From Silence to Strength: Revitalizing Native Languages Amid Native American Boarding School Trauma

NORTH DAKOTA ( KXNET ) — A recent report released by the U.S. Department of Interior shows nearly 20,000 Native American children were put into Federal Indian Boarding Schools from the early 1800s to the late 1960s. Those numbers also show that almost 1,000 of those children died in those schools.

The Department said there were 417 Schools across the country and territories. 12 of those were right here in North Dakota.

KX News spoke to some relatives of survivors who say emotional, physical, and sexual abuse was a form of punishment for speaking their native languages. And now they say preserving these Native Languages is more important than ever.

“Aabji’ogewin nibiishenh gii-ozhitoon,” said Alex Decoteau to his son, Alexander.

“Learning how to speak the language every day,” translated Alexander.

The Decoteau’s are enrolled members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Indians. Both work daily, at school and home, to speak their native language of Ojibwe, as much as possible. Alexander is still learning Ojibwe, and his dad said speaking the language, freely, will preserve their culture for future generations, while allowing them to heal from the past.

“If we don’t heal with our true culture in our true language in the way our creator made us, the same will continue to happen,” explained Decoteau.

“Alex’s theory is if we teach the older kids, we will teach the younger kids and they will be the models,” said Annette Mennem, the Native American Center Director at Minot State University. “The language is still there and it is saving us in some ways or another.”

Mennem is the first in her family who didn’t go to a boarding school. She says her grandparents were forced to do so, which they say forced them into Christianity, speaking English, and erasing their native culture. Those beliefs were passed on to her.

“Growing up I was taught, it’s not good. However, I’ve evolved into the person I am today and I’m proud to say who I am today,” Mennem explained. “And my grandparents weren’t wrong, but they weren’t right. They were, for lack of words, modified. The objective of the boarding schools was to kill the Indian to save the man.”

Her grandparents told her that the boarding school tried to take away Native identity by cutting their hair, banning communication, and even more drastic measures.

Mennem tells the story of her Cree friend’s boarding school experience.

“She said when I was kidnapped and taken to boarding school, or residential school, in Canada that’s what they called them. She said, I was hungry and I was thirsty and I was cold and I was scared. And the only way to communicate that was with my language. But I got beaten, and I still didn’t know how to communicate, but to use my language. And then they stuck needles in my tongue,” Mennem recounted.

“The indigenous who are learning their culture and language are healing,” said Decoteau.

Currently, several Indigenous languages are being taught in schools, on North Dakota’s five reservations, and colleges throughout the state, including an Ojibwe class at MSU. And both Mennem and Decoteau said they hope to see more, to preserve their rich culture.

According to the report , in 2021, the Departments of the Interior, Education, and Health and Human Services launched an initiative to preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native languages . Since then, both Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland have traveled with First Lady Jill Biden and other Administration leaders to learn more about how Tribal Nations are leveraging federal investments to revitalize Native languages. The Administration expects to roll out a new ten-year Native Language Strategy by the end of 2024.

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