
- Details
- By Native News Online Staff
In the six-episode series titled “American Genocide,” Illuminative founder Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) and Lashay Wesley (Choctaw) hit the ground on Pine Ridge in search of justice for the Native children who were abused and died at Red Cloud.
Red Cloud stopped boarding students in 1980 and today operates as a private Catholic school with more than 600 students from Pine Ridge attending. There has been no acknowledgment of the horrors committed by the institution during the Boarding School Era, a period between the late 1860s and the 1960s during which hundreds of thousands of Native American children were ripped from their homes and placed in government and church-run boarding schools the U.S. in an attempt to strip them of their Native culture and identity.
“We had no idea where this would end up when we first started — all we knew was that this story had to be told – and what we uncovered is far bigger than any of us could have imagined,” Echo Hawk toldVariety. “The United States government and Catholic Church blatantly committed genocide, and no one really knows about it outside of the Native community.”
“American Genocide” dives into the history of Red Cloud’s past and its perception today as a positive presence in the community.
Episodes will give listeners an embedded perspective through interviews with school administrators, local elders and survivors, young activists, and U.S. Department of the Interior Deb Haaland while examining Red Cloud’s search for mass graves on its campus, growing tension between the school and community youth activists, and if the Catholic Church will close the school and return the land to the Oglala Sioux people.
Listen to the trailer for ‘American Genocide’ at illuminative.org/americangenocidepodcast
More Stories Like This
Here’s What's Going On in Indian Country, September 21 —September 28The Land That Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans Exhibition Begins Sept. 22 at National Gallery of Art
Gifted Native American Flutist Robert Tree Cody Walks On
The Future is Now at Newly Opened Center for Native Futures in Chicago
Here’s What's Going On In Indian Country, September 14 —September 21
Native News is free to read.
We hope you enjoyed the story you've just read. For the past dozen years, we’ve covered the most important news stories that are usually overlooked by other media. From the protests at Standing Rock and the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), to the ongoing epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) and the past-due reckoning related to assimilation, cultural genocide and Indian Boarding Schools.
Our news is free for everyone to read, but it is not free to produce. That’s why we’re asking you to make a donation to help support our efforts. Any contribution — big or small — helps. Most readers donate between $10 and $25 to help us cover the costs of salaries, travel and maintaining our digital platforms. If you’re in a position to do so, we ask you to consider making a recurring donation of $12 per month to join the Founder's Circle. All donations help us remain a force for change in Indian Country and tell the stories that are so often ignored, erased or overlooked.
Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you.