Newsletter September 2021: Three Events For October 2021
See the original Newsletter here.
Happy Fall, everyone!
The Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation is pleased to be co-sponsoring three special events in October!
PATHWAYS TO STEM CAREERS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN AND GIRLS
On Thursday, October 7, 2021, from 1-2 p.m. CST, we are co-sponsoring with the Museum of Native American History (MONAH) a STEM panel with Mary Smith, along with two incredible indigenous women, Sarah Echohawk, CEO of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), and Robin Maxkii, an award-winning creative and indigenous rights activist. This panel is part of MONAH’s 5th Annual Native American Cultural Celebration (NACC): Indigenuity: Building a Bridge to the Future from October 7-9, 2021.
Starting on Thursday, October 7, 2021, the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville, AR will host a 3-day celebration of INDIGENUITY! This three-day event is free and will host a variety of presenters, from astronauts to IndigeNerds. From October 7th through the 9th, there will be a range of workshops, presentations, and concerts that focus on these foundational ideas of indigenuity.
Join the Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation on Monday, October 11, 2021 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day – for two special programs on Indian Boarding Schools – one at noon CST for youth and one at 6 p.m. CST.
On July 17, 2021, the remains of nine Rosebud Sioux children were returned to their ancestral grounds on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation for burial. The children died nearly a century earlier in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, one of the United States’ many forced boarding schools designed to eradicate indigenous culture.
In May 2021, the unmarked graves of 215 children were identified at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada. The announcement sparked international outcry and brought new attention to a devastating truth and loss felt by Native peoples in the United States and Canada today. The forced assimilation and attempted eradication of Native people through compulsory “residential schools” with a policy of “kill the Indian, save the man” resulted in the loss of life, the loss of a generation of relatives, language speakers, and culture bearers.
On June 22, 2021, United States Secretary of the Interior Debra Anne Haaland introduced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a program which aims to investigate the destructive assimilationist legacy of Indian Boarding Schools within the United States.
For years, Native organizations and communities have advocated for action, truth-telling, and healing for both those who died at these institutions and for those who survived.” We now have a federal government official, a descendant of “boarding school” survivors, as Secretary of the Department of Interior who believes, “Though it is uncomfortable to learn that the country you love is capable of committing such acts, the first step to justice is acknowledging these painful truths and gaining a full understanding of their impacts so that we can unravel the threads of trauma and injustice that linger.”
These programs will help educate about this horrific and brutal part of our past and discuss the Department of the Interior’s Federal Boarding School Initiative as well as pending legislation that will lead to truth-telling and healing.
To learn more, visit the Mitchell Museum here.
