Odawa Anishinaabe journalist Sierra Biidaaban Nadeau set out to investigate the history of Indian boarding schools in Michigan. She didn’t expect the investigation to lead directly into her own family.
While researching enrollment records, Nadeau discovered that 10 of her ancestors had been forced to attend Indian boarding schools. What began as a journalistic investigation became a deeply personal journey into her family’s history and the stories that had been hidden for generations.
On Friday, October 2, at 12 p.m. ET, Native Bidaské host Levi Rickert sits down with Nadeau, an award-winning Odawa Anishinaabe journalist, contributing writer for Native News Online, and author of the new book What the Ancestors Say: One Journalist’s Intimate Investigation into Indian Boarding Schools.
In the conversation, Nadeau discusses what she learned while investigating Michigan’s five Indian boarding schools, including the forced assimilation of Native children and the suppression of Indigenous languages and cultures.
She also talks about what happened when the history she was documenting became personal, the role her family and elders played in helping her understand what she uncovered, and how researching the past opened conversations within her family about experiences that had long gone unspoken.
For Nadeau, the work has been both painful and healing. Her book asks readers to look more closely at the histories that have been pushed aside, and to consider what responsibility comes with uncovering that knowledge.
What the Ancestors Say was published on September 29, 2026, by Broadleaf Books.
Watch this episode of Native Bidaské on Friday, October 2, at 12 p.m. ET on Facebook, YouTube, NativeNewsOnline.net, and TikTok.
