FORT SHAW — Members of the public were invited to an event at the ground’s of the former Fort Shaw Indian School on Thursday afternoon.
Senator Susan Webber, of Senate District 8 helped host the event, which was a product of Senate Joint Resolution 6. The resolution calls on the State Legislature to honor and remember people who attended Indian boarding schools.
Representatives from the offices of Jon Tester, Steve Daines, and Greg Gianforte were also in attendance to deliver their remarks.
Opened in the late 1800s, Fort Shaw Indian School was one of many boarding schools across Montana, designed to commit cultural genocide. Native children were taken from their homes, and forced to attend government-funded, Christian schools. Often, they were abused physically, mentally, and sexually.
Webber, a boarding school survivor, believes it’s imperative these spirits are never forgotten, though history has come close to a complete erasure.
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Webber was also joined by two close friends, Carol Murray and Iva Croff. Murray is also a boarding school survivor, and Croff is the liberal studies division chair at Blackfeet Community College.
The speaking event ended with a tour of the nearby cemetery where many of the Indian children are buried, some in unmarked graves.
Webber hopes the ‘Day of Remembrance’ can one day be engrained, recognized at the sites of former boarding schools across the state.
“These existed on every reservation,” says Webber. “So yes, let’s do it. Let’s do it.”
