Image is Wounded Yellow Robe, Henry Standing Bear and Chauncy Yellow Robe: Lakota boys before and after they entered school in 1883 and three years later.
Toward Truth and Healing: How Churches Face Accountability for their Indian Boarding Schools
Sunday, November 10, 8-9:30pm ET; 7-8:30pm CT; 6-7:30pm MT; 5-6:30pm PT
Many Christian church denominations operated Indian boarding schools during the 19th and early 20th centuries, in collaboration with the federal government’s policy of forced assimilation. Now they are re-examining the roles they played, the harms that were done to Native American families and nations, and the ongoing impacts in Native communities today. Representatives of Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Quaker faith communities will share how they are conducting research and approaching questions of accountability, apology, reparations, and healing.
Panelists will be:
Catholic:
Patrick Hayes, Ph.D., is the archivist for the Redemptorists, and is based in Philadelphia. A former college professor in religious studies, today he is an active church historian, author or editor of six books, and a board member for the American Catholic Historical Society–the oldest such society in the United States. In 2022-2023 he was involved in two projects related to Native American boarding schools affiliated with the Catholic Church, bringing attention to the issues through the American Catholic Historical Association (https://achahistory.org/boardingschools/) and developing a list of Catholic-affiliated schools for the Catholic Truth and Healing initiative (https://ctah.archivistsacwr.org/).
Episcopal:
Dr. Veronica Pasfield is a citizen of Michigan’s Bay Mills Indian Community and a Tribal consultant. Her research specialty is Indian boarding schools and the role they play in related dispossessive projects of U.S. empire. Her work centers the interpretive expertise of survivors and descendants, as well as their right to lead archival access and stewardship protocols.
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America:
Vance Blackfox, an Indigenous theologian and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, serves the churchwide organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as the Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. Vance is also the founder and director of Other+Wise, a multi-site cultural education and cultural immersion program for youth and student groups from across the country.
Liz Andress serves as lead organizer of the ELCA’s Initiative. She is an educator by profession and has done extensive faith-based community organizing over the years.
Presbyterian:
Rev. Irvin Porter (Pima, T’hono O’odham, Nez Perce) is pastor of the Church of the Indian Fellowship in Puyallup, Washington. He is the first Native American pastor there since the church’s founding in 1876. He is also an associate of Native American Intercultural Congregational Support for the Presbyterian Church USA and represents Indigenous concerns on many committees.
Quaker:
Paula Palmer is co-director of Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, a program of Friends Peace Teams. She coordinates a team of 60 Native and non-Native facilitators who present workshops in-person and online nationwide. Through talks, webinars, and publications she calls on Quakers to acknowledge their complicity in the forced assimilation of Native children and discern ways to support healing in Native communities today. She coordinates the Quaker Indigenous Boarding School Research Network in collaboration with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
United Methodist Church:
Dr. Ashley Boggans is the General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History. In this role, she ensures that the UMC understands its past in order to envision a more equitable future for all Methodists.
