Teaching Indigenous Peoples' Day with the Documentary Dawnland

“About a year ago, a mesh orange fence showed up in a section of a park my family frequents. A tree near the mesh fencing was adorned with stuffed animals at its base; signs offered the explanation. The mesh fence was there to demarcate sacred land. This end of the park was a burial site of children who once attended an expansive Indian school in this part of Albuquerque. The school sprawled across acres. A street crossing through the area still reflects this past: Indian School Road.

The city is involved in an extensive process to determine what will be done on this land; how the city will commemorate the lives lost there, but the more complicated reality for our community and for many others across North America is how to navigate an ugly past in which Native American and First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families to be raised in boarding schools or in white families. In both cases, being forcefully separated from their families, heritage, language, and traditions.”

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