Genoa Reconciliation Project

MJ Author

10/27/2021 Added

163 Plays

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The Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project is an online site that provides information and documents related the boarding school in Genoa, Nebraska. The school was one of a network of boarding schools across the country that housed Native American children taken from their parents.

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[00:00:01.580]At the Great Plains Art Center,
[00:00:03.350]Judi Gaiashkibos reflects on her mother.
[00:00:06.110]Thankful that she was a strong leader and resilient,
[00:00:10.130]like all of our people are.
[00:00:12.740]Her mother was a student
[00:00:14.070]at the Genoa, U.S. Indian Industrial school.
[00:00:17.150]One of a network of boarding schools across the country
[00:00:20.550]that housed native American children,
[00:00:22.670]taken from their families.
[00:00:24.510]This was a school to eradicate the culture.
[00:00:27.180]It was in essence cultural genocide.
[00:00:31.060]So it was to destroy the Indian in the child.
[00:00:34.000]One building from the original school
[00:00:35.890]is now a museum in Genoa
[00:00:38.220]and the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project,
[00:00:42.080]helps fill the gaps in this painful history.
[00:00:45.230]University of Nebraska Lincoln historian,
[00:00:47.590]Margaret Jacobs, says the project
[00:00:49.710]provides an online repository for documents.
[00:00:53.070]We're creating something we're calling a personography,
[00:00:56.950]where we're trying to get all the names of the students
[00:01:01.720]and link their names with documents and family members.
[00:01:06.620]Gaiashkibos is co-chair of a counsel,
[00:01:09.020]advising the project.
[00:01:10.550]She says the school provided a harsh environment
[00:01:13.490]that had little to do with education.
[00:01:15.770]The children went to bed hungry
[00:01:17.780]and they kept them very vulnerable,
[00:01:20.190]so they didn't want them to be happy, nourished children.
[00:01:24.040]If you ran away, you were beaten.
[00:01:25.770]If you wet the bed, you were shamed.
[00:01:28.635]The effort to bring details to light
[00:01:31.010]is an important step in acknowledging
[00:01:33.080]the Native American experience.
[00:01:35.060]The boarding schools were related to an,
[00:01:37.656]an effort to really remove all native people from land,
[00:01:42.950]so when you think about it,
[00:01:43.990]we're all benefiting from this land that we live on,
[00:01:48.260]so I feel like we all have a responsibility
[00:01:50.420]to know about this history.
[00:01:52.380]Gaiashkibos says it's healing
[00:01:54.260]to tell the stories of her mother
[00:01:55.910]and other students.
[00:01:57.240]My two daughters and five grandchildren,
[00:01:59.240]of course never knew my mother,
[00:02:00.870]but they know her through the stories.
[00:02:02.200]And now through the unveiling of the, all of these records,
[00:02:05.480]they're going to know more about this
[00:02:07.610]and everyone should know about this.
[00:02:11.345](ending theme)

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Genoa Reconciliation Project

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