Screening Tonight of "Indian School" in Elk Rapids, Michigan

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents. Discussion »

Survivors Story

ELK RAPIDS, MICHIGAN - A screening of "Indian School" will take place at the Elk Rapids High School at 7:00 pm est.

The survivors of the boarding school experience are primarily from the Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School. Others who attended other Indian boarding schools are encouraged to attend.

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 School operated until 1934, with an average enrollment of 300 students per year.

During the late 19th and 20th centuries, across the United States and Canada, the federal governments habitually required Native American children to attend residential boarding schools. Beginning with the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania (1879), the goal was assimilation. The motto was, "Kill the Indian to save the man." There were 519 schools in the US and 126 in Canada.

Indian Boarding Schools routinely subjected children, some as young as four, to emotional and spiritual abuse, corporal punishment and worse. The students' alienation from their families resulted in a loss of culture, language, ritual and spirituality; which in turn led to inter-generational trauma and thus exacerbated the post traumatic stress disorder in many Native families today.

This film, from the victims' own voices, details the boarding school experience.

WHAT:  Screening of "The Indian Schools, The Survivors Story"

WHERE:  Peterman Auditorium
Elk Rapids High School
308 Mequzee Point
Elk Rapids, Michigan

Time:  7:00 pm est

WHEN:  Friday, November 17

The Screening is Free of Charge.

posted November 18, 2011 7:20 am est