ROAD TO HEALING SECRETARY HAALAND VISITS MILLE LACS RESERVATION

By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is honored to have hosted U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community) on Saturday, June 3, 2023, as part of the “Road to Healing” tour led by Haaland and her staff. This is the seventh stop on a year-long tour as part of the DOI Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. This is an effort to uncover stories from federally run boarding schools for Indigenous children.

Haaland and Newland listened to testimony from survivors of Indian boarding schools and from descendants of survivors.

Haaland and Newland were joined by other Interior Department staff from Washington, D.C. as they listened intently to testimony made by Indian boarding school survivors and descendants for several hours. “This is one step among many that we will take to strengthen the bonds within Native communities that federal boarding schools set out to break,” Haaland said.

The trip is part of the Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative — an effort to uncover stories from federally run boarding schools for Indigenous children. These schools operated between 1819 through the 1970s, forcibly taking children from their families to assimilate them and gain control over Indian land and resources.

Chief Executive Benjamin thanked Haaland and Newland for the good work her cabinet has done for all of Indian Country and coming to Mille Lacs to listen to Band members.

“As Native people we have long memories that span generations,” Benjamin said. “The United States has much to be held accountable for that many would rather forget.”

Benjamin told the story of agents coming to the Reservation to forcibly take the children, as the story was told to her by her Elders. "As soon as someone would recognize an agent coming, they would blow a whistle to warn others" so they could hide their children.

Heartbreaking stories were told by survivors. One Elder remembered asking the nuns at the school, "Where's my brother?" Day after day she would ask. She said the nuns gave the same answer over and over, "It's none of your business."

There were roughly 21 federal Indian boarding schools in Minnesota and 20 day schools. Overall, 408 federal boarding schools have been identified across the country.

“Federal Indian Boarding School Policies touched every Indigenous person I know,” Haaland said. “We all carry this painful legacy in our hearts. Deeply ingrained in so many of us is the trauma that these policies and these places have inflicted."

U.S. Secretary of Inerior Deb Haaland (right) and Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland (left) stop at Mille Lacs Reservation on the Road to Healing Tour to listen to survivors of federal Indian boarding schools and their families.