June 13, 2021
Dear Nor’wester Community,
As we prepare Camp and get ready to embark on a long-awaited Nor’wester summer, we realize we must pause and take time to acknowledge some recent news and grieve and act together. This news is particularly relevant to us as a community, recognizing our connections with northwest Indigenous peoples within our Camp family.
Indigenous communities around the world are mourning the recent discovery of the mass grave containing the human remains of 215 indigenous children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada. We are reminded of the horrors perpetrated against First peoples, Inuit, and Métis people across North America, not just in Canada. This discovery is not the first, nor will it be the last. The story of the Kamloops mass grave is not an isolated incident, but the result of policies directed by the governments of Canada and the United States.
Indigenous communities have spoken the truths of such atrocities for a long time. In Canada, survivors have provided chilling testimony of the Indian Residential School system where these institutions served as concentration camps with 90% to 100% of indigenous children suffering severe physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, torture, neglect, and starvation. Mortality rates were 40% to 60% with many of these children’s fates yet to be accounted for (Sources: BBC; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada). The Canadian Indian Residential School system was modeled after the Indian Boarding school system first developed in the United States. Now is the time to familiarize and educate ourselves about this disturbing and little-talked about facet of our own history; there are a number of resources available online that we urge you to make use of as you conduct your research.
Within our Nor’wester family, we have generations of loved ones who are directly affected by the trauma of the Kamloops mass grave discovery. We stand with our Nor’wester family members and all Indigenous peoples at this time of mourning and widespread sorrow. This isn’t in the past. The last Indian Residential School closed in 1996 in Canada and in 1978 in the United States. Survivors and descendants of survivors live with the intergenerational trauma.
As well as grieving together, we must act in solidarity. Please sign and share this petition to Congress and the President. Tell them to form a Truth and Healing Commission today. The United States must begin to confront its own history of genocide and Indian boarding schools. The time is now to listen . The time is now to locate all mass graves on the grounds of Indian Residential Schools, uncover the truth about the missing children, and honor their lives in ways determined appropriate by their families and communities.
Thank you for standing with us in solidarity, not just for our Nor’wester family members but for all indigenous peoples.
The Nor’wester Board of Directors and The Nor’wester Staff