By Frankie McLister
ST. PAUL, Min. — A recently dedicated St. Paul mural depicts Dakota’s creation story.
The dedication took place on the same day President Biden made headlines promised to issue a formal apology for atrocities committed against indigenous peoples during the era of federal Indian boarding schools.
“Boarding school happened to a lot of us…A lot of our ancestors,” said Missy Whiteman, an artist and member of the Arapaho and Kickapoo nations.
From about 1880 until the mid-1940s, the idea was to take Native children miles away from their families to “assimilate” them.
“There was a lot of abuse,” Whiteman said. “They weren’t allowed to speak their language. They couldn’t have their hair long, which is very important to us.”
Brenda Child is a professor in the American Studies department at the University of Minnesota who has also published a book on the subject.
“In Minnesota, we had mainly one off-reservation boarding school, and that was in Pipestone,” Child said.
Child also added that the Tomah Indian School in Wisconsin was an off-reserve federal boarding school. But the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania is where it all started.
“Indian people from Minnesota went to Carlisle,” Child said.
More than 100 years after Carlisle closed, there was an afternoon of support for the affected community.
“I am proud to be an American. We are willing to admit that mistakes have been made in the past,” said Minneapolis resident Erik Dahl.
Mr. Biden will deliver the apology in Arizona on Friday.
