Chilocco memorial walk teaches valuable lesson about the past and sparks hope for the future

The wind is integral to the Kaw Nation’s history and cultural identity. Their name even stems from it- Ak’a Níkashiⁿga, “People of the South Wind”. 

In the Kaw’s language, Kaáⁿze Íe, “Tajé Sage” is translated to “strong wind”, a title adopted by the Kaw Nation’s Language Department’s youth team.

This wind was especially symbolic on a cold Saturday morning, as the sharp October gales cut through the open gates of the Chilocco Boarding School, scattering leaves across a campus of collapsing buildings, broken glass, and rusted metal, all decaying almost 100 years after the institute was founded and 44 years after it ceased operations.

The Chilocco boarding school, one of nearly 500 across the U.S. and Canada, was a way for the U.S. Government to “civilize” the Indigenous population leaving cultural scars that are still healing to this day.

Close to a hundred people stood at the bridge leading into Chilocco’s campus on October 26 as part of a cultural exercise by the Kaw Nation’s Language Department where Director Desiree Storm Brave addressed the crowd, weaving her speech with Kaw language and English.

“This is not a haunted house walk,” said Brave.

 “This walk is to honor and respect our native people who went through this. Generations that have experienced this trauma, because this isn’t something that goes away…but eventually, like these children, it’s something that can be healed.” 

Tajé Sage is also the name of the children of the Kaw Nation’s Youth Language Team who, like the wind which their name hails from, carried their culture with them into the campus that day.

“These children will lead the way on this walk,” Brave continued, “strong wind represents their youth and their strength”. 

The youth group led the way into Chilocco with small cradle boards upon their backs with baby dolls fastened to them, a cultural practice that Native Americans used to transport their babies. 

In this case, it signified the future of the Kaw people. 

“This is the next generation that will be speaking our language. This next generation that will never have to endure what our people have endured.” 

“We’ve done a lot of projects in class,” said Brave addressing the guests at the Chilocco Walk. 

“One that had the most profound impact on them was when I had them write their ‘identity’ on a piece of paper that had their name, their tribal name, their family’s names. Their respective tribes and their arrival date. As we went through class I explained everything about Chilocco’s traumatic legacy funded by the U.S. Government.”

Brave continued:

“They learned about all of that. I tore up those papers with their identities on them- I told them facts about these boarding schools. Then we pieced those pages back together. I showed them that is what our native people are doing today: piecing back together the identity taken from us.”

Speaking with the Journal-Tribune following the Chilocco Walk, Brave explained how the event came to be held and how it factored into the Kaw’s curriculum: 

“Chilocco was one of many boarding schools the Kaáⁿze youth language team, Tajé Sage researched,” said Brave. 

“I knew by the end of our studies I wanted my students to lay their eyes on one of these historical sites where I ancestors endured the boarding school experience. Chilocco was doable and there is still an alumni presence in this area so we decided to invite the public in hopes we would have interest and could reconcile together.” 

“I am a firm believer that not all true American history is taught in school, and you cannot learn from your history unless you teach it,” Brave stressed. 

“A lot of the American history I was taught in school had nothing to do with my own people’s history. When you start to think about the Boston Tea Party as a Native American you must know that your grandfathers/ancestors were not involved. We were doing something completely different. We were either thriving or preparing to fight for our existence.”

Brave then addressed the thrill-seekers who seem to only be interested in Chilocco as a “haunted house” versus a place of reverence.

“Once our flyer was shared 300 times on Facebook, I knew we would have participants with other intentions- that’s just a given,” Brave explained. 

“I wanted to speak and express the purpose we had all gathered just so those participants would be more respectful of our history. If you think about the “spirits/ghosts” they wanted to find it is offensive.” 

One quick Google search would tell you that Chilocco has long been fodder for online “ghost hunting” websites and channels, leaning into the abandoned nature of the campus and the school’s black-marked history.

“These were children ages four to twenty-five that endured this 150-year traumatic legacy. Chilocco wasn’t the only federally funded/operated boarding school, there were 417 institutions across 37 states. Am I saying they are not “haunted”? Did your school have a cemetery? Did any of your relatives attend a school and never come home? Chilocco has a cemetery, and I purposely detoured our participants away from that area out of respect,” said Brave.

“There is a monument in the cemetery that stands about eight feet tall in memory of the children that did not make it home,” Brave continued. 

“The monument was sculpted by Ponca artist, Mr. Dan Jones. While he was in the process of constructing the monument he visited my Kaáⁿze immersion class here in Kaw City. His daughter attended my classes a long with other “before school age” children and he came to my class and got molds of their little hands and bare feet to add to his art for the monument.”

“That experience still pulls on my heart although the little children I was teaching had no idea what their hands and feet were being used for, I did. In a way I believe that’s what has kept my interest in studying and piecing back our Kaáⁿze identity.”

“For all the children that didn’t make it home, the survivors, and for the new generations they endured the process of assimilation. They will never be forgotten, and we should honor them every day by speaking our native languages, practicing our culture, strengthening our sovereignty, and being Native People. We are still here,” Brave proclaimed.

In preparation for the walk, Brave said that her class studied the Carslile Indian Industrial School, Shawnee Methodist Manual Labor School, Pawnee Indian Industrial School, Haskell Indian Industrial Training School, and of course, Chilocco. 

“By the end of the demonstration, two of our students wept. We assured them that they would never have to endure what our ancestors had gone through,” said Brave.

When asked what she hoped that guests took away from the walk, Brave said that she hoped people would be not only educated, but understanding.

“I hope all that attended left being more educated about boarding schools and the affects they still have on our native people,” she said. 

“Generational trauma is something we carry with us and unfortunately pass to our younger generations. I hope the walk impacted them and touched their hearts. Tajé Sage worked very hard on this event to raise awareness regarding boarding schools, boarding school survivors, and younger generations that will be responsible for educating and not letting our history be forgotten.”

Brave has studied the Kaw language since she was six years old, carrying the tribe’s linguistic legacy on her shoulders in the name of her grandmother Maude Rowe, the last fluent Kaáⁿze Íe speaker who preserved the language through extensive audio recrodings and dictionaries in the 1970s. 

“Everything my grandmother left is still being used today- this is my legacy and responsibility,” said Brave proudly.

But she doesn’t do it alone. Brave attributes the continual work being done with the language as well as teaching it to future generations to Curriculum Specialist Susy Smith as well as Blackwell High School graduate Samantha Smith, a Kaw Tapóska or teacher who instructs community classes and teaches at Newkirk Elementary. 

“We are very grateful for Samantha’s courage in stepping up to this position,” said Brave.

Another key contributor to the enduring legacy of the Kaw Nation is Deric Estes, Sous Chef and Language Assistant. 

The Kaw Language Department hosts community language classes where, for example, their youngest student is 6 weeks old and their oldest is 83. 

“We proudly exercise our culture, language, and grow our sovereignty through language,” Brave said. 

“Tajé Sage hosts one of the largest Youth Powwows in this area the third Saturday in May each year. Tajé Sage also competes annually at the Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair in Norman Oklahoma at the Sam Noble Museum the first Monday and Tuesday of April.”

This walk of remembrance came just one day after President Joe Biden addressed tribal leaders in Arizona days before the start of November which is recognized as Native American Heritage Month. 

“The event coincided with Native American Heritage Month, but we also recognized September 30 which is a day to hinor and remember the Native people who attended boarding schools within the 150 years they were funded by the U.S. Government,” Brave said.

Biden formally apologized for the forced removal of Native Americans, pushing them west. 

“I formally apologize, as President of the United States, for what we did. I formally apologize, and it’s long overdue,” President Biden said.

Tribal leaders from the Osage, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations accepted the gesture. 

“This was a long overdue apology that came from the efforts of the first-ever Native American Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland,” said Brave.

Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Intiative in 2021, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of these institutes.

As of Jan. 1, 2024, the Department of the Interior has identified 451 Federal Indian Boarding Schools that operated prior to 1969, 87 of which were located in Oklahoma. The Department of the Interior has also found that at least 973 students died at Federal Indian Boarding Schools.

In 2022, Chilocco alumni along with several tribes across the nation gathered in Chilocco for the unveiling of a memorial at the cemetery which had recently been beautified to honor the deceased.

According to the records preserved by the Chilocco Alumni Association, members from the Arapaho, Cherokee, Eastern Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chickasaw, Chippewa, Choctaw, Cree, Creek, Delaware, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Navajo, Otoe, Ottawa, Pawnee, Prima, Ponca, Potawatomi, Pueblo, Quapaw, Sac & Fox, Shawnee, Seneca, Sioux, Winnebago, and Wichita tribes are all buried at Chilocco.

Chilocco Indian School was the product of U.S. Army officer Richard H. Pratt, and was opened in 1884 as an agricultural school for Native Americans.

At one point, Chilocco had almost 30 different vocational training programs across the expansive campus. It also had its own post office, bakery, food sources, electrical generation, agricultural resources, flour mill, dairy supply, clinic and National Guard outpost.

Chilocco’s enrollment peaked between the 1950s and 1960s, with numbers above 1,200. Boys and girls from more than 120 tribes across the United States attended the school.

Upon its closure in 1980, Chilocco became the property of the Kaw, Otoe, Ponca, Pawnee, and Tonkawa tribes in a joint agreement.