undErToLd

In this episode, Extending the Link discusses important steps to decolonize our campus and community with CSB senior Maija Eickhoff and SJU senior Daniel Bachmeier. We also spoke with Jaime Arsenault, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and Repatriation Representative for the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, to discuss what reconciliation looks like between CSBSJU and Native Nations.

On April 14, 2021, ETL collaborated with the Indigenous Student Association (ISA) to hold an on-campus panel partnership event, “Amplifying Native Student Voices & Stories.” This panel was an intentional space for sharing and listening to Native students’ stories and experiences at CSBSJU. With over 200 people in attendance, ISA members called for urgent communal and institutional action.

In this episode, Extending the Link speaks with various community members about the history of the Native American boarding schools that operated on our campuses. Both the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University occupy the original homeland of the Dakhóta and Anishinaabe peoples. We honor, respect, and acknowledge the Indigenous peoples forcibly removed from this territory, whose connection remains today. St. Benedict’s Monastery and St. John’s Abbey previously operated boarding schools for Native children. Now, students, faculty, and staff are working to repair relationships with our Native Nation neighbors.

In this episode, Extending the Link discusses the history of Native American boarding schools in the national context with anthropologist Dr. Ted Gordon, undergraduate student Moses Wiseman, and Vance Blackfox, the Director of Communications for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. This is the first episode of a four-part series on decolonizing the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.