00:00:11.845 --> 00:00:13.055
Here.

00:00:13.639 --> 00:00:17.351
Kindly pull this up if you can.
If you can't, it's all right.

00:00:17.893 --> 00:00:19.102
Watch out.

00:00:21.897 --> 00:00:23.065
Careful, grandma

00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:27.444
Okay, you see where all
those trees are standing there?

00:00:27.444 --> 00:00:29.571
I think that's where
the water well is.

00:00:30.322 --> 00:00:33.534
Oh, about here maybe
was before the house was.

00:00:34.201 --> 00:00:37.913
I was living in this house when
Miss Walkingstick came to visit.

00:00:37.913 --> 00:00:39.790
That was in 1948.

00:00:40.082 --> 00:00:43.210
She had pointed at me, I
didn't know what she was saying.

00:00:43.210 --> 00:00:45.128
So I ran into the house
and I hid.

00:00:45.629 --> 00:00:47.297
And she told my parents

00:00:47.297 --> 00:00:50.884
that I was going to be going
to Carter Seminary in the fall.

00:00:51.760 --> 00:00:53.220
And they took us.

00:00:54.304 --> 00:00:56.431
Wondering about what
was going to happen,

00:00:56.431 --> 00:00:58.517
my body was tensed up.

00:00:59.518 --> 00:01:02.437
Augustine is one
of the hundreds of thousands

00:01:02.437 --> 00:01:05.524
of Native American children
placed in residential schools

00:01:05.524 --> 00:01:07.150
since the 1870s.

00:01:08.360 --> 00:01:11.863
Back then, the United States
government waged a costly war

00:01:11.863 --> 00:01:13.824
with most indigenous tribes

00:01:13.824 --> 00:01:17.786
and founded over 360
boarding schools

00:01:17.786 --> 00:01:21.999
which systematically destroyed
native cultures and communities.

00:01:22.583 --> 00:01:25.252
The philosophy was brutal:

00:01:25.252 --> 00:01:28.505
"Kill the Indian, Save the Man."

00:01:29.673 --> 00:01:32.718
To discover how the
policy still affects the lives

00:01:32.718 --> 00:01:34.678
of Native American people today,

00:01:34.678 --> 00:01:36.513
I travel to Oklahoma,

00:01:36.513 --> 00:01:40.434
the state that once housed no
less than 83 boarding schools.

00:01:40.809 --> 00:01:42.978
The highest number
in the country.

00:02:01.038 --> 00:02:05.542
Chilocco was just one of those
schools across the United States

00:02:05.542 --> 00:02:07.544
that opened in that era.

00:02:08.128 --> 00:02:12.257
The students were
brought in against their will

00:02:12.257 --> 00:02:17.638
and introduced
to a foreign culture.

00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:20.307
As the enrollment increased,

00:02:20.307 --> 00:02:23.393
this became literally
a military school.

00:02:24.603 --> 00:02:28.940
We have pictures of Chilocco
students wearing uniforms

00:02:28.940 --> 00:02:31.568
and standing in formation.

00:02:31.902 --> 00:02:36.365
And then some of the documents
that we have access to,

00:02:36.365 --> 00:02:44.039
talk about the 27 bugle calls
daily that the students learned.

00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:46.792
And students had to know
what each beep meant.

00:02:47.626 --> 00:02:51.254
Charmain is a third-generation
Chilocco school alumni.

00:02:51.797 --> 00:02:54.091
Both of her grandmothers
and mother

00:02:54.091 --> 00:02:57.344
went to boarding schools when
they were little. So did she.

00:02:58.345 --> 00:03:01.306
That first year I got
so much detention.

00:03:01.306 --> 00:03:02.933
Every minute that you were late,

00:03:02.933 --> 00:03:05.894
you got an hour of work to do.

00:03:05.894 --> 00:03:08.397
If you did it twice,
you got twice as much.

00:03:08.397 --> 00:03:10.899
I had so many hours to work off.

00:03:12.025 --> 00:03:15.028
And that is why I never got
to go anywhere or do anything.

00:03:15.737 --> 00:03:18.323
Students who arrived
at their new schools

00:03:18.323 --> 00:03:20.742
were stripped of any
traditional belongings

00:03:20.742 --> 00:03:23.203
and got a forced haircut.

00:03:23.203 --> 00:03:27.124
Their clothing was replaced
by skirts, suits or uniforms.

00:03:27.582 --> 00:03:30.085
Many were baptised
against their wishes

00:03:30.085 --> 00:03:32.254
and made to attend mass.

00:03:32.796 --> 00:03:35.465
Native traditions or
beliefs became taboo

00:03:35.465 --> 00:03:37.175
within the school's walls.

00:03:37.467 --> 00:03:39.386
And even though most
of the young children

00:03:39.386 --> 00:03:41.596
didn't know a single
word of English

00:03:41.596 --> 00:03:43.390
when leaving their communities,

00:03:43.390 --> 00:03:46.977
they were physically abused for
speaking in their native tongue.

00:04:08.457 --> 00:04:10.208
These look pretty nice.

00:04:11.209 --> 00:04:14.796
These are really beautiful
when they're fixed up.

00:04:15.130 --> 00:04:18.925
I don't know if you can imagine
it with all the decay now.

00:04:23.722 --> 00:04:25.849
Those days were brutal.

00:04:25.849 --> 00:04:28.810
And they had belt lines that
they would punish the guys at.

00:04:28.810 --> 00:04:31.188
My aunt got beaten,

00:04:31.188 --> 00:04:34.649
the skin taken off her back
from being whipped so bad.

00:04:35.275 --> 00:04:39.362
Grandma came and
heard her screaming

00:04:39.362 --> 00:04:41.156
and she went down
to the basement

00:04:41.156 --> 00:04:43.783
and saw them putting
salve on her back.

00:04:44.534 --> 00:04:47.120
So those things happened.

00:04:48.246 --> 00:04:51.583
I saw a shadow one
time going up the steps.

00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:55.253
Nobody lived on the third
floor, they said it was haunted.

00:04:55.629 --> 00:04:58.256
Students killed
themselves on the stairwell.

00:05:07.390 --> 00:05:12.020
Now that I'm older, I can
see how the Europeans came

00:05:12.020 --> 00:05:15.023
with their mindset about
what civilization was.

00:05:15.357 --> 00:05:18.276
They had to have a reason,

00:05:18.276 --> 00:05:21.863
a justification for
taking all the land

00:05:22.197 --> 00:05:25.575
and that had to be
that we were inferior.

00:05:25.575 --> 00:05:27.786
Now that all of
this has happened.

00:05:28.703 --> 00:05:32.123
Now, they made schools
and killed the kids.

00:05:36.086 --> 00:05:38.672
I did a lot of research
on the cemetery

00:05:39.297 --> 00:05:42.926
and there were only ten
names that had a cause of death.

00:05:42.926 --> 00:05:45.220
The other 50 don't
have a cause of death

00:05:45.220 --> 00:05:47.806
Imagine how they
might have died.

00:05:48.056 --> 00:05:50.976
Starvation, beatings, cold...

00:05:50.976 --> 00:05:52.602
They couldn't put it
down they just put:

00:05:52.602 --> 00:05:54.729
unknown, unknown, unknown.

00:05:54.729 --> 00:05:57.440
And that's what makes you sick

00:06:06.032 --> 00:06:10.203
Charmain and Jim now take care
of the cemetery of Chilocco,

00:06:10.203 --> 00:06:13.957
where some students
found a final resting place.

00:06:17.085 --> 00:06:24.426
One of the hardest things to
do is to not to get emotional

00:06:24.426 --> 00:06:26.845
when you know that many of these
children

00:06:26.845 --> 00:06:30.348
did not have the opportunity

00:06:30.765 --> 00:06:36.229
to visit home prior
to their death.

00:06:37.731 --> 00:06:40.525
Indians take death as something

00:06:40.525 --> 00:06:45.363
that they need to
get done through a ceremony

00:06:45.739 --> 00:06:49.242
and they did not have
that opportunity to do so.

00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:53.288
So anytime that
I come to the cemetery,

00:06:54.164 --> 00:06:59.461
I do take time to talk to
those who are interred here.

00:07:01.129 --> 00:07:03.590
Based on clippings
and testimonies,

00:07:03.590 --> 00:07:05.967
the alumni
association at Chilocco

00:07:05.967 --> 00:07:09.179
drew up a list of 67 names,

00:07:09.179 --> 00:07:12.057
all children
who are known to be buried here.

00:07:12.807 --> 00:07:15.435
But ground-penetrating
radar identified

00:07:15.435 --> 00:07:19.189
125 anomalies in the surface,

00:07:19.648 --> 00:07:22.567
which are now marked gravesites.

00:07:22.567 --> 00:07:28.239
Despite having that
information we still do not know

00:07:28.239 --> 00:07:33.453
which graves belong to
the 67 names that we have

00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:36.915
Hopefully, in the future,
that will come out.

00:07:38.625 --> 00:07:41.670
It's a mystery how many
children have lost their lives

00:07:41.670 --> 00:07:45.048
while living at Native
American boarding schools.

00:07:45.048 --> 00:07:47.842
But Jim warns us
against mass hysteria,

00:07:47.842 --> 00:07:50.428
as he believes
sickness and accidents

00:07:50.428 --> 00:07:52.722
were part of life
at the schools.

00:08:06.569 --> 00:08:10.115
Very few school cemeteries
have been charted in Oklahoma.

00:08:10.490 --> 00:08:13.827
Communities often struggle
to gain access to the grounds

00:08:13.827 --> 00:08:15.662
or fund investigations.

00:08:16.204 --> 00:08:18.164
I'm invited to
watch a land survey

00:08:18.164 --> 00:08:20.542
in real-time in Seminole Nation.

00:08:21.084 --> 00:08:24.671
This is the family cemetery
of Koley Cochary,

00:08:24.671 --> 00:08:27.465
where a group of
activists has set up camp.

00:08:29.050 --> 00:08:31.386
Koley Concharty
is my great-grandma.

00:08:31.386 --> 00:08:32.887
She and my grandpa Jimpsy

00:08:32.887 --> 00:08:35.306
were both survivors
of the Trail of Tears.

00:08:35.932 --> 00:08:37.684
They were allotted this land

00:08:37.684 --> 00:08:41.229
and their own homestead
is right on that hill.

00:08:42.647 --> 00:08:44.899
During an oil
boom in the region,

00:08:44.899 --> 00:08:47.861
Koley Cochary and her
husband were murdered.

00:08:48.486 --> 00:08:51.114
The children were
adopted by a white family

00:08:51.114 --> 00:08:53.533
and their land rights
were fraudulently sold

00:08:53.533 --> 00:08:54.784
to the adoptive father.

00:08:55.827 --> 00:08:56.828
Decades later,

00:08:56.828 --> 00:09:00.248
the family hears about the
desecration of the cemetery

00:09:00.248 --> 00:09:01.541
by the new owners.

00:09:03.001 --> 00:09:04.961
I'm having a hard time believing

00:09:04.961 --> 00:09:10.884
how anybody with any kind
of common decency or heart

00:09:10.884 --> 00:09:13.928
would even mess with
anybody's resting place.

00:09:15.930 --> 00:09:19.434
One of the steps we're taking is
to get this preserved federally,

00:09:19.434 --> 00:09:20.977
because if you don't
have it on paper,

00:09:20.977 --> 00:09:22.395
they don't believe it.

00:09:22.854 --> 00:09:25.940
A specialised team is now
mapping out the cemetery

00:09:25.940 --> 00:09:29.736
with meters, ground-penetrating
radar, and sniffer dogs.

00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:32.739
Some 30 people have
shown up to make sure

00:09:32.739 --> 00:09:36.201
the work isn't disturbed
by the angry landowners.

00:09:36.576 --> 00:09:40.622
Around the fire, the activists
share their own stories.

00:09:43.917 --> 00:09:46.711
All Native American families

00:09:46.711 --> 00:09:48.838
have been affected
by boarding schools

00:09:48.838 --> 00:09:51.382
because we didn't spank.

00:09:52.258 --> 00:09:54.928
We didn't hit.
We had chores to do.

00:09:55.303 --> 00:09:56.763
If you got in trouble

00:09:56.763 --> 00:09:58.223
because you
stole somebody's rick of wood.

00:09:58.223 --> 00:10:00.225
Well, you're gonna
go cut wood all day.

00:10:00.225 --> 00:10:01.768
If you took off with
somebody's horse.

00:10:01.768 --> 00:10:03.436
Well, you're going to go around
horses

00:10:03.436 --> 00:10:05.146
and do horse shit all day.

00:10:05.146 --> 00:10:07.023
You didn't hit a child anywhere.

00:10:08.274 --> 00:10:10.443
if they've ever been abused,

00:10:10.443 --> 00:10:11.945
that is through
the boarding schools.

00:10:11.945 --> 00:10:14.239
All of us have been
affected by that.

00:10:14.239 --> 00:10:15.532
Yeah.

00:10:16.699 --> 00:10:18.451
My mom went to Eufaula.
I love my mom.

00:10:18.451 --> 00:10:20.578
She passed away some years
ago but on my eighth birthday,

00:10:20.578 --> 00:10:22.956
She had called me into the
front room

00:10:22.956 --> 00:10:24.249
and my dad was there.

00:10:24.249 --> 00:10:25.750
She said: we didn't want you.

00:10:25.750 --> 00:10:28.586
She said: I was trying
to get rid of you.

00:10:28.586 --> 00:10:32.257
I was never mad at them,
unlike my brother.

00:10:32.257 --> 00:10:34.634
He passed away,
he killed himself.

00:10:34.634 --> 00:10:38.471
All he could think about
was how he was raised.

00:10:40.098 --> 00:10:41.766
How can you raise
the next generation

00:10:41.766 --> 00:10:44.477
when you're suffering
on the inside?

00:10:45.270 --> 00:10:49.274
The people of this land
were hurt for centuries.

00:10:49.274 --> 00:10:53.653
And it began with wars
with adults

00:10:53.987 --> 00:10:57.323
them with firearms,
and us with bows and arrows.

00:10:57.782 --> 00:11:02.120
And then, after fighting with
them for years and years,

00:11:02.704 --> 00:11:05.290
that transitioned into
the boarding schools

00:11:05.290 --> 00:11:08.793
and them focusing their
attention on the children

00:11:08.793 --> 00:11:11.379
to erase us from the ground up.

00:11:11.629 --> 00:11:16.634
No long hair, no language,
song, no ceremony

00:11:16.926 --> 00:11:22.015
to get rid of us, at a
cellular level, basically.

00:11:26.227 --> 00:11:28.313
I hit the road to
discover one piece

00:11:28.313 --> 00:11:31.232
of contemporary
Native American culture.

00:11:31.232 --> 00:11:33.985
In Cherokee Nation,
there's a powwow.

00:11:43.369 --> 00:11:45.204
At this intertribal dance,

00:11:45.204 --> 00:11:48.291
people honour their
traditions and loved ones.

00:11:48.583 --> 00:11:51.461
Even children and
teenagers show their regalia

00:11:51.461 --> 00:11:53.296
and dance in competitions,

00:11:53.296 --> 00:11:56.507
in which you can win prize
money and annual titles.

00:11:58.551 --> 00:12:00.970
Having people who have
the same struggles as you

00:12:00.970 --> 00:12:03.848
and being able to deal with
them in the same cultural way

00:12:03.848 --> 00:12:05.808
is just something
very special to me.

00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:09.395
Personally, I struggle severely
with anxiety

00:12:09.395 --> 00:12:12.482
and my mom told me
this traditional story.

00:12:12.482 --> 00:12:15.109
I hold it very dear to my heart.

00:12:15.944 --> 00:12:17.528
People who are
not Native American

00:12:17.528 --> 00:12:21.616
don't really fully understand
the removal of our home grounds

00:12:21.616 --> 00:12:23.826
because those grounds
are very sacred to us.

00:12:23.826 --> 00:12:26.329
There's so much
medicine and history there

00:12:26.329 --> 00:12:28.706
that we will never
be able to get back.

00:12:28.706 --> 00:12:31.042
Every sort of beadwork
that we have on us

00:12:31.042 --> 00:12:34.504
and around us is always
messed up in one certain way.

00:12:34.504 --> 00:12:36.214
That's to reflect nature

00:12:36.214 --> 00:12:38.216
and that we are not perfect
in every single way.

00:12:38.216 --> 00:12:41.010
That really helps me
connect my anxiety

00:12:41.010 --> 00:12:42.887
with my culture my heritage.

00:12:46.557 --> 00:12:48.309
Every single time I
put my jingle dress on

00:12:48.309 --> 00:12:49.686
and I dance to the drum,

00:12:49.686 --> 00:12:52.230
I try to give off as
much medicine as I can

00:12:52.230 --> 00:12:55.191
to the people who are struggling
in their day to day lives.

00:12:55.608 --> 00:12:58.486
It just makes me feel good

00:12:58.486 --> 00:13:00.822
as I tried to make
other people feel good.

00:13:10.206 --> 00:13:11.874
I visit Casey in the house

00:13:11.874 --> 00:13:14.252
where she lives with
her mom and stepdad

00:13:14.252 --> 00:13:16.504
and where they try to
live life as traditionally

00:13:16.504 --> 00:13:18.089
as possible again.

00:13:18.715 --> 00:13:20.800
Were on Delaware land.

00:13:21.217 --> 00:13:23.136
It's a housing
community residence

00:13:23.136 --> 00:13:25.263
only for native people.

00:13:27.265 --> 00:13:30.101
My mom is native.
My dad is also native,

00:13:30.101 --> 00:13:33.813
but he does not
do anything cultural.

00:13:33.813 --> 00:13:38.359
Growing up when I
was really, really young,

00:13:39.152 --> 00:13:41.279
we didn't go to any pow wows,

00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:45.366
we didn't do any storm dances,
we didn't go to any sweats.

00:13:45.908 --> 00:13:48.119
I'm almost thankful
that they got a divorce

00:13:48.119 --> 00:13:48.953
because if they didn't,

00:13:48.953 --> 00:13:53.082
then I would have missed out
on being a part of my heritage

00:13:53.082 --> 00:13:55.251
and being able to pass it on.

00:13:55.710 --> 00:14:01.466
it's so hard switching between
being in a native environment

00:14:01.466 --> 00:14:03.760
and then being in a non-native
environment.

00:14:03.760 --> 00:14:06.763
It's so, so exhausting.

00:14:08.431 --> 00:14:13.436
I am white-passing
and some people,

00:14:13.436 --> 00:14:17.607
I feel, made fun of me
because I am not darker.

00:14:17.607 --> 00:14:19.817
And it's so heartbreaking.

00:14:20.610 --> 00:14:22.904
OK.
I don't know what happened.

00:14:22.904 --> 00:14:26.532
What I'm making right now
is for my sister's birthday.

00:14:26.532 --> 00:14:30.578
It's gonna end up being a
medallion, like a necklace.

00:14:30.578 --> 00:14:34.457
She always steals
all of my medallions.

00:14:34.457 --> 00:14:37.668
So I figured she probably
needed one for herself.

00:14:39.420 --> 00:14:41.798
My stepdad is a
full-blood native.

00:14:41.798 --> 00:14:44.300
He has helped me tremendously.

00:14:44.300 --> 00:14:47.136
His mom went to boarding school.

00:14:47.136 --> 00:14:49.764
And she does not
talk about it at all.

00:14:49.764 --> 00:14:53.017
She refuses to talk about it.

00:14:53.017 --> 00:14:55.186
Because of going to
boarding school and not having

00:14:55.186 --> 00:14:59.649
the right teachings

00:14:59.649 --> 00:15:02.777
and cultural teachings
whenever she was younger,

00:15:02.777 --> 00:15:06.405
now she abuses alcohol
and abuses drugs.

00:15:06.405 --> 00:15:09.117
My stepdad struggles a lot
with that.

00:15:09.117 --> 00:15:11.661
But he implements
a lot of the teachings

00:15:11.661 --> 00:15:14.080
that he missed out
on as a kid growing up.

00:15:16.332 --> 00:15:20.795
We always try to learn as much
as we can about our tradition

00:15:20.795 --> 00:15:22.296
to try and keep it alive

00:15:22.296 --> 00:15:23.881
because so much of it was lost

00:15:23.881 --> 00:15:25.383
with that whole
entire generation

00:15:25.383 --> 00:15:27.093
going to those
residential schools

00:15:27.093 --> 00:15:29.637
and losing so much
of that tradition.

00:15:44.569 --> 00:15:45.611
Statistics today

00:15:45.611 --> 00:15:49.699
show the consequences of
communities being ripped apart.

00:15:50.324 --> 00:15:54.495
Four million Native Americans
suffer from mental illness.

00:15:54.495 --> 00:15:56.831
Over 3% say they feel worthless

00:15:56.831 --> 00:15:59.458
and suicide is the second
leading cause of death

00:15:59.458 --> 00:16:01.544
for native youth.

00:16:01.544 --> 00:16:04.922
But many are paving
a new way forward.

00:16:04.922 --> 00:16:07.884
Vanessa and Augustine
take me to Seminole Nation,

00:16:07.884 --> 00:16:11.220
a place they're both proud
to once again call home.

00:16:12.430 --> 00:16:15.433
I'm going to show you
the places where I lived.

00:16:16.767 --> 00:16:18.686
There is nothing there now.

00:16:19.145 --> 00:16:21.731
The reservation that
everybody talks about,

00:16:21.731 --> 00:16:23.566
they say we're all
grouped together.

00:16:23.566 --> 00:16:26.194
It's not like that at all.
We're spread out.

00:16:27.486 --> 00:16:29.864
They took our land in Florida.

00:16:29.864 --> 00:16:32.825
And they brought us
here to Indian territory.

00:16:32.825 --> 00:16:36.245
My grandmother,
her name was Metetakee.

00:16:36.662 --> 00:16:38.998
But she told about
the Trail of Tears.

00:16:40.291 --> 00:16:44.879
The elders died, babies died,
women died men died.

00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:46.047
You know?

00:16:46.047 --> 00:16:47.965
It affected the whole nation.

00:16:47.965 --> 00:16:52.845
And they were dying as they
were coming on this long walk.

00:17:07.652 --> 00:17:09.403
New Dominion LLC.

00:17:09.403 --> 00:17:10.655
That's the oil company.

00:17:10.655 --> 00:17:12.782
They're taking over
everybody's land.

00:17:12.782 --> 00:17:14.533
Let me take their picture
real quick.

00:17:15.243 --> 00:17:18.663
They got my grandma
and them to sign over.

00:17:18.955 --> 00:17:21.123
Man, I was in Chicago.
I knew nothing.

00:17:21.123 --> 00:17:23.793
My friends in Chicago are like:

00:17:23.793 --> 00:17:27.588
Girl, you did a whole
360, or what is it, a 180?

00:17:27.880 --> 00:17:28.881
They just didn't think

00:17:28.881 --> 00:17:31.008
that I would ever take
on something like this.

00:17:31.008 --> 00:17:33.469
You know, I've never
been about activism.

00:17:33.469 --> 00:17:36.973
I can't tuck my tail
between my legs,

00:17:36.973 --> 00:17:38.891
you know and be run scared.

00:17:38.891 --> 00:17:41.519
My ancestors didn't
have that choice.

00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:43.854
My grandma didn't
have that choice.

00:17:47.066 --> 00:17:48.943
Where was the house grandma?

00:17:48.943 --> 00:17:50.861
It was probably
further up the road.

00:17:54.407 --> 00:17:59.078
-Abe Scott and Miller.
-That was my dad's nickname.

00:17:59.370 --> 00:18:01.247
This is your land!

00:18:01.247 --> 00:18:03.624
Abe Scott, grandma.

00:18:05.376 --> 00:18:08.087
No trespassing,
no hunting or fishing.

00:18:08.087 --> 00:18:09.547
This is our land.

00:18:10.381 --> 00:18:13.009
I can't believe
we've never come down here.

00:18:13.009 --> 00:18:14.635
When's the last time
you've been here?

00:18:14.635 --> 00:18:17.054
Dear God, more than 50 years.

00:18:17.054 --> 00:18:18.723
-Really?
-Yeah.

00:18:18.723 --> 00:18:20.266
Hey, let's go take a look.

00:18:20.266 --> 00:18:22.560
Let's go see
what's still standing.

00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:28.357
Grandma, smile real quick.

00:18:29.066 --> 00:18:30.943
I can't smile.

00:18:37.366 --> 00:18:40.536
Careful with the nails
sticking out. Oh my God.

00:18:40.828 --> 00:18:43.456
God, it just seems so small now.

00:18:43.706 --> 00:18:46.334
-This was the living room?
-I think so.

00:18:47.835 --> 00:18:50.838
1I remember this was
like a dining room here.

00:18:56.052 --> 00:18:57.345
This looks like medicine to me.

00:18:57.345 --> 00:18:58.929
Like what the medicine
man gives to us,

00:18:58.929 --> 00:19:00.181
they always put it in jars.

00:19:01.057 --> 00:19:03.309
This is where my childhood
was spent.

00:19:11.942 --> 00:19:14.654
We would come over here
and we would play.

00:19:14.654 --> 00:19:16.906
I was fresh out of school.

00:19:17.823 --> 00:19:21.619
And I had forgotten
most of my language, you know?

00:19:22.620 --> 00:19:26.457
And so she told me she said
I was being like a white man

00:19:26.457 --> 00:19:29.293
because I didn't want
to speak Indian anymore.

00:19:29.543 --> 00:19:33.881
I was ashamed to speak
my language until I was older,

00:19:33.881 --> 00:19:36.967
probably in my 20s.
Something like that.

00:19:36.967 --> 00:19:39.095
That's how long it took me.

00:19:41.055 --> 00:19:43.557
A year ago, Augustine
and her granddaughter

00:19:43.557 --> 00:19:46.352
started doing research
into their family's history

00:19:46.352 --> 00:19:48.771
and reconnecting
with their heritage.

00:19:49.855 --> 00:19:54.318
I always try to do eyes,
mouth, nose,

00:19:54.318 --> 00:19:57.363
so we could speak good,
hear good.

00:20:00.491 --> 00:20:02.493
I wanted her to get
her story out there because

00:20:02.493 --> 00:20:04.995
I know others
probably held it in

00:20:04.995 --> 00:20:08.332
for as long as she did
and are still holding in.

00:20:08.749 --> 00:20:12.086
There are so many that
you know left this world

00:20:12.086 --> 00:20:14.296
without getting their story out.

00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:18.134
We just never talked about
the boarding school, never did.

00:20:18.134 --> 00:20:20.928
We had to march to the
Battle Hymn of the Republic.

00:20:20.928 --> 00:20:24.432
A matron would say: Pick
your feet, Pick your feet up!

00:20:24.849 --> 00:20:27.059
So then we learned
that we had to march,

00:20:27.059 --> 00:20:29.854
and there we went
like little soldiers.

00:20:29.854 --> 00:20:36.527
One time, we were walking
and there was a kid ahead of me.

00:20:37.903 --> 00:20:41.657
I don't know what she did,

00:20:41.657 --> 00:20:45.995
I don't know, maybe she got
out of line or what happened.

00:20:46.370 --> 00:20:48.789
But all of a sudden
I saw the matron

00:20:49.331 --> 00:20:52.793
jerk her from the
back of her neck.

00:20:52.793 --> 00:20:55.337
She landed up near
a doe tree.

00:20:55.796 --> 00:20:58.841
And after that,
I didn't see her anymore.

00:21:00.509 --> 00:21:03.304
I always kind of wondered
about it.

00:21:03.304 --> 00:21:05.306
You're watched like a hawk.

00:21:05.306 --> 00:21:08.934
And you have to go to and
fro every day in a single file.

00:21:08.934 --> 00:21:15.608
And always know that you could
get in trouble for something.

00:21:18.861 --> 00:21:21.363
And you just keep going.

00:21:23.199 --> 00:21:26.243
I never told
my parents anything.

00:21:28.662 --> 00:21:30.623
Yeah.

00:21:32.166 --> 00:21:36.462
When you're a child and you're
told that you are no good,

00:21:36.462 --> 00:21:37.463
and all this,

00:21:37.463 --> 00:21:39.548
you're not going to be anything.

00:21:39.548 --> 00:21:43.093
I guess I believe that,
even as an adult.

00:21:43.594 --> 00:21:49.016
A lot of them became
abusive to their family,

00:21:49.016 --> 00:21:51.143
alcoholics or whatever

00:21:51.143 --> 00:21:54.313
because they
didn't have that love

00:21:55.356 --> 00:21:58.692
that is needed so
much at that age.

00:22:00.027 --> 00:22:04.073
Like myself, nobody ever
told me that they love me.

00:22:05.032 --> 00:22:10.704
And as I got older
I never could say love.

00:22:11.997 --> 00:22:13.916
They took everything from us.

00:22:15.042 --> 00:22:17.795
Even our beings.

00:22:18.045 --> 00:22:20.297
No apologies will do.

00:22:20.297 --> 00:22:22.633
It's the government
that has to stand up

00:22:22.633 --> 00:22:24.885
and tell the world out there

00:22:25.135 --> 00:22:29.390
what they're really like
here in this United States.

00:22:32.351 --> 00:22:33.894
In the 20th century,

00:22:33.894 --> 00:22:37.064
the conditions at boarding
schools slowly improved.

00:22:37.064 --> 00:22:39.149
The military regime
was shed

00:22:39.149 --> 00:22:41.735
and students were encouraged
to join the school band

00:22:41.735 --> 00:22:43.696
or become a cheerleader.

00:22:44.238 --> 00:22:46.532
After her time at
Carter Seminary,

00:22:46.532 --> 00:22:48.492
Augustine went to Chilocco,

00:22:48.492 --> 00:22:50.911
where the reins
were a little looser

00:22:51.161 --> 00:22:56.333
Once in a while, we get naughty,
with some of the kids.

00:22:57.918 --> 00:23:00.212
We would go
what they call nighthawking.

00:23:00.963 --> 00:23:03.132
I haven't heard about this.

00:23:03.132 --> 00:23:04.675
We go nighthawking.

00:23:04.675 --> 00:23:08.262
What we'd do is sneak out
of our dormitories at night

00:23:08.262 --> 00:23:10.389
after everybody went to bed.

00:23:10.389 --> 00:23:12.308
Sneaking through
the apple orchards

00:23:12.308 --> 00:23:14.768
and there were boys out there.

00:23:14.768 --> 00:23:16.437
This and that, you know?

00:23:16.437 --> 00:23:18.606
Poor me, I didn't have
a boyfriend back then.

00:23:18.606 --> 00:23:19.648
Grandma!

00:23:25.321 --> 00:23:30.784
But hey, you to have
some fun sometimes.

00:23:38.292 --> 00:23:40.127
Many alumni have good memories

00:23:40.127 --> 00:23:42.755
of intertribal friendships
they made at school,

00:23:42.755 --> 00:23:46.175
but white American culture
still dominated everything.

00:23:46.967 --> 00:23:49.595
Today, most boardings
have closed down

00:23:49.595 --> 00:23:53.766
and a young generation takes
back control over their culture.

00:23:58.979 --> 00:24:01.148
We are at the Tahlequah
community building

00:24:01.148 --> 00:24:02.858
and we are getting ready

00:24:02.858 --> 00:24:06.737
for the December 2021
Christmas pow wow.

00:24:08.530 --> 00:24:11.158
I'm going to be representing
the Gourd Society today.

00:24:11.450 --> 00:24:13.035
It definitely makes me feel good

00:24:13.035 --> 00:24:17.498
that they like saw me
fit to represent them.

00:24:17.748 --> 00:24:20.334
And that I was a good
role model for kids.

00:24:20.626 --> 00:24:23.087
So I hope the kids learn for me

00:24:23.087 --> 00:24:26.048
that it's good to be
respectful to your elders

00:24:26.048 --> 00:24:27.049
and it's good to have fun

00:24:27.049 --> 00:24:29.134
2while you're
enjoying your culture

00:24:29.134 --> 00:24:31.303
and you have fun
with your community.

00:25:08.215 --> 00:25:10.300
Kids in my generation
are reaching out

00:25:10.300 --> 00:25:12.720
to their elders and the people
they surround themselves

00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:15.055
with and their families
to learn about their culture.

00:25:15.055 --> 00:25:18.434
But as social media becomes more
of a big thing in today's age,

00:25:18.434 --> 00:25:20.728
we are sharing our
culture and our heritage

00:25:20.728 --> 00:25:23.105
and our experiences
through social media.

00:25:23.105 --> 00:25:27.651
And that allows more
kids to ask more questions

00:25:27.651 --> 00:25:29.778
about where they come from.

00:25:34.408 --> 00:25:36.535
Would your like pork or chicken?

00:25:37.161 --> 00:25:38.245
Pork.

00:25:44.126 --> 00:25:46.879
Whenever I'm at pow wows
or other cultural events,

00:25:46.879 --> 00:25:49.631
I think about my family
that's passed on recently.

00:25:49.631 --> 00:25:51.675
And I think about how
proud they would be

00:25:51.675 --> 00:25:53.969
that I'm participating in my
culture

00:25:53.969 --> 00:25:57.389
the same way that they did and
I'm carrying on their legacy.

00:25:57.389 --> 00:25:59.850
So hopefully my kids
will carry on mine.