Cherokee Nation maintaining Sequoyah orphan cemetery

CN maintaining Sequoyah orphan cemetery

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By TESINA JACKSON, Reporter
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Across from Sequoyah High School along Highway 62 in the Southgate Business Park is a small, bordered area where the Cherokee Nation has placed 32 stones to represent a cemetery that went forgotten for decades.
The cemetery, commonly called the Sequoyah orphan cemetery, began for children who attended Sequoyah during its days as an orphanage.
After the Civil War, Cherokee children were orphaned because of fighting between Cherokees. In 1871, the Cherokee National Council authorized the orphanage’s construction about four miles southwest of Tahlequah.
“All of the stones that are over at the cemetery are actually stones that were salvaged from the third floor of the Cherokee Nation jail facility,” CN Natural Resources Group Leader Pat Gwin said. The jail no longer stands, and its material is stored at the Cherokee Heritage Center. “We used that to make the rock walkways and the rock headstones.”
The orphanage also housed as an institution for the handicapped, and Sequoyah teacher Don Franklin believes that patients who died at the institution are buried in the cemetery.
“The cemetery probably started, or I assume it started, while the school had a previous institution for handicapped people,” he said. “It was for mentally ill, blind, crippled, people who could not take care of themselves.”
Franklin said he believes officials began burying people in the cemetery in 1904 and quit in the 1940s. He’s studied the school’s history and interviewed alumni and administrators because there are no cemetery records.
“They were either lost or somebody didn’t want people to know that there was a cemetery there. I’ve heard through different people that they suspect that some of the people may have hidden some of the records or those records may exist and they may be in the archives,” he said. “Since the government ran the school, a lot of the records from the school went to the National Archives. So they may be somewhere in federal government files, in the archives, and nobody has really looked for them or found them…I mean there’s a lot of ways records end up disappearing.”
In 1914, the Nation sold the school property, approximately 40 acres, to the Department of Interior for $5,000. And in 1919, the first roadway easement in Cherokee County cut through the government-owned property, according to CN records.
In 1925, the institution’s name was changed to Sequoyah Orphan Training School in honor of the man who developed the Cherokee syllabary.
Cecil Shipp, who remembers the cemetery, attended the school from 1943-54. He said while he was there, he saw no burials.
“The cemetery had an old, beat-up barbed wire fence around it and that old fence is long disappeared. We used to walk in there quite a bit, just to have something to do on the weekends.”
When Shipp attended the school, officials sent students who had gotten in trouble to the cemetery to clean it.
“There were about five or six DAR tombstones, Daughters of the American Revolution, white marble in there and then the others had sandstone for markers and there were probably about 30 or 40 gravesites in there,” he said. “Very few of those had a born date and death date. The five, white marble, DAR markers, they were readable.”
In 1956, the road separating the cemetery and the school was turned into Highway 62. A year later, the land with the cemetery was deeded to the school’s late superintendent, Diamond Roach.
According to a 2003 Cherokee Phoenix article, the late John Ketcher, a former CN deputy chief and Tribal Councilor who attended Sequoyah, said the land belonged to the school and should have remained in trust under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but it was somehow sold to an individual who sold it to Roach.
Ketcher said in the late 1950s Roach bulldozed the headstones from the cemetery because his family didn’t want to live next to a cemetery. Not long after, Roach bought land north of the cemetery and had a home built there. The home still stands.
Ketcher said Roach pushed the headstones into one pile, and the cemetery site was used as a training area for students wanting to learn how to drive heavy construction equipment. Eventually, the headstones disappeared along with any trace of the cemetery.
“I know that Natural Resources staff has went and looked in some of the area suspect spots like ditches and ponds and so forth,” Gwin said. “We haven’t been able to find them, but those headstones were removed decades ago.”
In 1985, the Nation reassumed operation of the school from the BIA and renamed it Sequoyah High School. In 2005, the tribe purchased the roughly half-acre plot containing the cemetery to keep development from occurring. It purchased the rest of the land around the cemetery the following year.
After purchasing the property, the Nation hired a contractor to use ground-penetrating radar to help locate graves. Once the site was surveyed, 32 gravesites were found, but some people believe there may be more under nearby buildings or yards away from the site.
“I’m sure there’s more graves,” Franklin said. “I’d always heard from people, who were around, that there were probably around 50 graves over there or 50 headstones.”
Today, the Nation maintains the cemetery, and each stone represents a tombstone.
“I’m very glad they left it in place, and it is marked so if people want to go see it, it’s there and it’s at least in the area,” Franklin said. “Hopefully, it’s in the exact area and those graves are actually marked where those people are. At least they can be remembered.”
tesina-jackson@cherokee.org
918-453-5000, ext. 6139

Case argues systematic discrimination against First Nations children

Case argues systematic discrimination against First Nations children
 
OTTAWA — (Feb 13, 2012) Sweet-smelling smoke from a smudging ceremony filled an Ottawa courtroom Monday as a controversial case began that could open the door for First Nations residents to argue they are being discriminated against en masse by the federal government.  An elder named Flying Eagle Woman lit a sprig of sweetgrass at the Federal Court hearing. She urged the court to stand with the creator when it makes its decision and prayed that everyone present would "come together with one mind and one body.
"With the ceremony aside, the legal wrangling began. Facts that could prove the federal government is discriminating against aboriginal children by underfunding child-welfare services on reserves need to be heard in court, said lawyers for the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The commission is one of several groups appealing a 2011 ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal — which the commission oversees. In that ruling, the tribunal dismissed a discrimination case brought by the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. The complaint argued the consistent underfunding of child-welfare services on reserves leads to poverty, poor housing, substance abuse and a vast over-representation of aboriginal children in state care. 
However, the federal government is arguing that because it merely sends funds to band managers — who themselves administer the services — the government cannot be held responsible for the services delivered. The government also says the question itself is invalid because it funds services on reserves, while provincial governments are responsible for services to the rest of Canadians, and that comparing two governments is both "unreasonable" and nonsensical. 
The "comparator" argument was used in the Human Rights Tribunal's initial decision to dismiss the case in 2011 before any of the main evidence had been heard.But First Nations Child and Family Caring Society lawyer Nicholas McHaffie told the court that comparing services to another group is only one "evidentiary tool."
"It is not the only way to show discrimination," he said. "There may be different pieces of the evidentiary puzzle needed to prove discrimination — they all need to be heard."
Human Rights Commission lawyer Philippe Dufresne told the hearing Monday that "the court must look at the facts, examine the services and determine if there is suffering."Currently, five per cent of aboriginal children living on reserve reside in care, away from their families. That's eight times more than other Canadian children, according to testimony by former auditor general Sheila Fraser at a parliamentary committee hearing in 2010.
In 1990, the federal government adopted a policy requiring child welfare services provided to First Nations children on reserves to meet provincial standards, be reasonably comparable with services for children off reserves and be culturally appropriate. But Fraser's audits consistently found the federal government "had not sufficiently taken into account provincial standards and other policy requirements when it established levels of funding for First Nations agencies to operate child welfare services on reserve."
"You must keep in mind the individual families who are affected by the dismissal of this complaint," McHaffie said.
Jonathan Thompson, the director of health and social development at the Assembly of First Nations, said he wasn't surprised when the government "decided to argue this on a technicality.""We've done report after report — both with the government and on our own — and they have all come out with overwhelming evidence of inequity, and yet nothing gets done," he said during an intermission in proceedings. Thompson said the government is trying to prevent the facts from being placed on the record because it knows the evidence against it will show that discrimination exists.
Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, who has been a driving force behind this case, has said if the government is allowed to use the comparator argument, "that would basically immunize the government from any discrimination or human rights claim relating to its funding policies and procedures on reserve." Blackstock has been gathering support for this cause since 2007. More than 9,000 people worldwide are participating in the I am a Witness campaign, pledging to watch the proceedings — in person if they can, or on the Aboriginal People's Television Network, which will be televising the review.
One of over 100 witnesses who attended the hearing Monday is Madeleine Keshen, a 12-year-old student at Featherston Drive Public School in Ottawa. She's part of a grades 5 to 6 class that came to the court to "stand up against injustices."
"It's not fair that they get less than we do," said the blond, blue-eyed little girl. "It's just because of who they are, and it's not right."
"People are watching," said Blackstock. "We've never been this organized before."
The case will continue Tuesday and Wednesday when the court will hear from lawyers for the Assembly of First Nations, the Chiefs of Ontario and the Attorney General, on behalf of the federal government.
tesmith(at)postmedia.com
Twitter.com/teresasmithpn
Read more: http://www.canada.com/life/Case+argues+systematic+discrimination+against+First+Nations+children/6145359/story.html#ixzz1mTXCAeJd

First Nations' Child Welfare broken

First nations' child welfare broken

Excerpt: According to former auditor-general Sheila Fraser, first nations children are being placed in care at six to eight times the rate of other Canadian children. Most of us are probably familiar with that uncomfortable feeling of staying in a stranger's home, perhaps being billeted for a sports event or while on vacation. We don't know the rules, the expectations, or the way things work there.
Now imagine how that feeling must be magnified for children who have just been ripped away from their family. Worse still for first nations children placed in non-aboriginal homes, adding culture shock to the mix.
"We know that children in care are more likely [than those who stay with their families] to have substance misuse issues, more likely to have involvement with the criminal justice system, more likely to have mental and physical health concerns and are less likely to succeed at school," said Blackstock, who worked for 13 years on the front lines of child welfare and is now executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.
There are situations where removing a child from their home is absolutely necessary, such as cases of sexual abuse where the child cannot be protected by a non-offending adult. Blackstock argues in many more cases, however, children are taken because of neglect resulting from poor housing and nutrition, substance abuse or the inability of impoverished families to meet the needs of a child with special needs.
Many of these problems could be solved in the home, allowing children to stay with their families, if the resources were made available. But for first nations families on reserves, the resources aren't there.
According to a study cited by first nations groups, children on reserves receive 22 per cent less funding per child for child welfare than other Canadian children, particularly for services that would help them stay with their families.
Blackstock says social workers dealing with first nations children are under-trained on the factors driving them into foster care, under-resourced, over-worked and overwhelmed.
Children on reserves are caught between governments.

The Thick Dark Fog movie trailer

Read more here: http://www.thickdarkfog.com/?page_id=120

Thick Dark Fog" Official Trailer
http://vimeo.com/user9741689/trailer

Award winning documentary - The Thick Dark Fog.

Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were not allowed to be Indians – to speak their language or express their culture or native identity in any way at the risk of being severely beaten, humiliated or abused. What effects did these actions cause?

Many Indians, like Walter, lived with this unresolved trauma into adulthood, acting it out through alcoholism and domestic violence. At age 58, Walter decided to write and publish his memoirs as a way to explain his past abusive behaviors to his estranged children. But dealing with the memories of his boarding school days nearly put an end to it.

“The Thick Dark Fog” tells the story of how Walter confronted the “thick dark fog” of his past so that he could renew himself and his community.

For more information visit: thickdarkfog.com

NEW Book Cover!

My new paperback will be available in a few weeks on Amazon. The 2nd Edition is already on Kindle! Cover by Barb Burke.

Colonization is an Act of Genocide

The following appplies in North America but since it is not taught in schools, apparently Native People are not considered to be the colonized. I beg to differ... Trace

Maori and Indigenous Analysis Ltd

Colonisation is an act of Genocide

Màori researcher Dr Leonie Pihama says the use of the term holocaust is an
appropriate and valid description of the impact of colonial genocide on Màori. A
Radio New Zealand panel featured Taranaki Màori academic Keri Opai using the
word holocaust to describe colonisation for Màori. The NZ Jewish Council said
his use of the term was "diminishing and trivialising of the Jewish Holocaust
experience". Dr Pihama says the NZ Jewish council are "basically incorrect" in
their response. She states "The term holocaust refers to deliberate acts of
genocide and ethnocide against groups of people, and that is exactly what
occurred here in Aotearoa. There was a deliberate and planned process of
colonisation that sought the extermination of our people. That is clear and well
documented".

United Nations conventions define genocide as "any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group , as such: as killing members of the group;

(i) killing members of the group;

(ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(ii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(iii) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(iv) forcibly transferring children of this group to another group

The definition of genocide by the United Nations is clearly one that reflects
the experience of Màori people and there needs to be a greater awareness of the
reality of the history of this country and of other Indigenous Nations. "There
is clear historical evidence of acts of genocide that were undertaken by
successive white settler Presidents in America. Hitler modelled many of his
oppressive acts on the forced removal and murder of Native Amerian people and
the imprisonment of thousands in concentration camps" states Dr Pihama.

Dr Pihama notes that Màori use of the term 'holocaust' should not be viewed
as in any way diminishing the experience of Jewish people and others that were
targeted by Hitler and Nazi Germany. She says clearly that Maori have always
actively acknowledged that history and the impact of it. Dr Pihama explains
"This is not about comparing experiences. The reference by Mr Opai is directed
to the historical trauma and post traumatic stress experienced by our tupuna and
generations of our people who continue to live with that impact on our own
land".

http://www.scoop. co.nz/stories/ PO1202/S00076/ colonisation- is-an-act- of-genocide. htm

Closed adoptions are a form of cultural genocide... Trace

Looking for guest bloggers...

I am taking a hiatus to handle some personal issues that need my time and undivided attention. This blog will still be up and you can read earlier blog posts from the archive. There is plenty to read since I started posting way back in 2009.
If anyone wants to write a guest column, email me: tracedemeyer@yahoo.com.
Keep good thoughts for me... your prayers are appreciated...
Mitakuye oyasin...
Trace

Jennifer Lauck on how her birth mother's sexual history affected her own

This incredible interview with Jennifer Lauck, author of FOUND, struck a chord with me. Please read it:
http://www.examiner.com/open-adoption-in-national/jennifer-lauck-on-how-her-birth-mother-s-sexual-history-affected-her-own

Excerpt:
There has been a belief that the moment a child is taken from her original mother she ceases being that woman's child. This is one of the reasons many want to adopt a baby rather than an older child. They believe they are getting a "blank slate." Many people will go as far as to adopt from far away lands--as far away as possible -- so that they get the "blank slate" and as a bonus eliminate the chance that the original mother will reappear and take away what supposedly belongs to the adoptive parent -- the child, the relationship, the connection, the concept of family and so on. There is great ignorance in this thinking--similar to the thinking years ago that babies don't feel pain and thus were operated on without the mercy of anesthesia or pain blockers. Of course, science has now shown us otherwise. Babies feel pain. And you cannot stop a child from being connected to the original mother. Yes, you can take legal measures, you can take geographic measures, but you cannot change the fact of the biological link.
To further expand on this, consider this remarkable passage from Meredith Hall, author of Without a Map: "women carry fetal cells from all the babies they have carried. Crossing the defensive boundaries of our immune system and mixing with our own cells, the fetal cells circulate in the mother's bloodstream for decades after each birth. The body does not tolerate foreign cells, which trigger illness and rejection. But a mother's body incorporates into her own the cells of her children as if they recognize each other. This fantastic melding of two selves, mother and child is called microchimerism....the mother's cells are also carried in the child. During gestation, maternal cells slip through the barriers of defense and join her child's cells as they pulse through his veins...of course the implications are stunning. Mother and child do not fully separate at birth. We do not lose each other at that moment of severance."

As I wrote in my memoir One Small Sacrifice, the new science of birth psychology will forever change the way the world views adoption and its impact.
There are follow-up interviews with Jennifer at that website, a virtual blog tour - so please read them, too... Trace

Toronto Birthmother story

I had to share this. A birthmother wrote in response to this: http://splitfeathers.blogspot.com/2011/04/red-road-documentary-from-canada-60s_11.html

I am so happy that this lost spirit has found his roots after living a life of not knowing where he fit in! I have never given up the hope that one day my son who was taken from me at birth will somehow find his true family. I just hope that it isn't too late for us to join each other. I have always believed that my son is out there someplace and he will come home soon. He was taken from me on October 17,1976 from Toronto General Hospital. I was told that he died at birth. I never was asked if I wanted to see or hold him. To tell him how much his mommy loves him. I was just a young mother with a child of 11 months at home and a baby that I so wanted to bring home. I never was told where or when he was buried never laid eyes on him ever. I felt that something wasn't right but I was to with drawn from the loss that I just couldn't bare the loss. To this day the thoughts of it burns at my insides. I never knew about the 60's or 70's scoop until just with-in the last few years. That is when I got my answers to what happen. I believed that my baby boy was more then likely one of the native children that was scooped that day. I hope that this man isn't bitter towards his true Mom for what he went through. May the Creator bless him with true happiness in his life now that he has found his true identity as a Proud Native Man. From this story of this man it gives me the added hope that my son to will find me some day.
Signed BM (which means birthmom)

Remember this adoptees - closed adoption was used as a weapon! First Nations Families, please start your search now...If you need my help, email me... Trace (tracedemeyer@yahoo.com)