60s Scoop Adoptee Tom Wilson (Mohawk)

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1994999/14312298

MALCOLM BURN welcomes long time friend, musical force, Indigenous Canadian poet, painter and all around entertainer Tom Wilson to discuss the creative process, love and life. And as always with some excellent music. 

 LISTEN: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1994999/14312298

Exhibit explores what it meant to Tom Wilson to be removed, then reconnected to his Mohawk heritage

After discovering he had been adopted and his birth parents were both Mohawk, musician Tom Wilson has explored the deep impact those revelations have had on his life. His new art exhibit Mohawk Warriors, Hunters & Chiefs opens Feb. 2 in Toronto and his new book of the same name is now available.

 

Carlisle: Sending childen home to die

 

excerpt:

Mary Annette Pember
ICT

George Little Wound was gravely ill when he was sent home to Pine Ridge from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1889, just three years after arriving at the notorious boarding school.

Little Wound, the son of Chief Little Wound, was among a group of three Pine Ridge students shipped home together with what the school physician described as “incipient consumption” and “scrofula,” a disfiguring infection of the skin and lymph nodes caused by the same bacteria as tuberculosis, according to Carlisle records.

All three appeared to survive their illness for some time after they returned to Pine Ridge, though Little Wound was never the same.  Forever weakened by the disease, he struggled to support himself and expressed disgust with his school experience.

“I went to [Carlisle] school to get a good education ... but I was greatly mistaken when I went to school,” he wrote in 1911, in a tersely worded survey he sent to Carlisle more than 20 years after returning home.

“I come home with sickness and do not know any thing.... and believe I may never get well from the sickness which I brought from the school,” he wrote. “I am in a miserable place and bad condition living in a one-room log home without floor where I am unable to help myself.”

Native populations across the country decreased by more than 100,000 during the early years of boarding schools, with about one third of the total Native population dying between 1860 and 1900, mostly from diseases such as tuberculosis.

KEEP READING

The Tribal Training and Certification Partnership at UMD trains social workers who work with Native American families

David Cowardin | Nov 15, 2023 | DULUTH, MN

The Tribal Training and Certification Partnership at UMD trains social workers who work with Native American families.

In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in response to Native American children being removed from their homes and placed in foster care at disproportionate rates.  Despite regulation, those rates have remained high.  Today in Minnesota, Native children are still 16 times more likely than white children to be placed in foster care.

To address the issue, a two-day training program on ICWA was formed at UMD: The Tribal Training and Certification Partnership (TTCP) trains incoming and current child protection workers in Minnesota to work with Native families better. “Since January of 2020, we have trained about 1600 county social workers,” said Larissa Littlewolf, associate director of the TTCP, and member of the Turtle Clan and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

The training is part of the Minnesota Child Welfare Training Academy. It begins with a historical context of the US government's interactions with Native families that have led to decades of trauma, followed by lessons on how to comply with ICWA. Eventually, all county social workers in Minnesota who work with child protection cases will be mandated to go through the training.

“We’re really working on the spirit of ICWA,” Littlewolf said. “Building relationships with families, meeting them where they’re at.”

---

Related articles:

Preserving Native families
Transforming child welfare
Using an indigenous lens
Federal grant to train tribal child welfare workers
Heart work: Training social workers to keep Native children home (MPR story)

‘Not just lip service’: First Nations-led private investigators help families of missing #MMIP SIGNS

In Canada, research shows that 13 per cent of missing adults are Indigenous, despite Indigenous people making up only 5 per cent of the population.

“We started MMIP [Investigations] because we thought, ‘What can we do on the ground to bring tangible results to the families that need it the most?'” said Vawn Jeddry co-founder of Alberta-based MMIP Investigations and a member of English River First Nation.

MMIP Investigations currently has private investigator licences in Alberta and British Columbia, with charitable status in Alberta, they’re working towards nation-wide charitable status as funding plays a big part in what they can offer.

LINK: https://globalnews.ca/news/10237884/first-nations-led-private-investigators-mmiwg-mmip/    

 

We'koqma'q First Nation raises signs as part of MMIWG campaign

"The change should be occurring on a community level,' says chief

Oscar Baker III · CBC News ·

One of two signs that have been put up at both ends of We'koqma'q, on Cape Breton Island. (submitted by Annie Bernard-Daisley )

Two new signs along TransCanada Highway 105 passing through We'koqma'q First Nation in Nova Scotia are meant to shine a light on the ongoing issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Chief Annie Bernard-Daisley said she wants to empower her community to tackle the underlying risk factors that make Indigenous people targets of violence.

"One part of the signage is that change is needed," said Bernard-Daisley.

"The change should be occurring on a community level, community by community."

Bernard-Daisley said the signs in the community on Cape Breton Island, about 75 kilometres southwest of Sydney, N.S., have three key goals: to shine a light on the ongoing issues, to deter human trafficking and to honour Cassidy Bernard.

Bernard, Bernard-Daisley's 22-year-old cousin, was found dead in her home in 2018. Bernard's ex-boyfriend Austin Dwight Isadore pleaded guilty to manslaughter and child abandonment in 2022, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

"It was emotional for [Cassidy's mother] to see the signage in our community on many levels," said Bernard-Daisley. 

Annie Bernard-Daisley at a rally in memory of her cousin Cassidy Bernard in 2019. Now chief of We'koqma'q, she says the signs are meant to keep the conversation going around murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. (Brittany Wentzell/CBC)

She said We'koqma'q has worked to make the community safer and has applied for funding through Indigenous Service Canada's Pathways to Safe Indigenous Communities Initiative, which has committed $120 million over five years (2021-2026) to improve safety and well being in First Nation, Métis and Inuit communities.

Bernard-Daisley said through the program she hopes to add sidewalks, street lights and reliable taxi services to the First Nation. 

"Those of us that are working on the front lines know what our community needs more than the government ever will," she said.

In 2019, the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls released its final report, with 231 calls for justice — recommendations on how to end violence toward Indigenous women and girls.

CBC News released a report card in 2023 tracking progress on the calls for justice, and at the time only two calls were completed, with many still in progress.

'A strong message'

Barry Bernard from Eskasoni First Nation, co-designer of the sign, was at a photo shoot working with a Mi'kmaw model when he thought about messaging around MMIWG.  

Once he saw the model with the red hand print, he said he knew it embodied strength. 

"It's a strong message to send out, but it's true there are still missing and murdered Indigenous women and children today as we talk all around North America," he said.

"I hope the message says that we need to educate everybody and it's not only just our problem, it's everybody's problem." 

Anita Boyle, executive director of Nignen women's shelter, says she'd like to see communities return to traditional systems that valued women. (Oscar Baker III/ CBC )

Anita Boyle, executive director of Nignen, a women's shelter in Natoaganeg First Nation in New Brunswick, said addressing the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is multifaceted.

It would require things such as ensuring law enforcement and the judicial system understand the role intergenerational trauma plays in the lives of Indigenous people, adequate housing for Indigenous women in urban centres; and for men in Canada to get more education around intimate partner violence. 

• Families of MMIWG say police neglected, mishandled investigations in their cases

• It's everyone's job to help end the MMIWG crisis, advocates say — and here's how

Ultimately she said she'd like to see Indigenous communities return to traditional systems that valued women.

"I think that there's a lot that we could learn from going back to those old values of respect, honesty, caring, sharing," said Boyle. 

"I think a lot of that has got displaced because of capitalism and colonization in general."

 

Who am I? Podcast with Michelle Gauvreau (Mohawk adoptee)

LISTEN: 

Thriving Adoptees - Healing, Inspiration & Empowerment For Adoptees

Sep 14, 2023

 

Who Am I? Michelle Gauvreau

How do you keep going when your world has been turned upside down? When you find out that you've been lied to over and again? When the shocking truth comes out. Listen in as Michelle shares her inspirational story of resilience and dogged determination as she found out who she really is.

Michelle Rice-Gauvreau is a native Mohawk woman born in Canada and raised in Connecticut via an illegal adoption, which was commonplace for many Indian babies throughout many years across North America.   She is a compassionate advocate for all adoptees looking for their own truth, peace and hope.  She hopes to instill her strength to any adoptee struggling to find their way.

Michelle now works as a legal professional for a prestigious law firm. She resides in Connecticut with her husband of many years, and her two senior cats.  She enjoys traveling and learning more about native cultures far and wide. 

Find out more at:

https://www.michellegauvreau.com/

https://www.facebook.com/adopteesmatter

https://twitter.com/ladystarre

https://www.instagram.com/ladystarre/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-gauvreau-45755919/

 

HARTFORD COURANT:

https://www.courant.com/2023/10/02/finding-her-identity-an-indigenous-ct-womans-resilient-journey-to-making-peace/

Captain RH PRATT Propaganda 1893

 Carlisle published a newspaper for students (Take a look👇)

Send THE OSAGE a plague of small pox? (Murder them?)

from the pdf:

PRATT WRITES:  Against the wishes of professional Indian philanthropists (?) who demanded she return to and help her people, we urged her and she stayed in (PA) to practice her (Nursing) profession.  She has never been without employment, has fifteen dollars per week and sometimes twenty-five, has helped her family not a little, and has a bank account of several hundred dollars.  This is disintegration of the tribes actually begun.  Shall we for any reason whatsoever, remand her to the base destructive influences of her tribe, to be swallowed up and lost?  We have scores of similar cases, and might have had hundreds and even thousands but for the false principle of always pouring back into the tribe (leaving his prison school).

We have saddled the poor Indian the destroying influences of a great pension system and the most serious work that confronts us in our efforts to make a self-supporting man of him is the curtailing and elimination of that system.  The Osages have $9,000,000 (million) in the United States Treasury, the interest of which at 5 percent is distributed among them semi-annually. They occupy a domain fifty miles square, some of it the best lands in the west.  They do not work because they need not.  They spend their time in debauchery and depravity, encouraged by the surrounding white influences. Twenty-five years ago they numbered 3490; fifteen years later, 2206; and today they number a bare 1500. Query: Would not the introduction of smallpox at once be a more humane method of ending the Osage problem. ____ (anyone see the movie "Killers of the Flower Moon"?)

Under their recent treaty, the Chippewas of Minnesota are expecting to have ultimately from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000 in the Treasury at interest.  They now number over 6500.  Twenty years ago, like the Osages, and from the same causes, they will be reduced one half.   Could the ingenuity of Satan devise a greater evil under a semblance of good?  Good bye, Chippewas!

Experience shows that Indians massed on reservations can absorb all the educational, religious and other help given them there and not develop one tittle of a disposition to become individually independent and citizens.

It is hard to sidetrack a lie when it goes well started from a high source considered responsible. Last year it was frequently asserted by a prominent Member in Congress that Indian children were practically kidnapped and sent to Carlisle and other Eastern schools by force.  Not being on the floor of the House to contradict it, we contradicted it in a Washington paper, while Congress was yet in session.  This year the same person reiterated the statement.  Two days afterwards, we got the Congressional Record and saw it.  We then telegraphed to a member of Congress as  follows: “ Of the2300 children received into this school during its 13 years, not one, except 112 Apache youth from the prisoners in Florida, came here under any other constraint than that of kind and proper argument, and neither M r. ------- nor anyone else either out of or in the Indian Service can establish the contrary; whereas there is not a day school or a boarding school on the great Sioux reservation nor on many of the other reservations, which do not have Indian police regularly on duty chasing down and enforcing attendance of students, and to compel attendance at which schools the Agent does not often deny rations and resort to the same forces, Mr. -------- misalleges are used to fill eastern schools.

Congress is being greatly misinformed in this matter.”  Our telegram did not reach the gentleman until after the bill had gone beyond where he could answer.  But why make such statements, as though a great wrong was being done, when Congress has made legal provision for enforcing attendance by withholding rations and other supplies from whole families who will not send their children to the schools.

The Indian is a man, capable in all respects as we are.  His development is governed absolutely by his environment.

Savagery naturally enforces savagery, civilization enforces civilization.  Surrounded by civilization, it is impossible for him to remain a savage; surrounded by savagery it is almost impossible for him to either become or remain civilized.

Why then keep up the farce of feeding our civilization to the Indians?

It is more than folly and worse than ridiculous to constantly declare (war) against reservations and tribal influences and to be at the same time always and almost universally doing only those things which compact the tribe and strengthen the reservation.

At the annual convention of Methodist church in Chicago to consider the subject of education and church work the Rev. J. C. Hartzell, general educational agent of the church in the south, advocated the abolition of the color line both in church and school. Here is progress.

From the standpoint of the Eastern philanthropists (Lake Mohonk) (rich white industrialists) there is but one side to the Indian question; while, in reality the problem has as many phases as there are tribes.  A statement regarding one of the thirty-two tribes in the Indian Territory does not necessarily apply to another.  

When the Cherokee Commission reported that “ the Pawnees defer to the judgement of their educated and English-speaking young men,” the fact had a special significance.  Of the twenty-four tribes visited by the commission, the Pawnees alone would listen to or be guided by the counsels of their young men. - (Edward F. Watrous, in Christian Register.)

The young men of the Pawnees have largely attended schools away from the tribe, which fact alone is sufficient reason for the above observation. 

The Red Man (Vol. 11, No. 11)

Date: March & April 1893

Source: https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/ci-search/Porcupine%20student%2C%20male

 

LISTEN: "First Voices Radio" - All-Native Hosted, All-Native Produced Radio Kingston

My interview with Tiokasin Ghosthorse:  

It is now ARCHIVED:  https://radiokingston.org/

"First Voices Radio" : All-Native Hosted, All-Native Produced... Radio Kingston, WKNY 1490 FM / 107.9 FM

                                 CLICK👉:   https://radiokingston.org/

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THE COUNT 2024

We discuss the new book ALMOST DEAD INDIANS and THE COUNT 2024. 

WE CHOOSE THE WAY OF EARTH

 The Kindle ebook ($2.99) is on Amazon now...

LINK:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR5KB27Y

Outings at Carlisle

see more below

By Trace L Hentz, blog editor

Years back, my relative Ellowyn Locke (Oglala) asked me to find out what happened to one of her relatives who died in an OUTING, at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. I looked and looked, but first had to ask  "WHAT IS AN OUTING?" She thought he might have died in a car accident. I never found any records of him...

Many students at the boarding school were sent to farms to be laborers. 

It's been reported that at least 10,000 died during "outings."

1. https://www.inquirer.com › philly › news › indian-school-carlisle-native-quaker-cemetery-outing-20180502.html

   A search for native children who died on 'Outings' in Pa. - Inquirer.com

   A search for native children who died on 'Outings' in Pa. A Native American rights group is searching for lost children, bolstering its demand for a national accounting of Indian youths who went missing while under official supervision at dozens of government- and church-run boarding schools.

5/24/2021

I found 692 Outing assignments for Mercer County, PA - CIIS student workers.

Looks like almost 200 farmers / business had Carlisle Indian School students in their employ / or were perhaps boarding them, in the Trenton area.  There were 266 in Robbinsville and one of them was the greatest athlete in the world - Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox).  In fact, he lived with the same farmer twice for a total of over 18 months between between 1905 and 1907. 

 

Numbers of Outings in PA broken down by counties

For digitized student files, enrollment cards or photos, go to   CARLISLE INDIAN SCHOOL DIGITAL RESOURCE CENTER. 

 

Zitkala-Sa, author

Zitkala Sa (aka Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) at Carlisle.

VOL../ FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1902

A FORMER HASKELL BOY.
Raymond T. Bonnin and Miss Gertrude Simmons, both of Yankton Agency, were married at the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Benedict in this city on Saturday afternoon, May 10, 1902. The Tribune is pleased to make a few comments upon this marriage from the fact that the bride is a full blooded Sioux whose Indian name is ”Zitkala-Sa,“ which means Red Bird. After receiving a common school education at Yankton Agency she was sent to Carlisle College, where she remained two years and where she developed great musical and literary talents to such an extent that she was sent to the Boston Conservatory of Music and was selected to accompany a musical troupe to the Paris exposition in 1900. The rare talent show both on the violin and piano brought forth many flattering comments from the leading magazines and newspapers, both at home and abroad.  Upon her return she made a tour of the principle cities of the East, not only as an accomplished musician but as an author of esteemed merit.  One of her productions entitled “Indian Legends” has commended itself to the reading public to the extent that the publishers are having a great demand for her works.  She is also a contributor to some of the leading magazines at the present time. 

The groom is the grandson of the old French trader, Picotte, one of the first traders to come up the Missouri River to Yankton Agency and points above and into who married one of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.  His family were all educated at the Standing Rock Reservation, South of St. Louis, and they and their children are among the foremost of the Yankton tribe in civilized attainments.  This is considered a marriage in high life among their people, as both of the contracting parties are proud of their aboriginal blood, and especially of their rapid acquirement of the educational skill of the Caucasian race so rapidly adopted by them.  Her Indian friends may well feel proud, without being egotistical, at the marvelous advancement made of a full-blood of their race who left her native home encumbered with that legacy of native habits and who within a few short years mastered the English language to the extent that she rivals in literature some of the leading authors of America, and whose quaint productions are equal to those of Kipling. -[Tyndall (S. D.) Tribune.] 

9/25/2019

Outing Contract, revised Dec 8, 1900

OUTING RULES

To Govern Carlisle Indian School Students and our Patrons.

Pupils are placed in families to learn English and the customs of civilized life.

1. Pupils must attend Church and Sabbath School regularly. Pupils of a certain denomination are placed with patrons of the same denomination when practicable. When Catholic pupils are placed with non-Cathoic patrons we are first assured that a Catholic Church is accessible. Non-Catholic patrons will in no way interfere with or forbid the attendance of Catholic pupils at the customary services of their church, such as Mass, Vespers and Sunday School. Patrons will adopt such measures and exercise such judicious authority as is necessary to facilitate the practice, by pupils, of their religion according to the tenets of their church. Failure by patrons to comply with these requirements, or attempts to proselytize will be deemed sufficient cause to justify the recall of pupils.

2. Absence without permission of patrons is not allowed, and being out evenings or away on social excursions Sundays, should be discouraged. Pupils should not go to Philadelphia nor to public parks unless accompanied by a member of the family or other responsible person.

3. Patrons or others must not hire pupils, nor are pupils to exchange places unless authorized by us.

4. Except when authorized pupils are not to return or be returned to the school before their outing agreement expires.

5. The use of tobacco and spiritous liquors in any form is forbidden. This and any other offence against good habits, the patron must report at the time.

6. When out for the winter pupils must attend school at least 100 days continuously, beginning not later than November 11, working out of school hours for their board, care and washing, unless otherwise agreed upon. Pupils are not to be kept out of school half days or detained in the mornings, but they must be punctual and regular in their attendance, and must study at home if necessary when their chores are done.

7. Pupils must bathe at least once a week.

8. It is the aim to send pupils out with a full equipment of clothing. Patrons will see that pupils take proper care of the same, and especially of their best uniform suits, dresses and other clothing, both as a matter of training and so that requests for additional clothing may be avoided during the periond out.

9. Monthly reports must show any violation of these rules, to fully, accurately and truthfully made out, signed by patrons and pupils and sent to the school the last day of each month. Pupils home letters, in all cases, must accompany the reports.

10. Patrons must not give pupils more than one half their earnings, and should encourage them to save more than the required one half. If they spend one half whle they are earning they have none to spend during school attendance, as one half must remain on the books of the school until their period of enrollment has expired. Pupils must give patrons receipts for all money given them, patrons to send such receipts to the School with each monthly report. The School will supply blank receipts, instead of request papers.

11. A record of all money transactions is kept at the School, and if patrons allow pupils to spend more than one half their earnings, the excess cannot be counted as part pay, but will be the patrons' loss.

12. Patrons are to pay one half the cost of railroad tickets, the other half, the pupil pays, and is to be counted as expenditure in calculating the one half allowance, and no monehy should be given pupils until the tickets are paid for. Pupils are well fitted out on leaving the school and will not need money the first month. Pupils on reaching their country homes, will at once give their return tickets to patons, who will forward them to the school promptly.

Patrons and pupils should carefully read these rules.We wlil not place pupils nor continue relations with patrons who will not in good faith subscribe to, and comply with their requirements.
These rules cancell all previous ones. December 8, 1900

Superintendant signature


I will obey the above I will comply and enforce the above

________________________ ______________________________________
Pupil Patron

Carlisle, Pa ___________________ 19 ____________________________________, 19

NOTE: Three copies of this will be signed by all parties concerned, one copy to remain on file in the Superintendent's office, one to go to patron, one to pupil.

 VISIT: https://ciis.blogspot.com

Winnebago file lawsuit against US ARMY

 

Courtesy Native American Rights Fund

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army to repatriate the remains of two children from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

The tribe made a request in November 2023 for the return of the remains using the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

The Army denied the request in December, saying NAGPRA could not be applied to carry out repatriation.

Last week, the tribe initiated the lawsuit represented by the Native American Rights Fund.

The tribe is seeking to enforce NAGPRA to repatriate Samuel Gilbert and Edward Hensley, who were taken from their home more than 100 years ago and never returned.

 

Annamarie Hill on the Mantyh Lab and Alzheimers Research in the Native Community

 

12/24/25 - Annamarie Hill (Repeat) First Voices Radio

• 
  

...we're revisiting a conversation between Tiokasin Ghosthorse and Annamarie Hill. Annamarie is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Nation located in northwestern Minnesota. It was while she was studying Music and Business at a private women’s college in the southern part of the state that she realized the impact of inhumane treatment put upon her father and family and became determined to somehow help right the wrongs that had devastated American Indian communities.  After graduation, Annamarie moved to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul Metropolitan area and began a career in the state legislature and government for more than a decade before taking the role of State Government Affairs Director for Red Lake.

After lobbying for Red Lake Nation for several years, Annamarie went on to lead the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council as Executive Director for a decade.  It was during this time that the highly regarded and award-winning “Why Treaties Matter” exhibit and Dakota Ojibwe Language Revitalization program were developed. Annamarie currently works for the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Duluth Campus as the Strategy and Outreach Director.  Annamarie is a part of the Mantyh Lab, a research team led by Neurologist and Dementia Specialist Dr. William Mantyh.  The NIH- funded research project is to examine the APOE gene’s relationship with Alzheimer’s disease in the Native population.  Annamarie remains active in the lobbying and advocating world for her people and provides professional and executive coaching and mentoring to many.

Annamarie has a bachelor’s degree in music and business administration from The College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in Tribal Administration and Governance from the University of Minnesota/Duluth. 

Production Credits: Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer Karen Ramirez (Maya), Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor Kevin Richardson, Podcast Editor

AKANTU INTELLIGENCE 

Visit Akantu Intelligence, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuintelligence.org to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse

BEAUTIFUL SCARS + iskwē & Tom Wilson - Blue Moon Drive

And he is an adoptee

An incredible guy in so many ways. I would highly recommend checking out his book. It’s amazing. https://tomwilsononline.com/

Sister's Emotional Reunion #60sScoop

 READ: https://globalnews.ca/news/10211379/sisters-reunite-sixties-scoop-vancouver/

WARNING: This story deals with disturbing subject matter that may upset and trigger some readers. Discretion is advised.

It was a reunion decades in the making and a kickoff to the new year the Quill family will never forget.

Sisters Nita and Brandy Quill met for the first time at a SkyTrain station in Vancouver last week, more than 30 years after they were separated during a period of colonial violence against Indigenous families known as the ’60s Scoop.  The pair found each other on Facebook in the years after their mother’s death.

“It’s surreal. Nothing like this has ever happened in our lives before,” Brandy said, embracing her long-lost sister at Burrard Station downtown.

“This is to me a miracle. I’m just trying to take it in. It will probably take a long time to process it. It’s a dream come true.”

’60s Scoop advocate Katherine Legrange on the need for a national inquiry

 

The ’60s Scoop refers to a period between the 1950s and 1980s after amendments to the Indian Act let provincial governments take over Indigenous child welfare. Thousands of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their birth families, usually without consent, and placed in non-Indigenous homes.

Many were stripped of their language and culture, and left with complex questions about their identities. Many also experienced physical, sexual, mental and spiritual abuse.

“So much of our lives has been taken from us, so to ever be in a moment where we don’t have to be afraid of who we are, that we’ve been given our meeting, it just feels like it’s the beginning of something new — not just for us but for the country,” Brandy said. “I only wish our mom was still here to see it with us.”

’60s Scoop advocate Colleen Cardinal on challenges reconnecting to birth communities

 

Nita and Brandy are the daughters of Linda Quill, a Sapotoweyak Cree woman from Manitoba and a residential school survivor.  Linda was abused and malnourished at residential school, eventually contracted tuberculosis and was placed in a sanitorium without her family’s knowledge, Brandy told Global News.

Brandy was born in Edmonton, placed in foster care at the age of five and eventually shipped off to an Ontario group home where she aged out of care and has lived independently since then. Nita was born in Winnipeg, taken from Linda at 18 months of age and adopted by a family in Scotland.

“I’ve always known there’s more to me, there’s more to who I am, there’s more to my story,” said Nita, who also met her niece — Brandy’s daughter Taylor — at the station last week.

“Blood memory goes very deep so I’ve been nervous for the last 24 hours. Meeting my sister definitely calms me. It’s a relief. It’s the end of an era but it’s also the beginning.”

View image in full screen

Linda Quill is seen with her youngest daughter Brandy Quill in an undated photo. Courtesy: Brandy Quill

Brandy said she and her mother “cried for years” wondering what happened to Nita, the eldest sister.

Nita eventually left her adoptive family in Scotland with no knowledge of her Sapotaweyak and Wuskwi Sipihk family in northern Manitoba, but through a Facebook post, connected with Brandy.

Both she and Brandy said they were told false stories of their mother having tried to leave them after their births.

“My story — it’s always been a journey of identity, of belonging, understanding. My story is one that’s repeated so much within a lot of families. It’s a story of being lost,” Nita said.

“The bigger picture is we are together and there’s a lot of hope … for a lot of the pain to go away and a lot of the happiness to come in. This is a promising day.”

The Manitoba government apologized for its role in the ’60s Scoop in 2015.  The Alberta government followed suit in 2018 and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe did the same in 2019.

In 2022, the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta pressed the B.C. government to follow suit. No such apology has been delivered at the B.C. legislature.

“In B.C., we are committed to a respectful and genuine dialogue with the survivors, families and communities impacted by these historical wrongs on how best to move towards an apology that will be part of the healing process,” wrote B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development in a Tuesday statement.

“We recognize an apology must also address the continued impact of colonization on Indigenous families, especially in terms of the child welfare system. This process must be sensitive and trauma-informed in order to reach a meaningful apology.”

‘Our children have an inherent right to know who they are’: Sts’ailes former chief on new legislation in MCFD

Nita, Brandy and Taylor shared many tight hugs in Vancouver before going out for a meal and getting to know each other better. They credited their mother for their reunion and said they know she was watching, smiling from the Spirit World, as her daughters and granddaughter reunited.

“We’re just so blessed to be able to continue the next bit of our path together so we’ll see where that takes us,” Brandy said.

The family said they hope their story inspires others who have been through similar experiences and fosters empathy among those who haven’t.

— with files from Cliff Shim and Aaron McArthur 

The Hope for Wellness Help Line offers culturally competent counselling and crisis intervention to all Indigenous peoples experiencing trauma, distress, strong emotions and painful memories. The line can be reached any time toll-free at 1-855-242-3310.