- Details
- By Native News Online Staff
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is honored to announce the 15th stop of its Oral History Project, taking place in Rapid City, South Dakota, from September 21–26, 2025. This event offers a significant opportunity for Indian boarding school survivors from the Midwest and across the United States to share their personal stories and be part of a vital national effort.
The visit to South Dakota represents a powerful moment for boarding school relatives to preserve their lived experiences through professionally recorded video interviews. These oral histories will become part of a permanent collection housed at the Library of Congress, ensuring that survivors’ voices are honored and remembered for generations.
This project is a key component of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative—a historic commitment to truth, recognition, and healing for those impacted by the federal Indian boarding school system.
“As we prepare to come together in South Dakota, I am humbled by the strength and courage of our relatives who choose to share their stories,” said NABS Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Jason Packineau (MHA Nation/Jemez/Laguna). “This work is about more than preserving history, it’s about creating healing spaces where survivors know their voices matter and their experiences will always be honored with compassion and respect.”
Event Details:
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Dates: Sunday, September 21 – Friday, September 26, 2025
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Location: He Sapa Retreat Center, Rapid City, South Dakota
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Who Should Participate: Survivors who attended a federally supported Indian boarding school in the U.S. by 1970
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Registration Information: Visit https://www.tfaforms.com/
5092936 or call 651-650-4445
The remaining states that the oral history project will be visiting in 2025 include New Mexico, and Arizona. To learn more, please visit https://boardingschoolhealing.
To learn more about Indian boarding schools in South Dakota, please visit, http://bit.ly/3VEOkVv.
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