Pathfinders: Indian Boarding Schools

Easy Picture Book - found in our Lower Level

In the late 1880's, a Cheyenne boy named Young Bull is taken to a boarding school to learn the white man's ways.

When Shin-chi and his sister go off to his first year of Residential School in a cattle truck, she warns him of all the things he must not do. The days are long, he is very lonely and alwlays hungry, but he find solace down at the river with a gift from his father, a tiny cedar canoe. It seems like a very long time until the salmon swim upriver again and he can finally go home.

"This picture book explores the intergenerational impact of Canada's residential school system that separated Indigenous children from their families. The story recognizes the pain of those whose culture and language were taken from them, how that pain is passed down and shared through generations, and how healing can also be shared. Stolen Words captures the beautiful, healing relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks him how to say something in his language - Cree - her grandpa admits that his words were stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather regain his language."

Through archival photos, re-enactments, and interviews, illuminates the experiences of four First-Nation individuals who were sent to residential schools when they were very young

Program documents the powerful and moving process of human and community healing. The goal of the process is the release of the potential energy within Indian communities that is presently locked up within the unresolved hurt and confusion of the residential school experience that was tragically experienced by Indian people across North America

Tells the story of the attempt to assimilate American Indians into white culture by educating them at special schools such as the Carlisle School for Indians. Founded by Richard Henry Pratt, this school and others like it attempted to wipe out all remnants of Indian culture, and, as a result, created a generation of Indians confused about their identities.

Former students forced to attend the Kuper Island Indian Residential School, British Columbia, tell of the conditions and abuse they experienced as children, describe the long-term effect on their lives and share the joys and sorrows of their quest for spiritual healing

The first program tells the history of the loss of Indian languages through the United States government policy of sending Indian children to English speaking boarding schools, and of the current revival of education in native languages among the Indians in Wisconsin. The second program explains how storytelling has been the traditional method of passing on the culture of the Anishinabe people, shows hunting and gathering methods, and tells of medicinal, decorative, and functional uses of plants and things in nature. In the third program a young Mohican girl tells that there are eleven Indian nations in Wisconsin and leads an introduction to some of their history and traditional and contemporary customs.

Raunchy and upbeat and reading a youth audience - Native Young! is told thru the eyes of a native Punk Rock Band and explores lingering and damaging effects that residential schools still have on generations of First Nation communities.

"Told from the Native American perspective, this documentary uncovers the dark history of the U.S. Government policy which forced more than 1000,000 Indian children to attend Indian Boarding School."

First Nations "survivors" share their stories of the experience that were the Residential Schools. The program was created by the Missinabie Cree of Ontario.

Chronicles the life of Betty Cooper of the Blackfeet Nation in Northern Montana. It describes her early participation in the tribal culture and religion, her forced removal to the Cut Bank Boarding School, and the domestic violence and alcoholism in her marriage. She survives and gives back to her family and community and in 2004 is the fourth woman in Blackfeet history to be elected to their Tribal Council.

Survivors from Kootenay Indian School in Cranbrook, B.C. confront their fears by returning to the residential school they attended while they were children. The film introduces the viewers to several survivors who replay stories of physical and sexual abuse