Tribes in South Dakota are working with a rural Massachusetts museum to return hundreds of items believed to have been taken from ancestors massacred at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890. A federal Database shows some 870,000 items that should be returned to tribes by law that are still in the possession of colleges, museums and other institutions across the country. The holdings include nearly 110,000 human remains. The University of California Berkley tops the list followed closely by the Ohio History Connection.
The Canadian Government says Pope Francis’s apology to indigenous people for abuses they suffered in the country’s church run residential schools didn’t go far enough. The governments criticisms echos those of survivors and concerns Francis’s omission of any reference to the sexual abuse suffered by indigenous children in the schools; as well as his refusal to name the Catholic Church as an institution bearing any responsibility.
A new documentary serves as a reminder of the tragedies suffered by tribal communities and families in western South Dakota who endured the Boarding School Era. The film is called remembering the children. In 1933 the Rapid City Indian Boarding School Closed its doors 50 tribal children lost their lives at school alone many others died at more than 400 boarding schools that once operated across the nation. Oglala Lakota who initiated the work says those stories need to be told.
