On April 26, 2023, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) submitted a letter to the Classical Charter Schools of Leland (CCSL), a network of charter schools in North Carolina, requesting the removal of a network-wide policy that prohibits male students from wearing long hair. Many Native American people wear long hair, regardless of gender, for cultural and religious reasons. The letter explains that: “Since time immemorial, many Tribes and Indigenous communities have placed significant cultural and religious importance on hair and to many [it] is an important aspect of Indigenous identity. This predates European contact and the founding of the United States, when settlers began imposing Western hairstyles on tribal communities.”
Matthew Warbonnet, 77, suffers from nightmares and experiences bouts of crying. He tells Rolling Stone of his survival at the St. Francis Mission in South Dakota, where he was forced to attend as a child. There, he endured debilitating beatings and electrocution via cattle prongs by Catholic priests who told him he was rotten for being born an Indian. Deborah Parker, Tulalip, is the CEO of a national organization working to establish federal legislation for a full accounting of the deaths, abuse, displacement, and intergenerational trauma. She navigates the devastating impacts of this genocide on her family and community while leading the way for truth and healing for thousands of survivors. Parkers group just kicked off a nationwide tour to gather native boarding school stories.
Those are your headlines at this hour, I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
