STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Don’t back down
In the winter, we had to walk for miles and cross on the ice. I wouldn’t go to school in the spring when the ice wasn’t safe or in the fall when the ice was coming in. Just when I could row the boat or walk on the ice.
My grandmother Elizabeth
We had a hard time continuing in education because the church was in control of the education here, the nuns. They had these special nuns from Boston. Sisters of St. Anne they call them. And they were experts at what they call proselytizing – how to change who you are.
Abusive indian day school
I went to Indian day school, and we had non-Native teachers that were very abusive towards us. You know, calling us mostly “sauvage,” or “f’in Indians,” different stuff like that, getting smacked and getting hit and saying “you’re stupid” or “you’re a dirty savage,” everything.