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.
Dawnland is an Emmy-award-winning documentary film about this endemic practice, which continued well into the 1970s. Specifically, Dawnland follows the first government-sanctioned truth and reconciliation commission in the United States created to address this torrid history. This historic commission involved two years of investigations as Native American families bravely gathered to bear witness to the devastating impact that this practice had on their lives and on their communities. The commission involved the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot tribes that make up the Wabanaki people in what is known to most in the U.S. as the state of Maine.
The film brings to light harrowing stories and pain previously hidden. It features never-before-seen footage of testimonials and truth-telling ceremonies as well as community meetings.
Significantly, it lays bare the struggle that many progressive white individuals have with such processes, namely with the fact that, in certain cases, those outsiders are not welcome. It makes it clear that central to effective truth and reconciliation is not the absolution of white individuals in these communities, but rather the honoring of Native American voices and the ability for communities to respect the need for communities to come together in spaces absent of whiteness.
The documentary also powerfully connects the first act of white colonizers, the taking of land, to its legacy act, the taking of children which was a practice that continued for hundreds of years after the initial land thefts the Wabanaki endured.
Consider this documentary for your classroom syllabus on Indigenous Peoples' Day. Educators can also download a free 12-lesson guide to accompany the film and/or a viewer study guide at https://dawnland.org/teachers-guide/. While the film focuses on cultural survival and the specific stories of the children and families affected by centuries of state-sanctioned family separation and forced assimilation, the guide offers significant context and rich background for educators seeking to use this film as they offer students a deep and rich understanding of the history of Native Americans in the U.S., specifically those of Turtle Island and the Algonquin country while also recognizing the significance of European colonization and genocide in the Caribbean as well as the Americas with a deeper understanding of the need for authentic education regarding Native Americans.
"The guide is based on the following assumptions: many students in what is currently the United States, especially those who did not grow up with a connection to tribal nations, learn about Indigenous peoples briefly in the early grades, and then not again until high school if that. They also “learn” from films, sports events, cartoons, and the like. In many cases what students learn reinforces tired and destructive stereotypes, such as this one reported by a teacher in New York in 2016 at an Upstander Project workshop: “Native Americans: are they even real people?” The erasure of Native peoples from the dominant narrative is a key pillar of settler colonialism and has been ongoing for hundreds of years. It contributes to a mainstream belief that Native peoples belong only to the past, especially in New England, home to hundreds of Algonquian-speaking tribal nations. This guide aims to help readers locate their place in this history, which is why the lessons begin with historical context for enhanced understanding."
This text from the introduction to the guide speaks to the value and importance of the film and corresponding educational materials provided by the Upstander Project.
To this day, stereotypes of Native Americans persist, and, depending on where students live, they may only view Native Americans as people of the past, not as people contributing richly to the Americas today.
In Albuquerque, the richness of Native American culture and the presence of Native Americans as an integral part of our living and breathing community is all around me as are the reminders, behind the orange mesh fence and elsewhere, of the darkness of my city's past, darkness that mirrors that of the entire nation. We must no longer look away from this history, from this darkness, from the brutality of our past. We must face it. Learn about it. Teach others about it so that we can move forward with a clear understanding of history and a firm commitment to not repeat the past.