More photos - courtesy of Sho-Ban Museum

More photos - courtesy of Sho-Ban Museum

More photos - courtesy of Sho-Ban Museum

More photos - courtesy of Sho-Ban Museum

More photos - courtesy of Sho-Ban Museum

More photos - courtesy of Sho-Ban Museum

More photos - courtesy of Sho-Ban Museum

Sweatlodge May 18

The Four Directions Treatment Center will host a Community Sweatlodge and Dinner the evening of Monday, May 18. More details to follow.

Keynote Speaker - Fred Johnson of Alkali Lake

Great News! We've confirmed Fred Johnson (at far right in picture) of Alkali Lake, BC, Canada, to be our keynote speaker at Wellbriety Day, May 19, 2009. One of our committee members heard Fred give a powerful and moving address at a recent Native wellness conference. He relates the devastating impact that the residential (boarding) school had on their small community and how the people have spent the last 40 years healing from what happened there by focusing on their sobriety and wellness. The movie "The Honor of All: the Alkali Story," which documents the sobriety movement of the Shushwap Tribe, will be shown during the conference and Fred will talk afterwards.

We are honored to have a member of the Alkali Lake community here to share their story of healing with us. Read more about Fred at: http://www.bettyfordcenter.org/news/innews/narticle.php?text=larger&id=012

Fort Hall Boarding School students with names

Fort Hall Episcopal Mission Girls School

We are looking for information / history about the girls school at the Episcopal Mission. Please let us know of you have anything to share.

Listen to Native America Calling about Wellbriety Journey!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 – Journey for Forgiveness

http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes History of Schools

Courtesy of Shoshone-Bannock Tribes

Tribal Council Resolution supporting Wellbriety Day

Sign the apology petition

The number of signatures for the Apology for Abuses at US Indian Schools petition recently
topped 2100 names on its way towards a goal of 10,000. Sponsored by White Bison, Inc., an
American Indian non-profit organization, plans call for the petition to be delivered to President
Barach Obama on June 24, 2009 at the conclusion of the cross-country Wellbriety Journey for
Forgiveness, which will begin on May 16, 2009 in Salem, Oregon.
The petition states, “We, the undersigned, call upon you to formally apologize on behalf of the
US Federal Government and the People of this Great Nation for the widespread abuse of Native
American children at the nearly 500 schools funded by the US government to assimilate Native
American people.”
White Bison, Inc, urges both Native and non-Native people alike who feel strongly about the
need for the US government to make this gesture of apology for the benefit of Native Americans
and for the integrity of the nation as a whole to sign the petition online right away. Those
interested can go to www.whitebison.org and click on the Petition link.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Apology-For-Indian-School-Abuses

Parent Letter & Permission Slip

More Fort Hall Boarding School photos

Conference Registration Info

Online Event Registration - href="http://www.eventbrite.com/">Powered by www.eventbrite.com

Conference Flyer

Bounty for runaways

See this post about the old Fort Hall Boarding School. It talks about what happened to the kids who tried to run away:

http://books.google.com/books?id=-NtC1C7L0J4C&pg=RA1-PA257&lpg=RA1-PA257&dq=Fort+Hall+boarding+school&source=bl&ots=xWqY-pc9Tl&sig=LM2zywxHurumvpT5EQyr0P5wRI4&hl=en&ei=Zey7SbusF4mQtQOjvZ00&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result

Committee forms to plan for Shoshone-Bannock Event!!

Students of history classes at the Sho-Ban School met Thursday after school to talk about plans for the May 19 Wellbriety Journey Event. We will be meeting every Thursday after school. We would like more volunteers! If you are interested in helping out, call Laverne at 478-3818

Older than America

Older than America is a film about the boarding school experience directed by a Native woman, Georginna Lightning, last year. To my knowledge the film has not yet been picked up by a distributor. We are looking into the possibility of working with her to show the film during the Journey

Sho-Ban News article

Article in this week's "Sho-Ban" about the Journey. Editor Lori Edmo-Suppah mentioned that another source of documents/photos about the old school is the BIA. Will follow up on that.

The Only Good Indian

Saw the screening of "The Only Good Indian" at the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City last weekend. The movie stars Wes Studi as an assimilated bounty hunter who tracks down a runaway from the Haskell Indian school. The movie follows Wes and the boy as the travel thru the Kansas countryside on Wes' old time motorcycle, while other bounty hunters after runaways from the school are still on horseback. One of the more comical characters is the town sheriff, who is after both Wes and the boy, and suffers from PTSD from a lifetime of killing Indians. It is a refreshing look at the schools, that takes the traditional "cowboy and Indian" roles, turns them around, and add an interesting vampire story twist. In the end, Wes chucks his broken down motorcycle and vows to go back to his Indian way. I liked the film, although some of the scenes at the schools were too "Hollywood," and detracted from plot. Following the movie, Director Kevin Wilmott and Wes answer questions from the audience. Wes, who attended Chillocco Indian School in Oklahoma, says the belief still abounds that "it's great to be a white man." When asked about the value of a formal apology for what happened at the schools, Wes said an apology would have little meaning. Most of the actors and behind the scenes people were at the screening. After the movie, my friend Bonnie and I were starstruck and we hung around to meet some of the cast. We got to meet the runaway boy, his mom, and Heine Geigomah, well-known Native consultant. They were all very friendly. The boy is a champion dancer and had his hair cut especially for the movie.

School Presentation

I was fortunate to be able to talk on Wednesday to the faculty at Sho-Ban School http://www.sbd537.org/ about the upcoming Journey and to see how the Sho-Ban students could get involved. The school's history teacher is interested in doing a project about the schools this semester and asked for some links to get more information about the schools. Some of the best info comes from Canada, as they have done more than we have in telling the story of what happened at the schools. Good school resources include: http://www.kporterfield.com/aicttw/articles/boardingschool.html, and http://www.wherearethechildren.ca/en/home.html, which includes a virtual tour of one of the school. An interesting sidenote, the school principal Dr. Shortman, rode in the Wounded Knee Commemoration ride several years ago and is a big advocate of these types of events - rides, walks, run, etc. - to raise awareness in Native communities.

Photos of the Fort Hall Boarding School

This image is one of the few pictures that show the Fort Hall Boarding School campus. The school was in operation at Fort Hall between 1880 and 1936 and upwards of 200 children attended annually. The site is located just above the present day Sho-Ban Jr./Sr. High School. It appears that the students out front are playing horseshoes - it looks like the same students in the closeup.

None of the old rock buildings remain, but Darrell Shay remembers sliding down the fire escapes at the old dorm. My only recollection of the sites was picking apples there at the old orchard. The school taught students how to grow fruits and vegetables. My grandfather, Harrison Baker aka "Gramps," used to have strawberries and a big orchard at one time - something he learned how to do at the school. I think at one time he was the best farmer/rancher on the rez (my biased opinion!)

The Fort Shaw Basketball Team

Sho-Ban tribal member Terry Racehorse shared that her great grandmother, Minnie Burton, was a member of the Fort Shaw Girls Indian Basketball Team, world champs in 1904. Minnie is the tall girl, standing in the center. Coincidentally, Terri's stepdaughter, Paulette Jordan, is playing Minnie in an upcoming movie about the team. If Paulette is as tall as her dad, Mike, she is a good fit for the part. Terry says Paulette also bears an uncanny resemblance to Minnie.

Comments about the Fort Hall Boarding School

It's been interesting hearing the different perspectives on the old Indian boarding schools this week. It is obviously a mixed bag, but it is heartening to know that locals seem to be open and ready to talking about it.

One of the people I was led to talk to was Fort Hall old timer Rusty Houtz. His mother, Effie Diggie, attended Carlisle along with Lillian and Lawrence. Effie met her future husband Herbert Houtz on the train she was on headed for Carlisle, Penn. Herbert was a sheep rancher from Rockland going to Omaha to sell his lambs. Rusty says his mother alway defended the school and the lessons she needed to learn to make it in the changing community. At Carlisle, she learned to cook, sew and farm. She also worked as a housekeeper for a local family there.

I visited with Alene Menta, whose father attended the Fort Hall Boarding School. She said he never said much about his experience, and when he did, it was oftentimes bitter. He recalls being spanked with a rubber hose down in the basement when he didn't follow the rules.

Sandra Eschief shared with me that her father, Ed Boyer, and my grandfather, Harrison Baker, learned carpentry at the school and used those skills to build their homes on the reservation, which still stand today. My grandfather passed before I had the chance to talk to him about his experiences at the boarding school. The only things that tell me he was there is his presence in the school band and baseball team pictures. A Bannock, he was always one of the tallest guys in the group pictures.