Journey for Forgiveness

On Wednesday I and 560 others walked 5 miles from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribal Operations building to the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial School as part of the "Journey for Forgiveness". This was an amazing experience even though it was raining for much of the day. Click here to see photos and video clips from the walk. It was a very emotional day and one that I was so glad to be a part of. To hear the stories of people who went to boarding schools whether here at the Mount Pleasant, or the Holy Childhood Boarding School in Harbor Springs, Michigan. The pain, the hurt, the damage caused to individuals, their families, and their children was unreal. It was Gen. Pratt back in the 1800's that stated to his force, "Kill the Indian, Save the Man". So as I sat on the grounds of the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial School and I thought of what it may have been like for the children taken from their families, punished for speaking their language, beaten severely, or made to kneel on rice for hours as a punishment for being who they are, unable to be a part of their culture and practice their spiritual beliefs. The sexual abuse that some endured. Some children died here trying to run away in the bitter cold winter, desperate to get away and to get back to their families. I began to cry as the healing ceremony was taking place, the hundred eagle feather sacred hoop, the tobacco that had been laid by others from across the country and my own offering about to be placed and brought to Washington D.C., the jingle dress dancers, the big drum, it was all very powerful that finally the healing had begun.