Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness
Warm Springs Agency Boarding School
Warm Springs, OR, May 17, 2009
The Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness Visits Warm Springs
One view of the Warm
Springs Tribal Museum
The Warm Springs Indian Reservation lies about a 170 mile drive east of Chemawa Indian School, across the Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon. This approximately 640,000 acre Indian Nation is home to people of the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Northern Paiute Tribes. The Wellbriety Forgiveness Journey came to town on a warm and sunny Sunday in May to help raise awareness about the issues of historical and intergenerational trauma. In the course of the day some 50 to 75 participants would hear the message that we can begin to talk about and heal from our boarding school histories.
The event was held in the Warm Springs Elementary School. The day began with a Grand Entry of the Sacred Hoop and the Wellbriety Forgiveness Staff. Jameson Mitchell (Vietnam Veteran), Larson Kalama (Vietnam Veteran), Marcia Minthorn and Minnie Wallulatum carried in the Sacred Healing Hoop and Harvey Jim (Vietnam Veteran) carried in the Wellbriety Forgiveness Eagle Feather Staff. The Eagle Thunder Drum with lead singer Greg Arquette and his group of Brothers sang the Grand Entry Honor Songs. The Drum Group is learning, and is part of the Seven Drum Washat Religion. Our Washat Leaders were banished by the government and from our land as part of removing us from our religion after the 1855 Treaty. The Washat religion has a Native spiritual connection with the Warm Springs Nation and our Tribe is working hard to re-establish and save Washat and our language from extinction.
Evaline Patt, archivist for the
Warm Springs Tribal Museum, stands
with her photo collection during the
Journey event at Warms Springs After the opening ceremony, Tribal Chairman Ron Suppah welcomed White Bison and those present. Evaline Patt, archivist of the Warm Springs Tribal Musuem spoke about an exhibit of historic boarding school photos on display. Dawn Smith, principal of Warm Springs Elementary School also welcomed the White Bison Journey for Forgiveness.
The photos encompassed three different boarding schools of the region. Forest Grove Indian School opened first, then the school moved to Salem, Oregon, and Chemawa Indian School was established on the west side of the mountains. On the east was the Warm Springs Indian School in Warm Springs, Oregon. All three schools were established right at the beginning of the boarding school era–approximately 1880. The earliest photograph on display was of the Warm Springs School, taken before any buildings were constructed and only tents were set up. Ms. Patt said some of her research was done and collected from a Mr. Dan Macy collection, who had many stories and photographs to share. Mr. Macy is now deceased but he shared recorded stories with the museum, as well as many glass negatives that he had acquired over the years. The early photos refer to the students as “new recruits.” The photos show children dressed in stiff military uniforms in the late 1800’s and in ordinary clothing of the mainstream by the 1950s.
A participant shares her experiences
during the Warm Springs event At noon we all shared in a Memorial Feast in honor of our Warm Springs ancestors who were forced to attend boarding schools in the early years. Before the feast, Don Coyhis told the story of the Forgiveness Journey as well as presenting the story of White Bison and the Wellbriety Movement. The Memorial Feast was followed by a panel discussion in which Jameson Mitchell, Eliza Jim, Adeline Miller, Daisy Ike and Marcia Minthorn spoke. First Delvis Heath, Chief of the Warm Springs Tribe spoke, sharing his boarding school experience, which he said was not traumatic, but a learning experience for him. Jameson Mitchell spoke about himself as a young child being brutally beaten by one of the male employees numerous times. He said forgiveness is hard to do, but he is working on this issue today. Marcia Minthorn spoke about the need for the three tribes represented at Warm Springs to heal among themselves. She talked about the need for healing all the way around for the whole community and for all Indian Nations to heal. Eliza Jim also spoke, saying she attended the Warm Springs School in 1953 and that she did learn a lot. She learned discipline, cleaning and sewing skills. She shared that everyone’s hair was sheared off and they were deloused when they arrived at school. The chemical burned her head awhile afterwards. She felt abandoned by her parents. She said she knows of the sexual assaults and the girls getting chased around in the kitchen by the cook. But no one was allowed to talk about it.
Before the closing ceremony we took time to have a Ceremonial-Memorial walk around the boarding school grounds. Guy Wallulatum was coordinator for the Warm Springs event and is a Counselor in the Warm Springs Community Counseling Center. He describes what happened and his feelings during the walk.
A photo from the early 1880's taken before the Warm Springs boarding school was built “We did a ceremonial parade around the grounds in front of the girl’s dorm, the cafeteria, the old IHS Health Clinic, the boy’s dorm and back to the school gymnasium,” he said. “We acknowledged and memorialized all our children and ancestors who attended boarding school here. People will tell you that there are spirits here in these buildings yet. They are what I call good spirits, but distressed spirits of boarding school students looking for a path home. Hopefully, we lit a path for them back to the Creator. That’s how we honored our ancestors today,” he said.
He continued, “When we went by and recognized the old Indian Health Services Clinic, I was remembering, I was born there. I heard stories of tonsils being cut out of children for nothing. The government doctors were experimenting with new medicines on us. People are in denial of all this yet. They are not going to admit that any of this happened. During the walk we sang four different songs from our Washat Religion. We’re having a hard time keeping our Washat going. We are losing our language. Few people speak our language fluently. After the Treaty signing, our Longhouse Leaders were banished from the reservation by the government to remove us from our Religion. The boarding schools did the rest, separating the children from their parents and elders. We are learning bits and pieces. It’s a hard process in this fast moving world to sit down and try to learn.”
As a counselor, Guy relates with the grief issues of the community in his work. He said that we have held community grief workshops to help the community work on their grief. One was held this past Wednesday a few days before the Wellbriety Forgiveness Journey event took place. He said the violence, suicides and recent deaths of family members that people are working on are probably tied to historical trauma in the long run.
What are his feelings about the Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness event in Warm Springs today? “The people who needed to be here, were here,” he said. “A lot of people I think, felt their own personal relief to let some of their resentments go. There was a release of some of that anger and anguish for their own healing. If we raised an awareness, that’s probably all we can do. People read about it, saw the posters, and some came. People actually had to be here to know what, forgiveness for boarding schools journey was about.”
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