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Spokane Tribe hosts memorial to children who perished at Indian boarding schools
Spokane tribal member Mark Ramos performs a ceremonial dance during a drum ring song traditional to the Spokane Tribe of Indians during a Day of Remembrance ceremony at Fort Spokane Thursday, Sept. 30.
Spokane Tribal Elder Pat Moses (center) leads a drum ring during a Day of Remembrance ceremony at Fort Spokane Thursday, Sept. 30.
Matilda Sampson and her uncle, Loren Sampson Sr, who are boarding school survivors, share thoughts.
David BrownEagle, a Spokane Tribal member, speaks at the Day of Remembrance ceremony at Fort Spokane Thursday, Sept. 30.
FORT SPOKANE-A grassroots event organized by several members of the Spokane Tribe of Indians resulted in a solemn reminder and heartfelt memorial to children who died at Indian boarding schools through disease. The event, held at Fort Spokane Thursday, Sept. 30, was one of several held nationwide on the unofficial Day of Remembrance.
Several families and visitors, around 100 total, sat south facing the porch of Fort Spokane, where the event was staged. Many wore orange as a symbol to remember the deceased children at boarding schools.
Fort Spokane served as one of many Indian boarding schools nationwide, where children would come to be assimilated from their culture and learn "non-Indian" or white ways of life. Oftentimes, children at boarding schools nationwide died of disease and never saw their families again.
The event made several somber references to the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, where over 200 graves of children who died from disease were discovered in May in an apple orchard on school property.
"We knew their graves were there," said Spokane tribal member Dave BrownEagle, one of nine guest speakers at the event.
"Why did it take until 2021 to bother finding the graves when we (Native Americans) knew they were there?" he questioned, lamenting the lack of interest in recovering Native children's bodies by the United States Government and those outside of Native heritage.
As introductory speaker Danny Brigman shared, an estimated 6,128 children died of disease at boarding schools in the United States and Canada.
Several speakers lamented the treatment of children at the boarding schools, including at Fort Spokane.
Tribal member and guest speaker Warren Seyler shared that children were confined in cells at Fort Spokane if they tried to run away or behaved in a way their superiors saw as unfit. They were whipped if they spoke Salish, the tribe's native language.
23 children were sent outside the reservation to Chemawa Boarding School near Forest Grove, Oregon. Only five survived and saw their families again.
Two Kamloops survivors spoke: Matilda Sampson and her uncle, Loren Sampson Sr.
Matilda Sampson, who worked for the Spokane Tribe for two years and now works to help people trying to recover from alcoholism, remembers her time at the boarding school with sadness, anger and lament.
"I had to be someone I'm not," she said. "I wasn't allowed to speak my language, and we had to wear uniforms."
"All the treatment led me to eventually get into alcohol," Sampson added. "But now, I've been sober for 30 years this year."
Loren Sampson Sr. remembers how many survivors of the boarding school sought drugs and alcohol to cope with their traumatic experiences.
"Many died of alcoholism and drug use," Sampson Sr. said.
He remembers the whippings children received any time they acted against the wishes of the boarding school teachers or staff.
"I remember little, little children being whipped," he said. "We got 10 straps if we mis-spelled a word."
BrownEagle mourns the lives lost not just to disease, but to alcohol and drugs as a result of trauma suffered amongst tribal members.
"If we're killing ourselves, then the history is winning," BrownEagle said. "Whatever I do today is to honor those who came before and prepare the people who are coming after."
Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area superintendent Dan Foster also spoke at the event. He referenced the Declaration of Independence and the Founding Father's statement that "all men are created equal" before saying that hasn't always been enacted throughout America's history.
"These actions cannot be fully understood but must be examined through the lens of time," Foster said.
Foster remembered when he was a child, a Navajo boy given the name "David" stayed with his family for four years.
"I experienced the difficulty he faced as he missed his family as he got an education," Foster said.
Spokane Tribal elder Pat Moses offered a blessing, prayer and moment of silence for the lost children. He led a group of four tribal members performing a traditional drum song at the beginning of the ceremony.
A similar song with a traditional tribal dance concluded the ceremony as BrownEagle urged tribal members and visitors to continue learning the history of the tribe and the core values it can instill.
"What we learn beyond our history is something no school can teach," he said.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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