Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

Silence, is the very thing the dominant society has told us Native American students to do as we grew into our role in society. I, Jeebi Kwe (Spirit Woman), aka: Sheila Chingwa, am an elder with the Little Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa Indians. I choose to stand up and speak. I no longer will remain silent especially with what is on my mind. For the past two days, I have been praying for the small children at Kampoops Indian school in Canada. After a few days of prayer, I have made the decision to write this letter. This morning, I raised my feather in prayer and asked for my words to be true. Silence no more Mr. President, silence no more.

Mr. President, I trust those who are meant to hear me, will do so. For the cries of the spirits of the youth exposed to “Indian Schools” are yelling for justice all over Northern America. The findings at Kamloops in Canada has taken the world by surprise, disgust, and sadness. The reality that 215 students had died in the care of their educators is astonishing shocking. This, is just one school in that country and more will emerge in the future. There were many of said schools laid across the North American continent and Michigan had a few. Will you hear me as I say, “Mr. President, I am one Anishinaabe Kwe, Native Woman, demanding that you want ground penetration technology be applied to all the “Indian Schools” in Michigan. After all, all these schools were run by our Federal Government. Hear me, Mr. President this is the responsibility the country leaders had agreed to in treaties. So, hear me, Mr. President, I plead that you vindicate those little victims who the government didn’t protect.”

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, is a Federal run agency who was directly in charge of the well-being of the Native Children. I have known many families who had children in attendance that did not return to their families. I have known people my age who came back damaged from the rape and abuse that accrued in the schools. My Grandparents were survivors and I can’t imagine what school was like for them. As an elder, I demand that the Bureau of Indian affairs take a stand and do what is right and investigate the lands in which the schools were placed. It is time the Bureau of Indian Affairs to take account for those they were to benefit.

The dead students, need redemption. They need to be discovered. Mr. President, they need you to stand with the people of all Tribal Nations and face the truth that has been covered up in history for years. Mr. President, you appointed Deb Haaland to the office of Secretary of the Interior. This was a good step in building a bridge to our Sovereign Nation. Now, as a Tribal Citizen and a Citizen of the United States, I say that bridge will not be finished until the true history of the Native Americans can be exposed. We may not know the cause of death of the students via Radar detection, but many accounts of families in our community can site, illness, starvation, genocide and abuse were a part of the lives of all those dead students. Let them be seen if only through an Image of a radar detection machine. Give them that redemption if nothing less.

In 1966, 55 years ago, the Federal Government enacted the Section 106 policies, an agreement designed to protect historical sites from being destroyed and preservation of such site could be completed if proven to be historical. Tribal agencies fought to preserve their ancestral lands all across the United States so not to lose their traditional places. In 1990, Congress passed the H. R. 5237- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Protection of the graves and the artifacts contained in them would be preserved and returned to the Tribes. Both the section 106 Historical Preservation and the H. R. 5237- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, are Federal programs to preserve history. I now say, that each school should be investigated and preserved as a monument. Section 106 and H. R. 5237 gives us the right for such investigation. The place where they lay should be preserved by the Federal Government. They should be protected and never moved for the advancement of land development. The government didn’t protect them when they were alive, they should do so now with upmost care. The said agreements above is more than enough to give us the ability to stand and say, “Mr. President, the ball is in your court. What will you do with it?”

The Federal Government agreed all those years ago that historic places needed to be preserved. Mr. President, that includes my ancestral history and ancestral lands. With many treaties, written within, there was an agreement that Native Americans would become the wards of the Federal Government. Native American care was the responsibility of the Federal Government. Mr. President, how many students did the Federal Government fail? How many of those students were not fed? How many of those students didn’t receive proper care? How many died at the hand of another student or worse the facilitators of the school? In accordance to Section 106 I demand that all the “Indian Schools” be preserved, researched, and the truth of such establishments be told. I demand as a Tribal Elder, that these historic places around North America be given such diligence as a white owned historic house that have been given grants to preserve their homesteads, even better provide grants to educate researchers and ground penetrating equipment because this would be the first step to restitution. Preservation, historic documentation, and community awareness is all apart of the restitution. Help us to preserve what was, what is and what is to come.

Mr. President, I am a retired teacher with my Master’s degree in Administration and Supervision in Education. If, in my 13-years of teaching, I had caused a death to one of my students, their parents would seek restitution. Over 13 years, I had between 325 and 400 students walk through my classroom. Not one was ever mistreated, starved, hurt or abused by me. In the hands of priest, nuns, and other persons working at the school, how many children did they hurt or kill during their care. Mr. President, 215 students in one school in Canada is horrific considering the population expansion since then. With 215 students in one location, that is over half of the number of students I have taught in my career. I hurt differently than most on this subject because each and every student I had become my life and many still are to this day. If any of them passed, I would be as heartbroken as any parent would be. Mr. President, did any of these, now deceased, students have a loving teacher to cheer them on? The jeebi (ghost) of 215 students say elsewise that their experience was the same. How many are being silenced at this time?

Mr. President, prove to me that there is hope for these little departed souls. Please provide a program or a grant to get ground penetrating radar in the hands of researchers so the world can see the truth that has been hidden in history. Give Deb Haaland the directive to enact programs and grants to learn how to use such technology into the hands of the Tribes and other interested parties. The genocide is real, as an elder in my community, I want the truth to be known and history made right. I want each little soul to be seen and counted. I want hope that their lives didn’t go to naught.

Part of the restitution I ask for is that the Native American history section in textbooks to be made right. History, has its evils contained with in but as a Native “teaching about Indians”, I boiled at the content I was forced to teach. American history books MUST be changed. White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native history needs to be corrected in the history books. Children need to know that there are people out in society that do not have good intentions. In the long run, true history will help young students to know that despite the horrible things people have done, that each one of dead, can be vindicated in some form or fashion. Mr. President, make it a point to clear the misconception of Native American History. Native American History must be revamped and young minds need to be taught the truth. Restitution, will take a strong constitution to uphold, but Mr. President, I know you are one of those individuals in Government.

Mr. President, I have been watching multi-media post appearing in my feeds. I know that I am not alone with the anger. I see the outpouring of love that society is giving to that community. I see the Native Community coming from all regions coming to pay their respects. Lines of Truckers joined in a caravan as in a show of respect. Mr. President, I say to you, you would witness the same types of outpouring of love for the deceased would happen here too. With Deb Haaland in the lead, society would see that doing the right thing, maybe hard, but it will bring a high level of justice offered to the Native Americans that they have not seen. Ever. Imagine what kind of celebration we would having the “Great Father” showing us that he supports us and he has the compassion as a “Great Father” should. Mr. President, I and many others are watching. What will you have them see?

I leave this quote here by Hellen Keller, “I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” Mr. President, I chose to post this letter online because I feel social media is the quickest communication. I know that many are online writing similar letters to you. They inspired me to speak out. I raise my feathers to them for their actions. I add my request to their inspirational work to beseech you to do the right thing for our Native Culture. This letter is the little something I can do for my community.

Sincerely,

Jeebi Kwe (Spirit Woman)

Sheila L. Chingwa