14
APRIL 15, 2022
NATIVE
AMERICAN
WATCHLIST
Watchlist: ‘Indigenous families seek
justice for boarding school abuse’
(Editor’s note: It is estimated that there are approximately 149
billion videos on YouTube, and the number continues to grow.
Grand Ronde Tribal member and Social Media/Digital Jour-
nalist Kamiah Koch sifts through those myriad videos twice a
month to recommend a worthwhile Indigenous video to watch.
Follow her bimonthly recommendations and enjoy!)
By Kamiah Koch
Social media/digital journalist
Just 37 miles east of the Grand Ronde Reservation sits the Che-
mawa Indian Boarding School. The Salem school’s dark history
was shared on the ABC News YouTube channel on April 1, 2022.
Marsha Small is from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and a doc-
toral student at Montana State University. Small and her team
use ground-penetrating radar to look for graves of children on
Chemawa’s campus. Radar is used because it is not invasive or
disturbing.
“The fact that there are cemeteries at these schools … just saying
it sounds weird, right?” Small says in the video.
Small discovered the markers in the cemetery have no real re-
lation to the graves and believes there are actually more graves
than there are markers.
“When I go into cemeteries, I talk to the children,” Small says. “I
tell them that those that want to go home may have the possibility
of going home. They are not forgotten.”
Dr. Denise Lajimodiere, citizen of the True Mountain Band of
the Chippewa Indians, says she calls the boarding school era “one
of America’s best kept secrets.”
That seems to be finally changing with the ABC News video
using text and historic images to share background on the history
of Indigenous boarding schools in the United States.
The federal government never recorded how many boarding
schools were in operation during their 150 years as an assimilation
tactic. Lajimodiere decided to take it upon herself to locate and
count as many U.S. boarding schools as she could.
Lajimodiere discusses the life of children staying at boarding
schools about halfway through the video, saying the corporal pun-
ishment was horrendous; some children dying from disease while
others died from abuse. Her father was forced to attend Chemawa
from 1925 to 1929. He was nine years old.
“Boarding schools and the legacy of boarding schools has im-
pacted every Native family,” Lajimodiere says.
One family featured in the video is the Means family of the
Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
Three generations of the family are interviewed to share their
involvement in repatriating the bodies of nine Tribal children from
Carlisle Indian School to Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
Rita Means, former Tribal Council member for the Rosebud
Sioux Tribe, attended the St. Francis Mission School for six years
starting in the sixth grade.
“Any place you can’t leave is a prison. We were definitely locked
in until we had to go to church at six in the morning,” Rita Means
says.
Her granddaughter, Shylee Means, was on the Sicangu Youth
Council that started the process of returning the deceased children
to their Tribe.
“The thing that really sparked this whole movement was asking
‘Why are our kids still there?’ ” Shylee Means says. “It really hit
that this could be my cousin, this could be my uncle. What if I
didn’t get to go home? It really sunk in, like what if this was me?”
To watch the video for yourself, go to www.youtube.com/
watch?v=-BFQQRm6z4I or find it on the Smoke Signals YouTube
Channel under the Watchlist playlist. 
MARRIAGES IN TRIBAL COURT
Tribal Court is issuing marriage licenses and is able to perform marriage
ceremonies for a filing fee of $40. For questions regarding scheduling,
contact the Tribal Court at 503-879-2303. 
Smoke Signals
Community Fund seeking
Hatfield Fellow applicants
Applications for the 2022-23 Hatfield Fellowship are being accepted
through May 16 by Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the philanthropic
arm of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
The Community Fund annually sponsors a Native American to serve as
the Hatfield Fellow and intern in a congressional office. Placement of the
Fellow rotates through the Oregon congressional delegation to enhance
the mutual understanding between leadership in Washington, D.C., and
Indian Country.
The Hatfield Fellow begins his or her Capitol Hill experience in No-
vember with a month-long orientation at the American Political Science
Association. It is then followed by an eight-month term in an Oregon
congressional office. The fellowship includes a monthly stipend, as well
as relocation and travel expenses.
Tribal members from the nine federally recognized Tribes of Oregon are
eligible to apply, as well as members of Tribes in the Pacific Northwest.
However, preference will be given to members of Oregon Tribes. Appli-
cants must have a bachelor’s degree or be graduating in June, and be at
least 21 years of age.
The Hatfield Fellowship was created in 1998 to honor Sen. Mark
Hatfield’s public service to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. For more
information or to apply, go to thecommunityfund.com/grants-programs/
hatfield-fellowship/ or visit youtu.be/7T0nNoFgUYS to watch an infor-
mational video. 
\
Saturday, May, 7th
10AM-2PM
There will be activities for
the whole family!
✓ Cooking demonstrations
Tribal Gym
✓ Educational workshops
(THERE WILL BE SIGNS)
✓ Informational booths
FREE & OPEN TO ALL
✓ Pree eommunity-:-me.GI-
COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Organized by Grand Ronde's Food Access and Community Team,
sponsored by Marion-Polk Food Share & the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde.
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Marion-Polk
FOOD
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