StateNews
Whitewashing no more Fort Lewis removes historical panels that glossed over school’s dark past by Pablo Vialcita Colorado Public Radio
need, watch over them, protect them from all harm.” Shadlow and company followed with he origin of Fort Lewis College in a victory song and an inter-tribal song to Durango is a dark stain on Amercelebrate the removal of the panels. ican education and the state of “I look at it as a day of celebration, Colorado. The school’s own leaders like correcting the record, I would have said as much. say,” he said. “Making sure that we all Once a post-Civil War army fort, the know that this history is real and that land was converted into a federal, offit affected real people.” reservation Native American Boarding The college says it hopes to continue School, which forced tribal students to its commitment to Indigenous students abandon their cultural identities and by accurately retelling its history and exadopt western culture. The campus was panding its curriculum to reflect the disituated on ancestral land stolen from verse makeup of its students. several Native American tribes. “We will have a student who will be The process of forced assimilation was working with those panels to tell the often violent. And while there is no curhistory of the boarding school in a rent evidence that Fort Lewis had a direct more accurate way involving Native role in student deaths, mass unmarked American students and non-Native graves of Indigenous children have been American students,” Stritikus said. found at former boarding schools across “We’ll continue to do curricular work. the continent. We’ve been recently supported by a Forced assimilation continued at the large grant from the Andrew Mellon school from 1891 until the land was Foundation to build a curriculum transferred to the state in 1911 to become around the boarding school, to do hisa university. The deal was made on the torical work around the issues related grounds that Native American students to boarding schools.” would get free tuition. Eventually, Fort Lewis will remove Panels in the middle of Fort Lewis the remaining nine panels underneath College’s campus, right underneath its Panels at Fort Lewis College that whitewash the dark past of its history as a boarding school the clock tower and display them at iconic clock tower, are supposed to de- were removed recently./ Photo by Hart Van Denberg/CPR the Center for Southwest Studies. Fort pict this history, but the version on disLewis’ History Committee hasn’t deplay is incomplete. While they include its time as an week, the pieces finally came down. cided what to do with the space left behind, but members In a ceremony attended by students, tribal leaders and say they won’t move forward without student input. Indian Boarding School, it portrays the time as peaceful and unproblematic. Photos show indigenous students university officials, Fort Lewis President Tom Stritikus de“One thought is to create some panels, possibly with scribed the college’s past as part of a “cultural genocide.” Indigenous artwork or additional information that we participating in sports and the marching band. While the ceremony mourned the college’s past, lead- can provide for guests and visitors,” Lee Bitsóí, a Navajo “The school received high praise for its ‘extremely good literary instruction’ and its ‘excellent work’ in all ers described it as the beginning of a healing period. citizen and associate vice president of student affairs at “I think, as we move forward, we can do better,” Fort Lewis, said. industrial departments,” one panel said. But, according to the school’s own Center for South- Melvin J. Baker, Chairman of Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Colorado as a whole has been taking steps to address west Studies, all aspects of the students’ Native culture, said. “We can always be better tomorrow.” the systemic oppression of Native Americans within the Skyhawk Nation, a drumming group composed of Indige- state. In August, Gov. Jared Polis officially ended procla“spoken, written, even gestured,” were strictly forbidden. Records show some students burned down barracks nous students, played music during the removal. First was a mations that incited the Sand Creek Massacre. But the grieving song, which the group sang in the Ponca language state still has not made good on its promise to rename as an act of rebellion against the school. These days, a third of the college’s population is In- to memorialize the students taken from their homes. Mount Evans and other landmarks named after figures “It’s talking to Osages, it’s saying all you Osage, look who used their power to oppress Native Americans. digenous, with 170 tribal nations represented on campus. Indigenous students, activists and leaders have pointed at your children,” Noah Shadlow, the group’s leader, said. out the panels’ whitewashing of history for years. Last “It’s not just look at them, it’s take care of their every For more from Colorado Public Radio, go to www.cpr.org ■
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Sept. 16, 2021 n 11
