In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors

From Coalition of Native and Allies: www.coalitionofnativesandallies.org

Chip Fox is an important photographer/reporter for the Inquirer and Indian Country Today and friend of CNA.  He covered the adoption story of our Native American board member Kelley Bova in the Inquirer who was adopted by a White family in 1963. In Indian Country Today he covered the story when Kelley accompanied the remains of two Native Children from the Carlisle Indian School back to her homelands in South Dakota, among other important articles for Indian Country. His latest article in Indian Country Today https://ictnews.org/news/in-the-footsteps-of-our-ancestors is a moving combination of stories from the Carlisle School and stunning photo collages that he created. He's a writer and an artist. We wanted to make sure you saw this important article.

 

 

JUST TWO OF THE IMAGES FROM THE CHIP'S ARTICLE:   Students Nancy Renville, left, and Justine LaFromboise were among six Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Spirit Lake students, four boys and two girls, who arrived at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School on Nov. 6, 1879. The first group of students had arrived one month earlier. The four male students died at the school or soon after being returned home while ill. Amos LaFromboise (not pictured) who died 20 days after arriving at the school, was the first to die. The remains of Amos LaFromboise and Spirit Lake student Edward Upright were finally returned to their tribes in 2023, where a ceremonial fire was lit to burn during the 4 days of mourning. The background image by Charles Fox shows the fire burning at the repatriation cemetery on the Lake Traverse Reservation. Historic photos of the students are courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. (Photo illustration by Charles Fox/Special to ICT)

 

 

Native students arriving at Carlisle Indian Industrial School faced the cutting of their long hair, a disturbing cultural violation. This barber’s chair was photographed by Charles Fox at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, where it was part of an exhibit, "Away from Home," on Native boarding schools. The background photo, courtesy of the Cumberland County Historical Society, shows a group of students in March 1892. (Photo illustration by Charles Fox/Special to ICT)