Hubbard Lecture
Hubbard Lecture
Uncovering the Hidden History of Genoa Indian School
Hosted At the Center for Great Plains Studies on Thursday, November 11, 2021
In this presentation, team members from the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project and community members shared the lasting impact of the school, new research, and deep insights into the personal stories of those who attended.
The Genoa U.S. Indian Industrial School in Genoa, Neb., was one of more than 300 Indian boarding schools established by the government and churches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1900, nearly 21,000 Indian children, or about 78 percent of all Indian children who attended school, were living apart from their families at one of these boarding schools. In many cases, officials forced children to attend the schools against the wishes of their families and tribes. To assimilate Indian children and break their ties to their families, tribes, and homelands, most teachers and administrators forbid students from speaking their native languages and required Christian conversion.
The panel explored the history and speak to modern-day reconciliation efforts throughout North America. Panelists included:
- Judi gaiashkibos (Ponca), Executive Director, Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs
- Margaret Jacobs, Project Co-Director
- Susana D. Grajales Geliga (Lakota and Taino), Project Co-Director
- Elizabeth Lorang, Project Co-Director
- Dr. Rudi Mitchell, (Omaha Indian Nation of Nebraska and Iowa), professor emeritus, Native American Studies, Creighton University
This presentation was part of the Center for Great Plains Studies' Paul A. Olson Great Plains lecture series and the University of Nebraska State Museum's Claire M. Hubbard First Peoples of the Plains annual lecture.
Children in the Meadows and Wetlands
Poem by suzan shown harjo
There are children in the meadows and wetlands
Native children ran there to hide
When teachers pulled and butchered their hair
When teachers stole their medicine bags
When teachers collected their moccasins
When teachers dressed them in strange clothes
When teachers beat them with boards and belts
When teachers starved them for being bad Indians
The children ran to the meadows and wetlands
There are children in the meadows and wetlands
Hostages who were taken to Haskell
Who never saw their families again
Who never saw nine or eleven or tomorrow
Who didn’t make it home for summer vacations
Who couldn’t stop whooping and coughing
Who couldn’t learn English fast enough
Who wouldn’t fall to their knees often enough
They ran ‘til they fell in the meadows and wetlands
There are children in the meadows and wetlands
Hostages who were taken to Chilocco
Where they ran from teachers’ fists and boots
Where they ran from bounty-hunters’ cages
Where they ran from high collars and hard shoes
Where they ran from lye soap in their mouths
Where they ran from day and night
Where they ran until wolves outran them
Their teeth are in the meadows and wetlands
There are children in the meadows and wetlands
Hostages who were taken to Carlisle
Who got to build the school buildings
Who got Christian burials without coffins
Who got a mass grave with their friends
Who got plowed under for a football field
Who got embedded in concrete for the stadium
Who got to be the practice site for the Washington Redskins
Because they ran to the meadows and wetlands
There are children in the meadows and wetlands
Native children ran there to hide
You can see their clothes in museums
You can see their pipe bags at the opera
You can see bands marching on their hallowed ground
You can see mascots dancing over their dead bodies
You can imagine their hair long and beautiful again
Safe from teachers and scissors at last
These children in the meadows and wetlands
This annual lecture is made possible due to the generous contributions from Anne M. Hubbard, M.D. and the Claire M. Hubbard Foundation.
