Genetic Genealogist Geraldine Berger Helps Adoptees and Others to Solve Family Mysteries With Her Guide, Living In The Know
WARWICK, R.I., Oct. 7, 2021
/PRNewswire/ -- Ten million adults nationwide were adopted as infants,
and for many their "family histories remain a mystery," according to Geraldine Berger,
who has written a book on using DNA testing to find birth families. A
professional genetic genealogist, Berger specializes in solving family
tree mysteries for her clients, bringing resolution and closure. Living in the Know, Berger's
step-by-step guide to finding family with DNA testing came from years
of research based on her own experience identifying her birth parents.
Author: Geraldine Berger
Living in the Know - Book Cover
According to Berger, only 10 states allow adoptees
unrestricted access to their original birth certificates, and even in
those states, a birth certificate can be a dead end. DNA testing has
helped many adoptees find their blood relatives, but the process can be
confusing and raise more questions than it answers. Living in the Know,
helps cut through confusion to help people reclaim their personal
histories. In her book, Berger also chronicles her own search for her
birth parents.
Berger, an adoptee-rights activist, is passionate about
helping people discover the truth of their origins. "DNA is a
game-changer, placing the power of knowing who you are back where it
belongs—in the hands of the individual," said Berger.
Living in the Know helps individuals get started
through DNA testing, but sometimes the search is more art than
science. Berger knows that the DNA test is only the beginning. "People
test thinking the results will give them 'the answer,' says Berger, "but
more often than not they say, 'Now what?'" This is where Berger's
clients come to her asking for help.
Living in the Know: The Adoptee's Quick-Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing is available on Amazon. For more information or to contact Geraldine, visit www.geneticgenealogycoach.com.
ABOUT GERALDINE BERGER, AUTHOR OF Living in the Know:
A
professional genetic genealogist, Berger specializes in helping adult
adoptees identify and locate their birth parents and other family
members, using DNA evidence. An adoptee herself, Berger has cracked
hundreds of cases, including her own, and her successes have appeared in
news outlets worldwide. In May 2021, she
published her book, "Living In The Know: The Adoptee's Quick Start Guide
to Finding Family with DNA Testing," available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2jra9ewd.
A
small group of community members met at the Minneapolis American Indian
Center in July to share information about how adopted adults can claim
items left for them by their birth parents.
The conversation about
the ability to retrieve personal effects came to the forefront with the
law that went into effect July 1 — where birth records held by the
state can be obtained by adopted adults.
The Sámi (/ˈsɑːmi/SAH-mee; also spelled Sami or Saami) are the traditionally Sámi-speaking indigenous peoples inhabiting the region of Sápmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The region of Sápmi was formerly known as Lapland, and the Sámi have historically been known in English as Lapps or Laplanders, but these terms are regarded as offensive by the Sámi, who prefer their own endonym, e.g. Northern Sámi Sápmi.[8][9] Their traditional languages are the Sámi languages, which are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family.
Tour operator Joe Buffalo Child welcomes the northern lights near Yellowknife. (Submitted by Joe Buffalo Child)
Northern lights are our night sky guides
When Nicholas Flowers was young, he made sure to never whistle at the northern lights.
It
was disrespectful, his grandmother taught him. "She told me, if you
whistle at the northern lights, they may actually harm you by cutting
off your head," he told Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild.
It's
advice that Flowers, who teaches the Inuktitut language and Inuit
culture in Nunatsiavut, N.L., still follows today. "Learning about these
traditions in our culture plays a big role in our survival, and also in
our well-being. As Inuit we need to remember that we simply couldn't
exist without the land."
While modern science explains the
mechanism of the aurora borealis, members of First Nation, Inuit and
Métis communities say that their traditional knowledge, which goes back
thousands of years, can help explain its meaning — in mythology, legend
and even weather forecasting.
The two ways of knowing can be
complementary, said Jennifer Howse, an education specialist at the
Rothney Astrophysical Observatory, just north of Calgary. Howse is also a
member of the Métis Nation of Alberta.
It all starts with the sun
Auroras
are caused when charged particles that are released from the sun get
trapped in the polar areas of the Earth's magnetic field. These interact
with the Earth's magnetic field, creating the northern lights.
The
amount of charged particles the sun releases varies on an 11-year
cycle, and we're currently at the busiest time of the cycle, Howse said.
The
varying colours of the lights relate to what gases in the atmosphere
are being affected: green is oxygen, red is upper-atmosphere nitrogen.
"It's essentially showing us our atmosphere with these colours," she
said.
Intermediate colours, like purple, magenta and even blue,
result from different gases reacting. "These gases are coming together,
almost like when you're mixing paint colours," Howse said.
The Rothney Astrophysical Observatory near Calgary. (Rothney Astrophysical Observatory)
Howse
said that although newer technologies are teaching scientists about
auroras, there are still many mysteries, which can be addressed by
Indigenous stories.
"Northern Canadians have so much mythology
around the aurora. If you listen to the stories, you'll hear all of the
science, and all of the observations," she said.
The
First Nation science involves understanding the timing of the lights,
their colours, how they move, and how those movements might impact
weather, for example. "[The stories] use a lot of wonderful metaphors of
things that we understand in our relations with ourselves and with the
natural world," Howse said.
She compared Indigenous stories to
ancient Greek maps of the sky, "that tell you about the sky, of course,
but it also tells you about that ancient Greek astronomer and their
perception of the sky overhead."
Auroras in Indigenous teachings
It would be difficult to find anyone who gets more excited about the northern lights than Joe Buffalo Child.
And
that's even after 18 years of taking tourists out around Yellowknife to
see the aurora borealis and talk about Dene culture.
Joe Buffalo Child has operated North Star Adventures for the last 18 years. (Submitted by Joe Buffalo Child)
"I
get to see it every night, and people always say to me, 'Joe, don't you
get tired of it'? And I say, 'No. Take a look. How can you get tired of
that?'" he said.
"It's a connection between my culture and my grandparents, so it has a very special meaning for me."
Buffalo
Child was raised by his grandparents, who have since died. His
grandmother taught him that when the aurora are dancing quickly, it's a
message from someone recently departed.
"Someone from the other side is sending a message.… 'I'm doing OK, no need to be sad anymore,'" he said.
Buffalo
Child believes Yellowknife is the best place in the world to see the
aurora borealis. The lights appear directly above, and are often visible
for four hours or more, almost every night in winter.
"We often call it the sore neck aurora," he joked.
Like Buffalo Child, Flowers was also taught that the dancing lights show the continuing presence of those who've passed away.
He
also believes that the legend of the lights decapitating those who
whistle at them is to demonstrate the importance of having respect for
the land and for nature.
Nicholas Flowers teaches the Inuktitut language and Inuit culture in Nunatsiavut, N.L. (Submitted by Nicholas Flowers)
But auroras also offer less morbid warnings, too.
The
way the lights behave can also help predict the weather, Flowers said.
For example, if they are still, it suggests the following day would have
fair weather and light winds — perfect hunting conditions.
However, if they are dipping and diving and moving quickly, the forthcoming weather will not be as ideal, he said.
Howse
said it's been wonderful to see how Indigenous traditional knowledge
has blended with science to form a more complete picture of the aurora.
"This has just been such a really wonderful time to be Métis. I mean, imagine that I'm able to say that out loud!"
A federal clerk's
error put more than 90,000 acres of Yakama Nation land in the hands of
Washington state. Because of forced treaties and a clerical error, Yakama
reservation is over a million acres — but not all of it belongs to the tribe. Grist >
It
was barely a choice. In 1855, a time when the ink of border lines on United
States maps had scarcely dried, Yakama Chief Kamiakin (left) was told to sign over the
land of 14 tribal nations and bands in the Pacific Northwest — or face the
prospect of walking “knee deep” in the blood of his people.
Legend
has it that, when he put pen to paper, he was so furious he bit through his
lip.
By
signing, he ceded
over 10 million acres across what is now known as Washington state. In return,
the Yakama Nation was allowed to live on a reservation one-tenth the size of
their ancestral lands, about 100 miles southeast of Seattle.
But
the story doesn’t end there. The treaty map was lost for close to 75 years,
misfiled by a federal clerk who put it under “M” for Montana.
With
no visual record to contradict them, federal agents extracted even more Yakama
land for the nascent state, drawing new boundaries on new maps. One removed an
additional 140,000 acres from the reservation, another about half a million,
and still other versions exist.
By
the time the original map was discovered in the 1930s, it was too late. Settlers had already made claims well within reservation boundaries, carving
the consequences of this mistake into the contours of the land. Non-Native
landowners remain to this day.
The
Yakama want that land back. Most tribal members know the story of Kamiakin and
his bloodied lip when he signed the treaty. Ask Phil Rigdon, a Yakama citizen
and nationally recognized forester. As the superintendent of the Yakama Nation
Department of Natural Resources, he deals with a medley of issues, but his most
important work is getting the reservation land back. After working on this for
nearly 20 years, he knows that it takes time and an entire community to make
the progress they want.
“It’s a family thing for us, as we do this
business,” he said.
Pahto, also known as
Mount Adams, looms over the western edge of the Yakama reservation. In 1972,
President Richard Nixon signed an executive order acknowledging that the
mountain had been mistakenly excluded from the reservation. Maria Parazo Rose / Grist
April Wazhaxi-Jones’ planning for the Trump administration centers
around maintaining her personal safety and the well-being of other
Indigenous people. She lives in Oklahoma and is a member of the Osage
Nation, but the area where she resides is mostly White.Throughout this year’s presidential campaign season, she saw Trump signs and flags sprinkled throughout neighborhood yards.
She recalled times when she and her husband greeted neighbors passing
by and were met with silence or stares. Just a few days before speaking
with The 19th, Wazhaxi-Jones said she was at Home Depot and a man
wearing a Trump hat and shirt stared at her as he blocked her way down
the aisle.
“You’re excused,” she remembered the man saying sarcastically as Wazhaxi-Jones stepped around him to walk by.
As an Indigenous woman in the United States, she knows well that
threats of violence and the erasure of history are nothing new for the
country. But this moment feels different for her.
“I feel as though we as Indigenous people
were finally having a voice, finally being heard,” she said. “We had Deb
Haaland as secretary of interior and now that’s gone. And not only is
that gone, but my rights as a woman, the right to love who you want are
under attack. We Native Americans take care of each other — and these
policies don’t take care of people.”
In the past, Wazhaxi-Jones said she did what she could to educate
people who expressed political opinions that conflicted with her own.
She won’t be doing that moving forward. Her focus now is self-care and
making sure her Indigenous and two-spirit friends and family have
resources they need.
She knows someone who had breast reduction surgery while it was still
covered by their insurance. She knows people who are trying to get
alternative forms of gender-affirming care lined up and others who are
stocking up on plan B. For her own peace of mind, Wazhaxi-Jones is in
counseling, deleted social media and is limiting her consumption of news
about Trump and his administration. She also does not go out as much as
she used to.
“Everything I believed in is being torn
down. I’m exhausted and it’s all just too much. I am one voice and it
has been stomped out,” she said.
VANITY FAIR: WHAT IS COMING in Trump's Second Term?
"...We’re talking about how the television world vowed to change after the murder of George Floyd
in 2020 and the protests that followed. Entertainment conglomerates
promised to slay systemic racism and knit diversity, equity, and
inclusion (DEI) into the fabric of the industry.
"We are now closing in on the fifth anniversary of those vows. So how’s that going?
“It not only didn’t change, but in some ways it kind of got worse,” says Simien, who created Dear White People and directed Haunted Mansion and the recent doc series Hollywood Black.
Rebecca Nagle has turned the false history of Native American communities she received as a child into a career of truth-driven storytelling.
A writer, journalist and author, Nagle is the host of the documentary podcast “This Land” and author of the novel “By the Fire We Carry.”
Born in Joplin, Missouri, 38-year-old Nagle spent much of her youth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City with her Cherokee family members. She recalls Native history scarcely being addressed throughout her education.
"I remember making ships out of popsicle sticks to celebrate Columbus Day and asking questions that went unanswered. I definitely think my education was lacking when it came to that stuff in public school," she said.
Her understanding of her family history and culture was primarily taught through her grandmother.
“Growing up, I learned a lot from my grandma. She made sure that we understood that we knew who our family was,” she said. “And then, of course, as an adult you sort of test what your family members told you about your family.”
Her family’s portrayal of their forebears was mostly heroic, focused on how her “Cherokee ancestors sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Cherokee Nation.” Though she recognizes that her family’s history has more detail and nuance, she has kept their overarching pride and sacrifice close to her.
This passion for history fuels much of Nagle’s work as a writer and journalist. Over its two seasons, her podcast, “This Land,” reflects her will to dive into research and highlight the very stories that were avoided throughout her childhood.
The first season leads the audience through the case of Patrick Murphy, a citizen of the Muscogee Nation who was sentenced to death for the murder of George Jacobs in 1999. Murphy’s case took an unexpected turn when his attorney challenged his conviction by arguing that he could not be prosecuted by the state of Oklahoma but instead must be tried by the Muscogee Nation. Murphy was ultimately convicted for murder and sentenced to life in prison by the federal court.
Season two continues the work of purposeful storytelling by detailing the Haaland v. Brackeen Supreme Court case, which challenged the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act’s restrictions on Native children being adopted by non-Native parents. The high court affirmed the constitutionality of the act in 2023.
Nagle describes the work she produced on her podcast as a push that led her to writing her novel, “By the Fire We Carry.”
“We made the first season, and I then kept wanting to follow this story and follow those threads, and I felt like I had more to tell and more research to do,” she said.
“By the Fire We Carry” invites readers through the fight for rightful ownership of Native lands. Deep diving into U.S. history, Nagle highlights the ways in which Native people were forcibly removed from their homes on lands that are now recognized as property of eastern Oklahoma. The history she details provides context to the Murphy case, which she recognizes as a modern-day portrayal of the generations-long battle for Native grounds.
Exploring how the past has influenced the present and using that knowledge to increase visibility and awareness is a primary reason she has continued to amplify Native stories in her journalism career.
“When you look out in the news media, there just isn’t enough Native representation, and I think that that creates this prevailing ignorance in U.S. society about Native people and our tribes and the law,” Nagle said.
“That ignorance is a really big barrier for progress, and I think that impedes us having better policy in place. That’s one thing that I’m very passionate about: pushing back against that erasure and having Native stories in the mainstream,” she continued.
But she said it can be tricky to get editors to view these stories as newsworthy.
“It’s almost like if you were writing about women’s reproductive health and your editor didn’t know what abortion was and that’s their starting point,” she said.
“People who are used to having a [high] level of knowledge and expertise have a hard time when they’re confronted with this situation where their ignorance is kind of daunting. I think some people can have a hard time admitting that.”
Today, Nagle can be found working on an essay series with other Native writers and historians about the history of colonization and genocide against Indigenous people undermining democracy in the United States.
“You can tell some big lies about tribes and about Native people, and people will believe it because they don’t know that much. I think when you look at history, I can tie every oppressive policy against Native people to the lies that were told to justify it,” Nagle said. “I think so much of history informs our present day and I think we can’t understand one without the other.”
The
Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) and
Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families have signed an
agreement on how to provide support services to the Tribe’s enrolled
members — the first formal partnership between that department and an
out-of-state Native nation.
Around 23%, or 1,600, Tlingit & Haida tribal children and youth
under 18 live in Washington state. This agreement specifies roles and
responsibilities shared by the tribes and the Department of Children,
Youth and Families to administer services under the Indian Child Welfare Act,
including child protective services, foster care, dependency
guardianship, termination of parental rights and adoption proceedings
for those children. The department has similar agreements with a number
of tribes based in Washington.
In November 2023, the Tlingit & Haida opened an office in Lynnwood with
at least 20 staff members to serve more than 8,000 tribal citizens who
live in Washington, according to Alaska television station KTOO. These
services include tribal court, enrollment and case management of child
welfare cases.
December 10, 2024 (Edmonton, AB) – A class action aiming to hold
Canada accountable for the harms it inflicted on Métis and non-status
Indian children in the Sixties Scoop is currently before the courts.
From December 9-12, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government will participate
as an intervener in the summary judgment hearing in Varley et al v. The Attorney General of Canada (“Varley Action”).
The Otipemisiwak Métis Government is seeking justice for the many Métis
children taken from their parents, families, and communities in this
heinous act of cultural genocide.
“This week marks a pivotal moment in our ongoing journey toward
justice for Métis Citizens who—through no fault of their own—were
victims of Canada’s deliberate efforts to erase their identity as
Indigenous people,” said Andrea Sandmaier, President of the Otipemisiwak
Métis Government. “While we remain hopeful that the Court will
recognize Canada’s responsibility for its actions—taking our children,
disrupting our families, and stripping us of our ability to pass down
our language, traditions, and culture—we know that true justice extends
beyond addressing the harm done to individual victims. Our government is
committed to holding Canada accountable for the profound damage
inflicted on the Métis Nation within Alberta as a collective. We will
continue to work tirelessly to ensure our future generations are rooted
in the richness of our Métis heritage.”
Brooke Bramfield, Secretary of Children and Family Services for the
Otipemisiwak Métis Government, added, “the Sixties Scoop tore children
away from the heart of their Métis identity, leaving scars that continue
to affect families and communities today. As a government, we continue
to seek accountability as we work to ensure that future generations of
Métis children never experience the same erasure of their culture,
language, and heritage.”
The Varley Action was brought in the wake of the 2018 Sixties Scoop
settlement, which excluded Métis and non-status Indian victims from the
compensation Canada promised victims. The summary judgment motion will
address whether Canada had a responsibility to protect Métis and
non-status Indian children who were taken from their families in the
Sixties Scoop, and if Canada had a special obligation to act in the best
interests of those children. Canada, for its part, denies
responsibility and argues that the victims’ claims are out of time
because the limitation period has lapsed.
Family affected by the Missing
and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Crisis feel lackluster media
coverage influences how cases are perceived by the public and pursued by
law enforcement. That’s according to new guidelines released by the
federal government this week on best practices for media coverage of
MMIP.
The guidelines result from roundtable discussions moderated by
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland and attended by
more than 200 participants, including journalists, survivors, community
advocates, and Tribal and federal officials. Among the participants
where members of the Not Invisible Act Commission,
a 41-person committee tasked with developing recommendations improving
intergovernmental collaboration on violent crimes in Indian Country and
providing resources for survivors and victims’ families.
Between 2022 and 2023, the Commission held seven in-person listening
sessions across Indian Country, plus one virtual session. According to the Commission’s 212-page report,
more than 600 individuals attended the hearings. Of those, 260 gave
testimony to the NIAC, sharing their expertise, experiences, and
recommendations to address and reduce the tragic consequences of the
crisis of missing, murdered, and trafficked American Indians and Alaska
Natives. Many families and survivors expressed concern at the lack of
media coverage or coverage that reinforces long-standing prejudice
against Native communities.
The new recommendations encourage journalists to focus on an MMIP
humanity rather than any potential criminal background. Also, the
guidelines urge media to contextualize cases within the disparities
faced by Native communities, wrought by generations of forced
assimilation, broken treaty promises, and gross underfunding for health
and public safety. Using language such as “crisis” vs. “epidemic” and
“at-risk” vs. “vulnerable” is encouraged.
The report also features guidelines for strengthening collaboration
between law enforcement and journalists, including designating public
information officers to release timely information on MMIP case
developments to the media.
The MMIP crisis is characterized by Native American communities
experiencing disproportionately high rates of assault, abduction and
murder. The crisis dates back decades, underpinned by systemic apathy,
jurisdictional confusion, and underfunded law enforcement. There is no
nationwide data system for MMIP information, and the actual number of
MMIP cases is unknown; however, the Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates
there are 4,200 unsolved cases.
During the 1950s in the USA, a large amount of prescriptive material
appeared in the form of magazines, handbooks, and guidance films,
teaching proper manners and good behavior in a rapidly evolving post-war
society. In this context, the U.S. Department of the Interior
commissioned two short films produced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in
1952 aimed at teaching young Native Americans how to properly use a
telephone and answer calls.
The political context of the era is key here, as the 1950s represented a
kind of pinnacle in the federal government's assimilationist intentions
about Native American communities, whether it be the attempt to abolish
protected reservation territories or the forced teaching of
Anglo-American values in federal residential schools.
These short films, which at
first seem to resemble the innocuous orientation films of the time in
their format and approach, in fact aim not simply at the acquisition of
new cultural codes, but at the complete rewriting of the most
traditional thought patterns. Analyze
their scenography and purpose in the light of ethnographic and
anthropological data, as specifically relevant to the Navajo culture, as
the students and the examples in the movie are clearly aimed at this
community.
Two short films here: Telephone Etiquette Receiving a Telephone Call
graves of children at Carlisle Indian Industrial School
NOTE: I've been to Carlisle to see what is left of that school. I've been to Jim Thorpe, PA where the Olympic Athlete is still buried. Nothing, no words, no building or a gravesite can bring back the millions and millions who were murdered on this soil... The colonizer's goal of genocide was a success, by also burying the truth...Trace
President
Joe Biden designated a national monument at a former Native American
boarding school site in Pennsylvania to commemorate the resilience of
tribes whose children were forced to attend the school and similar
abusive institutions
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- President Joe Biden designated a national monument at a former Native American boarding school in Pennsylvania on Monday to honor the resilience of Indigenous tribes whose children were forced to attend the school and hundreds of similar abusive institutions.
The
creation of the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National
Monument — announced during a tribal leaders summit at the White House —
is intended to confront what Biden referred to as a “dark chapter” in
the nation's history.
“We're
not about erasing history. We're about recognizing history — the good,
the bad and the ugly,” Biden said. “I don't want people forgetting 10,
20, 30, 50 years from now and pretend it didn't happen.”
Thousands
of Native children passed through the notorious Carlisle Indian
Industrial School between 1879 and 1918, including Olympian Jim Thorpe.
They came from dozens of tribes under forced assimilation policies that
were meant to erase Native American traditions and “civilize" the
children so they would better fit into white society.
It
was the first school of its type and became a template for a network of
government-backed Native American boarding schools that ultimately
expanded to at least 37 states and territories.
“About
7,800 children from more than 140 tribes were sent to Carlisle — stolen
from their families, their tribes and their homelands. It was wrong
making the Carlisle Indian school a national model,” Biden told the
White House summit.
Thorpe's
great-grandson, James Thorpe Kossakowski, called Biden's designation an
important and “historic” step toward broadening Americans'
understanding of the federal government's forced assimilation policy.
“It's
very emotional for me to walk around, to look at the area where my
great-grandfather had gone through school, where he had met my
great-grandmother, where they were married, where he stayed in his dorm
room, where he worked out and trained,” Kossakowski, 54, of Elburn,
Illinois, said in an interview.
The
children were often taken against the will of their parents, and an
estimated 187 Native American and Alaska Native children died at the
institution in Carlisle, including from tuberculosis and other diseases.
There are ongoing efforts to return the children's remains, which were buried on the school's grounds, to their homelands.
“They
represent 50 tribal nations from Alaska to New Mexico to New York and I
think that symbolizes how horrific Carlisle was,” said Beth Margaret
Wright, a Native American Rights Fund lawyer. She has represented tribes
trying to get the Army to return their children's remains and is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, which has children still buried there.
Carlisle
was a model for many other schools that came after it and a huge
majority of tribal nations that exist today have stories of their
children being sent to Carlisle, Wright said.
In
September, the remains of three children who died at Carlisle were
disinterred and returned to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in
Montana.
At least 973 Native American children died at government-funded boarding schools that operated for more than 150 years, according to an Interior Department investigation.
During a dozen public listening sessions over the past several years hosted by the Interior Department, survivors of the schools recalled being beaten, forced to cut their hair and punished for using their native languages.
The
forced assimilation policy officially ended with the enactment of the
Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978. But the government never fully
investigated the boarding school system until the Biden administration.
Interior
Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents were taken to boarding
schools against their families’ will, said no single action would
adequately address the harms caused by the schools. But she said the
administration's efforts have made a difference and the new monument
would allow the American people to learn more about the government's
harmful policies.
“This trauma is not new to Indigenous people, but it is new for many people in our nation," Haaland said in a statement.
The
schools, similar institutions and related assimilation programs were
funded by a total of $23.3 billion in inflation-adjusted federal
spending, officials determined. Religious and private institutions that
ran many of the schools received federal money as partners in the
assimilation campaign.
Monday's announcement marks the seventh national monument created by Biden, who has also altered or enlarged several others. In 2021, he restored
the boundaries of two monuments, Bears Ears and Grand
Staircase-Escalante, on land in southern Utah that's sacred to tribes
after the monuments were shrunk under former President Donald Trump.
The
25-acre site (10 hectares) in central Pennsylvania will be managed by
the National Park Service and the U.S. Army. The site is part of the
campus of the U.S. Army War College.
For
Wright, one of the most powerful places at the Carlisle school are the
imprints of since-removed tracks for trains that delivered children
there.
“There's
no longer train tracks there, but you can see where they might have been
and where their children would have arrived for the first time and seen
a place so far away and seen a place so horrific,” Wright said.
Native American tribes and conservation groups are pressing for more monument designations before Biden leaves office.
.png)
