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Like many Native Americans, the family of the Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs has personal experience with the traumatic legacy of Native American boarding schools. 

Bear is a parish associate at Church of All Nations Presbyterian Church in Columbia Heights, Minn., and a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation, a Native American tribe in central Wisconsin. His great grandfather was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. 

“The stated goal of the Carlisle Indian School was to kill the Indian and save the child,” Bear said in an interview Tuesday with MPR host Tom Crann. Bear’s grandmother also was sent to a boarding school at age five.

“Connection to culture was greatly damaged and greatly harmed. And returning to a family after such a traumatic experience — it really does damage to the family dynamics,” he said.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has announced her department will investigate known and potential burial sites near former Native American boarding schools in the United States. Here in Minnesota, there were 16 of these schools. They were part of a federal effort to eradicate Native traditions and beliefs, and they operated from the 19th Century through the middle of the 20th Century. But as our guest, Christine Diindiisi McCleave, knows well, the trauma connected to these schools is still very alive today. She is chief executive officer of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition based in Minneapolis.

Minnesota group calls for commission to research Indigenous boarding schools

announced the United States will investigate boarding schools in the U.S.

, after the remains of hundreds of children were found at former boarding schools in Canada. While some schools were run by government agencies, many were founded and run by Christian churches.

Bear wants to see church members today grapple with the damage caused by their institutions and embark on restorative justice efforts such as the 

 project launched in 2020 by the Minnesota Council of Churches where Bear is director of racial justice. 

“I believe that every predominantly white church needs to devote a significant amount of their annual budget to American Indian language and cultural reclamation projects,” Bear said. He also urges churches to explore ways to return land to Native tribes or Indigenous organizations. 

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

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Should churches make reparations for the traumatic legacy of Native American boarding schools? Tom Crann speaks to the Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs about how they can respond. 

MPR News - Host Tom Crann speaks to the Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs about how churches should respond to the traumatic legacy of Native American boarding schools.  


Atonement and reparations for Native American boarding schools

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