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“Honoring, Healing & Remembering” event sheds light on the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School
7/20/2015 11:00:00 AM - Council

“Honoring, Healing & Remembering” event sheds light on the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School

By Joseph V. Sowmick, Photojournalist

 

Every year since 2009, the annual “Honoring, Healing & Remembering” event sheds light on the atrocities inflicted on the Native students who attended the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School (MIIBS).

The historical roots of the sadness trace back to the U.S. Congress where they established MIIBS to fulfill part of the 1855 Treaty with the Anishnaabek in Michigan. Through an act of Congress, the Anishinabe Three Fires Confederacy lands were taken, and in exchange, government officials promised to provide an education to all American Indian children.

The 1855 Treaty became the basis for the 1934 Comstock Act legislation which pays for the Michigan Native Americans’ college education. In its contemporary form, the indigenous communities refer to it as the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver.

MIIBS consisted of 37 buildings on 320 acres of land, with an average enrollment of 300 American Indian students per year in grades K-8.

The school operated from 1893 to 1934. Like other American Indian Boarding Schools, students were forbidden to speak their language, honor their culture, and practice their spirituality.

Mt. Pleasant City Manager Nancy Ridley remembers the challenges the boarding school brought to the area and always looks forward to being a part of the sunrise ceremony.

I was honored to be a part of such an important community event that focuses on remembering and honoring the past and healing for the present and the future,” Ridley said. “I learn something new each time I attend the annual event. Healing is a journey for our community and the journey sometimes meanders and backtracks but it appears the journey in our community is making forward progress. We are proud to be a part of that.”

Rick Rautanen mentions as a city commissioner and the vice mayor of Mt. Pleasant, he felt it was important that he attended the ceremony and understand the importances of this process as we move our communities forward. 

“I have a much deeper connection to the boarding school as I am a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and my very own grandmother, then Evelyn LaPoint, spent time as a child at the boarding school along with her brothers, as they had been removed from their home near Sault Ste. Marie,” Rautanen said. “They were some of the fortunate children that made it home… but it was an experience that affected them for the rest of their lives. I was truly humbled by the ceremony and honored to be there, and to be welcomed by the tribe, as a city official, and as a member of our entire community.  I learned much more than I previously knew about the history of the buildings, and was extremely moved as I toured the site.”

MIIBS Committee Members Alice Jo Ricketts and Craig Graveratte provided the historical insight to the building that once housed the students.

“When we reached the gymnasium, and I had the opportunity to sit in the same wooden seats that the Native American children would have been sitting in 100 years ago, I had to take a moment to collect myself,” Rautanen said. “Just when I thought I had pulled myself back together, we then reached the ‘Wall of Tears,’ where many of the children had scratched their initials into the bricks, some even going so far as to enter the year. We can only wonder what were the thoughts going through their minds, as these children carved their initials into the building. Though many of the initials have faded, and the buildings have fallen into disrepair, the reality of what occurred there will never go away, and while we cannot change the past, we can work together as a community to always remember and honor those that came before us.”