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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

Previous Lectures

This annual lecture is made possible due to the generous contributions from Anne M. Hubbard, M.D. and the Claire M. Hubbard Foundation.