Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness
Riverside Indian School
Anadarko, OK, June 3, 2009
A Strong Turnout at Riverside Indian School
Don Coyhis (right) and Kerry Holton, President of the Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma (center) meet. The visit to Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma was a vibrant, happy day. We left our motel at 6:00 a.m. to arrive onsite for the Sunrise Ceremony. When we arrived at the site, there was a bit of setting up to do and we all cooperated to make things happen. The rain subsided by the time we arrived and it turned out to be quite a windy day. Young people from the community had set up a large revival tent the day before. It was evident by the turnout and organization that the coordinators worked very hard to get things ready for this event.
The forerunner of the present Riverside Indian School was first established in 1871 and is now a modern BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) school serving grades 4-12. The Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness visit in Anadarko on June 3 was held on land of the Caddo, Delaware and Wichita and Affiliated tribes (WCD) adjacent to the campus of the Riverside Indian School. We were not permitted access to the school’s grounds by order of a local officer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Riverside is the first and only BIA school to deny entry to the Journey since we began at another BIA school (Chemawa Indian School in Oregon) on May 16.
Prayer Walk starting off the
day at Riverside Indian School. The Sunrise Ceremony began at 7:00 AM. A group of people gathered at the far end of the land and walked down Riverside Lane with the Sacred Hoop, the Wellbriety Forgiveness Staff, many Tribal Flags, and the American Flag into the tented area where we held the Ceremony. Of all the visits yet, this one had the greatest representation of Tribal governments. There are seven tribes located in the region around Anadarko, Oklahoma. Today we were fortunate to have present representatives from four, including the president of a new tribal college.
Tribal representatives included Wallace Coffey, Chairman of the Comanche Nation; Stratford Williams, Vice-President of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes; Shirley Howery, Business Committee of the Caddo Nation; and Kerry Holton, President of the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma. We were also honored to have with us Dr. Henrietta Mann, President of the new Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribal College and a member of the White Bison’s Wellbriety Council of Elders.
Frances Wise and two community children The drum sang the procession into the large tent and all participants were blessed with cedar. A prayer ceremony took place. MC Wallace Coffey spoke about Medicine Bluff, a sacred prayer ground. Mr. Coffey and others have been fighting to stop the erection of a building on this Sacred Ground. They won the fight and will be having a gathering on June 22, 2009, at Medicine Bluff to celebrate. He said he will be thinking and praying for White Bison and the Journey for Forgiveness on June 22 during this gathering.
We were also honored to have other important events take place during the opening ceremony. The Mayor of Anadarko presented a Proclamation passed by City Council of the city of Anadarko to Don Coyhis and the White Bison organization. It declared June 3 as the city’s Hoop Journey 2009 Indian Boarding School Awareness Day. All of Indian country was also blessed to have Pastor Ted Mercer give an apology for the atrocities that were done to the first people of this land. President Holton from the Delaware Nation spoke briefly to the gathering and thanked Don for all of his efforts on this journey. He told us that 23 Citizens from the Delaware Nation attended Carlisle Indian School in historic times.
Dr. Henrietta Mann Among the morning speakers was Frances Wise, a member of the Coordinating Committee, which did the hard work to make all this happen. Ms. Wise added a new idea into the conversation about historical and intergenerational trauma that has been taking place at each of these visits––collective memory. What is collective memory and what role does it have in the boarding school discussions? Here is what Frances Wise said when we talked with her afterward.
“Historical trauma, which spawns intergenerational trauma, are negatives,” she said. “The only way we were able to sustain ourselves as a people and come out with any semblance of a healthy people is by our collective memory, which reaches back to the beginning of time. It remembers the healthy context of everything we were before the first non-Indian came to our land. It remembers when we lived in a much healthier way, in a traditional way. That’s how we’ve been able to sustain ourselves through all the horrible things that have happened to us,” she continued. “Our collective memory is important to the survival of the indigenous people of this continent. It is an integral part of our survival,” she concludes.
The Riverside Planning Committee (coordinators) About 115 to 130 people attended the Riverside event. Some of the real heart connection at these events always takes place during the panel and open mic discussions when individuals can share their boarding school stories. Sharing them helps us let go of them and move on.
Cecelia Tsosie’s story of her abuse at Riverside in the 1960’s, and continued abuse throughout her life hit the very core of many in the audience. Cecelia was not only raped and beaten numerous times during her year in Riverside by other students, but she has been abused her entire life by foster homes, the boarding school and a husband of 18 years. Cecelia has endured more beatings and surgeries from the abuse than most people could ever survive. She has the spirit of a golden eagle that soars above the pain and suffering to be a compassionate, giving soul. Her strength, perseverance and obvious love for humankind are very difficult to put into words. Her sharing touched and moved many people today.
Youth check it out. Lenore Parker works with children in a boarding school today. Society calls these children at risk to fail. She says that not one dormitory manager knew her name while she attended Fort Sill Indian School in 1960. She said that when she first went to Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma, she brought her paperwork in. The woman that she was speaking with was from the same tribe Lenore was from. The woman looked at her paperwork, handed it back to her and said, don’t go and get pregnant. That was the extent of her entrance intake. Today in Ms. Parker’s job, she makes sure she knows all of the kids’ names attending the school where she works. She has turned it around. She says love isn’t love until you give it away.
The closing story was from Tommy Johnson. Tommy entered Ft. Sill Indian School when he was six years old. His mother had died from TB. His father left him at the boarding school because he couldn’t manage with six children. Tommy was angry at his mother for so many years because she died and left him. He remembers that he would get behind one of the buildings at Ft. Sill Indian School to curl up and cry. The bigger girls would come and try and comfort him. Pretty soon they would all be crying because they were so lonely for their families. He said in later life he didn’t know how to tell people he loved them. No one ever told him that they loved him. It wasn’t until years later when he had a blessing from the spirits that he was able to forgive his mother. When he forgave his mother he stopped drinking.
There is no way to experience the full impact of this sharing but to come to one of the gatherings. Local people were grateful to White Bison for deciding to come to Riverside. Participants will take all kinds of ideas and concepts back into the community to talk about. The kind of conversation that happened during the gathering will begin to grow. One coordinator said that part of what made Wednesday so special is that people got to talk about it to other people, to a lot of others at one time. It was cleansing. It was like lifting 100 tons of weight off your spirit.
~ Forgiveness Journey Team
The Journey was denied access to the grounds of Riverside Indian School
for
the
day-long event by the BIA. The event was held on tribal land adjacent to the campus.
Click here or on the image below to see a larger image of the Proclamation.
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