Dennis Banks to Keynote 'Day of Honoring, Healing & Remembering'

Native News Network Staff in Native Challenges. Discussion »

Mt Pleasant Indian
Industrial School

MT.PLEASANT, MICHIGAN - Next Monday, June 6, the co-founder of the American Indian Movement, Dennis Banks will be the keynote speaker at the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan’s Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways' day of “Honoring, Healing & Remembering” at the site of the closed Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School.

The Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School was established in 1893 by an act of Congress, compelling Indian children to be removed from the care of their families to attend residential schools. The Mt. Pleasant Indian School operated until 1934, with an average enrollment of 300 students annually.

The day of “Honoring, Healing & Remembering” is being held on the 77th anniversary of the school’s closing. At an afternoon ceremony, the names of close to 150 children who died while attending the school will be called.

The Tribe now owns eight acres of the property that is known as the Mt. Pleasant Center, located at 1400 West Pickard in Mt. Pleasant.

The agenda is as follows:

6:00 am     Sunrise Ceremony

8:00 am     Pipe Ceremony

10:00 am     Prayer & Speakers

1:30 pm     Roll Call of Children’s Names

3:00 pm     Jingle Dress Healing Dance

4:00 pm     Give-away & Traveling Song

posted May 31, 2011 9:37 am et