AMERICAN INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL HISTORY AND HEALING

AMERICAN INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL HISTORY AND HEALING

The recent tragic news of the discovery of thousands of unmarked graves at residential schools across Canada has brought attention to our own history as a campus built on the site of two such schools. The University of Minnesota Morris is committed to continuing our research into the history of the schools that operated at this site and to collaboration with Tribal Nations as we move forward.

Archival research has revealed no specific evidence of a cemetery for the burial of children who died while at the Morris schools. We can also not say with certainty, however, that no such cemetery existed. Individuals on campus and in Tribal offices are completing more research, and Acting Chancellor Janet Schrunk Ericksen has met with Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) and communicated with Tribal Chairs about visiting Tribal councils to share this research.

As we identify and act on next needed steps regarding the possibility of unidentified burial sites in Morris, we will continue to honor Tribal sovereignty and remember the children who were here as beloved members of their families and communities. We will continue to be guided by our American Indian Advisory Committee, Dakota and Ojibwe elders, and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, of which
we are a part.

With the guidance of our campus American Indian Advisory Committee and Dakota and Anishinaabe elders, UMN Morris hosted a ceremonial gathering to inaugurate an era of truth telling, understanding, and healing regarding the history of this land in April 2019.

It was an important step in remembering the children and their families and communities that have been negatively impacted by the boarding schools on this site and all those across Minnesota and our nation. We have held subsequent campus gatherings for truth telling and healing in November 2019 and November 2020. The third annual gathering for healing will be held in October. Welcome Week this year included a new educational session that provided understanding of this place as Dakota and Ojibwe land, discussed the history of the boarding schools here, and gave context for the connections of this history to today at UMN Morris as a federally designated Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution.

We are planning a teach-in for November, to increase understanding of the history and continuing impacts of Native American boarding schools. Earlier this year Secretary of the US Department of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, launching a formal and detailed investigation of the Indian boarding schools that existed in the US between 1869 and the 1960s. We welcome and will support this federal initiative. We will not, however, delay our current work.

UMN MORRIS AWARDED $1.5M FOR NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT SUCCESS

The University of Minnesota Morris was recently awarded a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to
support Native American student success. Totaling $1.5 million, the award will support transition to college, first-year experience programming, access to cultural resources, and student wellbeing at UMN Morris.

The grant continues and builds on the Native American Student Success (NASS) program established in 2015. It supports
a Native American-student-centered transition to college and an enhanced first-year experience for new Native students. It
will provide cultural representation, role models, and supportive practices for Native American students at UMN Morris as well
as faculty/staff professional development opportunities to build a more culturally informed, supportive campus climate. The
project will also address the growing impact of student mental health challenges in interrupting students’ college progress by
increasing understanding of intergenerational trauma, providing greater access to culturally relevant resources, and adding support for Native American students’ wellbeing.

A second U.S. Department of Education NASNTI-supported project is being launched to build cooperation between tribal
colleges in Minnesota and UMN Morris, including transfer pathways for tribal college graduates to earn BA degrees.
This activity is supported wholly or in part by the US Department of Education Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI) program.

Fall 2021 Profile


1887
The Sisters of Mercy, an order of the Roman Catholic Church, established the Morris American Indian Boarding School on this site. The school closed in 1896.

1897
The school reopened as The Morris Industrial School for American Indians, under the management of the federal government.

1909
As the US government closed off-reservation boarding schools, the campus was transferred to the State of Minnesota with federal law and state statute mandating that an educational institution be maintained on the site and American Indian students “shall at all times be admitted to such school free of charge for tuition and on terms of equality with white pupils.”