Thesis

"We as a human race need to look at the bigger picture. Culture can never be made. Culture can never be sold, or bought. It is in us [...] It is important to understand culture is not a past tense, it is who we are here and now."

--George Swanaset Jr.

"But I’ll tell you that I’m not interested in reconciliation, or making things better right now. I’m interested in the truth coming out. That has to happen first. So in terms of where we are in this process, we’re just learning the full scope of the truth. People always want to jump to reconciliation and they want to skip over the truth-telling part. We need to sit in the truth for a while"

--Endawnis Spears

THESIS

Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, federal American Indian Boarding schools created a turning point in Native American history through the forced assimilation of Indigenous children into white American society, the deliberate destruction of Native American culture, the death of Native children, and a shift in cultural perspectives of both Native and non-Native Americans. The forced separation of Indigenous children from their families disrupted the intergenerational transmission of traditional knowledge and values, which resulted in the ongoing loss of indigenous languages, identity, and cultural heritage in Native American communities today.

(Source: IUPUI Exhibits.)