Spokane Public Library: Statement Of Support For Indigenous Communities Grieving Discovery At Residential Schools In Canada

Spokane WA

18 June, 2021

11:35 AM

Description

Press release from Spokane Public Library: June 17, 2021 The discovery of the 215 Indigenous children buried at the Kamloops Residential School and the 104 found at the Brandon Residential School are a tragic reality of colonization. Spokane Public Library would like to acknowledge the pain and loss these tribal communities are experiencing. There are no words that could possibly soothe the wounds that this discovery and the impacts of residential schools and other colonial policies has had on the First people of the Americas. While this discovery occurred in Canada, we want to acknowledge that the United States also had similar policies and impacts on Indigenous communities here in the United States called boarding schools. We know there were 357 similar boarding schools in the United States, 14 of which were in Washington State. Additionally, many tribal members in the Spokane region have personal connections to the Kamloops Residential School. We know that words are not enough but we also know that we must make visible the impacts of how colonial violence has caused so much damage to our Indigenous community members. We encourage our customers to check out this list of books to learn more about how the boarding school system was used as a form of genocide: Youth Adult Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Branch Info → Press "OK" to close this dialog and continue. You can try again or press "Cancel" to close this dialog.   This press release was produced by Spokane Public Library. The views expressed here are the author's own.