\u201d that was both physical (ATS and the Dickinson campus) and emotional.\u00a0 Given that we were dealing with the traumas inflicted by another school and another space in Carlisle \u2013 the Indian School \u2013 the fact that healing could be linked with Carlisle and an academic institution had a kind of circular karma to it that itself could be part of\u00a0Indian story telling. The conference felt like a return, but also like a new beginning.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The question for me was: how could there be an \u201cending\u201d to this extraordinary conference? Would there be conflict? Separation? Decisions on future activism? Unity? And given all that had gone on, how could we feel that we had come to a resting place so that we could leave with a sense of completion? We were fortunate beyond words in having N. Scott Momaday end the conference with his spiritually-grounded gravity and wisdom.\u00a0 What he did was both extraordinary and right.\u00a0 He reminded us that those who suffered were children and so brought us back to the reality of the Indian school, and to Native American history and loss. He then described the important day he had had, visiting the battlefield at Gettysburg and thinking about Lincoln\u2019s Gettysburg Address. He illuminated for me the importance of the Carlisle Indian School to Native American history by saying that its name and history should be as prominent as Wounded Knee and Little Big Horn. And by juxtaposing the Indian School to Gettysburg, he\u00a0 placed what happened at Carlisle in American history more broadly: this is a story about all of us. And it should be told.\u00a0 Lincoln was honoring the dead in his Gettysburg Address, and so should we honor these children, and their descendants, as we make the Carlisle Indian School part of our history.\u00a0 Every Dickinson student needs to know about the Indian School, I thought; somehow, somewhere, this needs to be part of a common curriculum. <\/span><\/p>\n

When Momaday finished his remarks and the applause died down, everyone was silent and still.\u00a0 You could have heard a pin drop in ATS. No one was going anywhere. Momaday had returned us to the sacred space Jemison had created at the beginning and had elevated and deepened our symposium by giving us a mission: make the story of this school part of American history, let its name be known.\u00a0 Given that the Indian children lost their native names as part of the socialization process, being able to name the school, and name what happened there, could also be a kind of circular process that can lead to\u00a0 healing and reconciliation.\u00a0 But only if the truth is told and listened to, as it was that weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Arriving at the Lakota Dinner<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

I felt changed by that weekend; I now feel attached to this symposium and its future in a profound way.\u00a0 I have joined something. I was part of something for two days, and I want to stay connected to what happened since the conference released living energies that are going to lead somewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpt from Jacqueline Fear-Segal’s Reflection<\/em><\/span>
\n I am still living in the afterglow of the Symposium. \u00a0So much happened and was achieved… all the hard work bore such wonderful and varied fruit. \u00a0I loved hearing the students’ responses, and imagine their time at Dickinson will be quite different from how it might have been, having been introduced to the CIIS in such a big way right at the beginning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


\nStudent Reflections from Professor Rose’s First Year Seminar –
\n“Site of Memory: Reclaiming Indigenous Histories” <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Carolyn Cook-Rittenhouse\u2019s Experience of Reclaiming Lakota Roots
\n<\/em><\/strong>Excerpt from Samantha\u2019s paper, First Year Student<\/em><\/span>
\n Carolyn enlisted the help of Lakota ledger artist Dwayne Wilox to help draw and paint her canvas. Carolyn chose to depict the\u201d Buffalo Calf Woman Brings Sacred Pipe\u201d because the Buffalo Calf Woman brought the sacred pipe and teachings to the Lakota people during their time of need. She represents this on the tipi with a ledger style painting of the Buffalo Woman wearing a bright red dress holding an eagle feather. The Lakota believe that the Buffalo Calf Woman turned into a buffalo and is a symbol of hope and healing. Carolyn further represented this story by including a painting of a buffalo on her tipi. Next, she chose to represent the Massacre at Wounded Knee of 1890. Carolyn wanted to honor her ancestors who were involved in the massacre, especially the women and children. To honor every Native American at Wounded Knee Carolyn researched the names of Chief Big Foot\u2019s and Chief Bald Head Eagle\u2019s tribe members. After careful planning and painting over three hundred names now wrap around the tipi. Along with the names Carolyn\u2019s parents asked her to include the saying \u201cyou will not be forgotten, we will remember you.\u201d To further memorialize Wounded Knee Carolyn painted silhouettes of people on the border of the tipi to commemorate the women and children who were killed at Wounded Knee. Carolyn also included a silhouette of the actual monument that stands next to the gravesite at Wounded Knee.<\/span><\/p>\n

The top of the tipi is painted sky blue with white stars to honor Carolyn\u2019s relatives who have passed away\u2026The biggest star on the tipi is dedicated to Carolyn\u2019s sister who died at an early age. The last major theme Carolyn chose is The Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876, in honor of her ancestor, Chief Iron Hawk, who fought to save the Native American people during the battle. The Battle of Little Big Horn along with Carolyn\u2019s family history will be depicted on the tipi\u2019s inside liner, which is still a work in progress.\n\t\t