Northern Cheyenne Tribe offers resources to local boarding school’s investigation for unmarked graves

LAME DEER, Montana – Beginning with a letter dated July 12, 2023, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe (NCT) formally offered its technical assistance and resources to the neighboring St. Labre Indian School’s recent internal investigation for the potential of unmarked graves.

In the July 12th letter, the Tribe’s Vice President Ernest Littlemouth and the NCT Culture Commission commended the school for its initiative, but asserted vested tribal interests in the investigation, as it was their Cheyenne children historically attending the Catholic boarding school. The Tribal officials also cited they had “proficient Tribal Historic Preservation staff with technical skills, adept tribal elder-and-historians… trained cultural surveyors to detect remains, and experience in repatriation of remains,” to which the Tribe was interested in availing to St. Labre.

Prior to St. Labre’s internal investigation for unmarked graves, the US Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland, in June 2021 began the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which the US Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs website describes as, “a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past.”   The initiative would also identify marked and unmarked burial sites associated with their list of federal Indian boarding schools.

The resulting Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative’s investigation report of May 2022 by US Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland confirmed there were “at least 53 burial sites for children across the Indian boarding school system – with more site discoveries and data expected as we continue our research.” 

The two boarding schools for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe identified in the federal report were St. Labre Indian Mission Boarding School and the Tongue River Boarding School, however, the federal investigative report stated that the “Department will not make public the specific locations of burial sites associated with the Federal Indian boarding school system in order to protect against well documented grave-robbing, vandalism, and other disturbances to Indian burial sites.”  

On August 1, 2023 the Tribe sent an official request to Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Newland for their undisclosed investigation data specific to St. Labre Indian School and Tongue River Boarding School (now known as Northern Cheyenne Tribal School).

St. Labre Indian School did not initially consult the Tribe before launching the investigation for unmarked graves, but the school’s executive director, Curtis Yarlott, later accepted the Tribe’s request to meet, convening on July 27, 2023 at the school campus.

At the meeting, investigative topics of archival research, public listening sessions for oral histories, past student deaths from illnesses, and even the infamous abuses at the Catholic boarding school were amicably discussed.  NCT Vice President Littlemouth expressed that there was no definitive outcome to the Tribe’s proposal to be directly involved in the investigation but was encouraged that both sides were seeking the truth of the matter, with a mutually sincere goal of healing the generational trauma. Both parties expressed willingness to continue discussions.

In a follow up letter to St. Labre dated August 2, 2023, NCT Vice President Littlemouth expressed deep concern for tribal members participating in future investigation listening sessions, writing, “bear in mind that some tribal members (or their affected family members) who attended St. Labre, who may have witnessed death(s) or may have knowledge of death and undocumented graves of the boarding school, will have been traumatized,” and added that he consulted with the Tribe’s Healing Hearts domestic violence prevention program and, “learned that hurt people often do not openly talk about their experiences due to crippling PTSD, unwarranted shame, retaliation, and fear of facing their abuser – which in this case could be the institution of the boarding school.”

The Tribe recommends that any future investigative listening sessions conducted by St. Labre have counselors available for any tribal members who may experience post-traumatic stress symptoms from talking about their boarding school experience or what they witnessed. The Vice President also wrote that the Tribe was open to having their accredited mental health providers at future listening sessions.

Then on August 8, 2023 the St. Labre Indian School Investigation Commission conducted a community listening session at the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s Elderly Program in Lame Deer, where the Tribe was able to have their lead Behavioral Health Department counselor on hand at the session.

Although the Tribe availed their resources to help St. Labre’s internal investigation, confirming the Tribe stands at the ready to provide the school with formal and traditional protocols to “take care of any lost/unknown relatives that might be discovered,” they also stated they had sincere hope that there will be no need for that because there will have been no unmarked graves in the first place.

With St. Labre’s investigation continuing, the Tribe has asked the school to enlist tribal members that the Tribe themselves designate to the school’s investigation commission.

CONTACT: Ernest Littlemouth Sr.
Northern Cheyenne Vice President
(406) 477-4872
coyote@cheyennenation.com

 

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