Gut wrenching, confounding, and complex, Rich-Heape Films have released their long awaited documentary titled “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School.”
A chapter of American history that few know about, this is the searing story of how Indian children were forced – often by their poverty-stricken parents – into boarding schools that were run like Christian military prisons. Once there, the children were stripped of their Native clothing, shorn of their long hair, and punished if they spoke Native languages. They were shamed and abused psychologically, many were abused sexually as well. The effects of the abuse left lasting impressions on the children who often grew up to be abusers themselves.
The skills they were taught denigrated them to lifelong working class service jobs such as construction, cooking, and sewing. When they returned to their reservations, they were shunned by their families who felt the skills they had were useless and did not accept their short hair and formal dress. Started in the late 1800s, the last school closed in 1968. Most former students are in their 50-70s, the administrators are mostly deceased.
The film was released in the beginning of June. On June 10, 2008, the government of Canada formally apologized to the World, in a solemn parliament session for its treatment of Indians in the last century. Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, apologized for previous governments’ policies of taking Indian children from their parents and homes and forcing them into residential Roman Catholic schools. The U.S. government has yet to make a statement.
“How do you apologize to the dead?” asks filmmaker Steven Heape, Cherokee Nation Citizen and executive producer of Rich-Heape Films.
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