We know that the trauma and impact of the boarding schools continues to affect people in our wider Oglala Lakota community. The studies on intergenerational trauma from the boarding schools make this especially clear. The Truth and Healing process is committed to a wide process of community engagement that seeks both to listen to and amplify the voices of those affected by the boarding schools.

We also acknowledge that not everyone who is connected to boarding school history has the same feelings about this topic. We honor this diversity of feeling and experience. Some think of their boarding school days as traumatic, while others have shared that they cherish their time at boarding school. Our commitment to a process of inclusion means that all of these voices are valued.

Currently, we are sharing our work and inviting others to share their responses to this history through a weekly KILI Radio Hour. We also share updates regularly through our newsletter, which you can sign up for here.

We have also conducted multiple listening sessions with survivors and alumni, those who were boarders at Holy Rosary and Our Lady of Lourdes. We will continue to host these gatherings. In time, and when the pandemic allows, we are hoping to have wider listening sessions and talking circles for everyone in the community to engage in dialogue.

We also recognize with great clarity that this is not our history and story to tell. That is why we’re committed to finding a third party to help hold us accountable and be a non-Red Cloud affiliated organization to support boarders in the sharing of their stories.