Native boarding school healing group responds to Catholic bishops’ apology

At a meeting Friday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a document that acknowledges the church’s role in Native American boarding schools and apologizes to Indigenous Catholics.

It says in part, “healing and reconciliation can only take place when the church acknowledges the wounds perpetuated on her Indigenous children and humbly listens as they voice their experiences.”

A 2022 U.S. Department of the Interior report on the schools lists such experiences as “rampant physical, sexual and emotional abuse; disease; malnourishment; overcrowding; and lack of health care.”

The church operated at least 80 of more than 500 boarding schools that the federal government funded between 1819 to 1969 as part of a forced-assimilation program. Minnesota had more than a dozen such schools.

Ruth Buffalo, president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, said the document, which the bishops call a pastoral framework for Indigenous ministry, is only a start.

“While it recognizes that the church has played a role in the trauma — the ongoing trauma — that our Native children have experienced, they do not directly mention the sexual abuse, the missing children and the abuse that could otherwise be known as genocide that took place from these policies,” she said on All Things Considered Friday.

Hear the full conversation using the audio player above, or read a transcript of it below. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

What is your reaction to this news and the document?

First of all, it’s like a 55 page document, so there’s that component to it. And, you know, the document, while it recognizes that the church has played a role in the trauma — the ongoing trauma — that our Native children have experienced, they do not directly mention the sexual abuse, the missing children and the abuse that could otherwise be known as genocide that took place from these policies. So, I think it’s a step in the right direction, but more dialogue needs to happen.

And, you know, thank you for calling attention to this through your airwaves. But it also calls into question, why hasn’t media covered this since day one, you know, when media has known full well of these atrocities that have continued to occur against the first peoples of these lands?

We continue to be at the bottom of the barrel in our own lands. This ongoing abuse is there and the remnants are still still felt to this day.

Your organization’s work is with boarding school survivors. What are you hearing from them about this?

There’s a lot of a lot of pain. And again, what I’m hearing directly from tribal leaders, tribal sovereigns, is that it’s a step in the right direction, but more dialogue needs to happen.

And again, why is the media just picking up on this now?

It has some recommendations for the future, saying there needs to be ‘continued dialogue with experts and organizations to combat Native poverty, lack of access to health care and educational opportunities, and other factors that hinder Native people’s social progress.’ So what do you make that?

I think it’s still sidestepping the responsibility and the accountability component. It’s words, and we’ve been hearing words for decades. You know, and so words need to be accompanied by action.

And action means doing things to correct these wrongs. You know, the church has worked hand in hand with the United States federal government in a lot of these abuses that our communities have been directly impacted with.

What are of a couple of actions the church could take here to begin to rectify this?

I am but one person and cannot, you know, speak and represent all 50-plus tribal nations in the present-day United States. And so, you know, I thank you for the question and maybe would welcome a future, longer dialogue.

But I think today there’s a lot of emotions this is long overdue. You know, there are good and bad actors in every space and the important thing is pushing for accountability, and not sidestepping responsibility.

There’s this huge movement of pushing for accountability, for healing, for justice. So further dialogue is definitely needed and not sidestepping the horrible, horrific acts — and not to mention, you know, and not to forget that we still have missing children who are unaccounted for. And so there’s opportunity for more dialogue for sure.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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