Children’s shoes line the edge of Tlingit Park in Haines in honor of the 215 children whose remains were found at a residential boarding school in Kamloops, B.C. (Corinne Smith/KHNS)

In Haines, members of the Alaska Native community gathered to honor the children and all those impacted by the violent legacy of Native boarding schools. This follows the discovery of hundreds unmarked graves at at least two former boarding schools in Canada that has led to international calls for reckoning with colonialism’s violence against North America’s indigenous children.

Summer solstice evening, First Nations people across Canada and the U.S. gathered to honor the 215 native children whose remains were found at the site of the residential boarding school near Kamloops in British Columbia. 

In Haines, community members gathered Monday at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall. The group shared drumming, songs, prayers, and poetry, to honor the children, the loss and tragedy for families and communities. Nancy Keen was one of the organizers, and at 6 p.m., says everyone got quiet.

“A moment of silence for the children, and then we went into a song,” she said. “And that was really wonderful…  it was just, I think unifying is the key word there. We were coming together, we were going to honor these children.”

Keen says Native communities have always known about the deaths and trauma suffered by children and families in the boarding school system, and the excavation of remains is just confirmation. 

Same for the First Nations Peoples in Kamloops, B.C. She says authorities had dragged their feet on doing a proper investigation until now. So the community initiated their own, using ground-penetrating radar. 

“They knew exactly what they were going to find. So this is all something that has been spoken about and whispered about for a long long time. Now it’s validated, we have tangible, solid proof.”

Keen says that what’s more painful is the public shock at the news. And the wider public, and specifically white people, need to take the opportunity to learn more about the history of the boarding school system, and its ties to colonialism and attempted erasure of indigenous peoples.  

“We all have technology at our fingertips, it’s a matter of doing the work. Go and look, its all there,” she said. “Not just this community, but all through Southeast Alaska, we call it Tlingit Aani. The land of the Tlingits. And so all throughout this region, and all the way north into the Yukon and over into B.C., we’re talking about the same thing.”

Haines House was occupied by “orphans, half-orphans, wards of the court, and children from remote villages where schools were not available,” according to the Haines Sheldon Museum. Boys and girls were housed in separate buildings. (Photo courtesy Haines Sheldon Museum)

In Haines, across from the ANB Hall is the site of the former native boarding school and foster home, Haines House. The school operated from 1921 to 1960, run by the Presbyterian church. Tlingit children from around the Chilkat Valley were sent there, and some sent to Sheldon Jackson in Sitka.

Keen declined to comment about Haines House; she says survivors could tell their own stories. 

But the legacy and impact is widely felt. Alaska Native children were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools to get an education, but they were also cut off from their culture, language, and ways of knowing. 

“All of us, I mean every single one of us, that are Alaska Native or American Indian, have endured trauma at some level,” she said. “Because we are, all of us, first, second, third, generation boarding school, residential school survivors. All of us.”

She says now it’s important to remember those lost, and learn about the history of cultural genocide and forced assimilation. And looking ahead, she says it’s critical to support native communities.

“In my mind, it’s time to focus on those things that were missing for all these people that have endured the trauma of the boarding schools,” Keen said. “What we’re talking about is we need to reconnect to our songs, our ceremonies, our connections to the land, how we pray. With that we create love, joy, and kinship. We revitalize our languages, rematriate the land…we need people to meet us halfway, so we can share what that means.”

There is a memorial now in Tlingit Park of children’s shoes lined up to honor and remember the native children lost and all those impacted by boarding schools.

The tragic revelations continue. On Thursday, 3 days after the solstice remembrance in Haines, at least 751 unmarked graves were discovered outside another former Indian boarding school in Canada. This time, it was the Cowessess First Nation who uncovered the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.