Andrew Windy Boy (Chippewa/Cree) on surviving the abuses at a North American white Roman Catholic Boarding School for First Nation children

Carlisle Indian Industrial School, run by

emotionally and physically abusive

cultural and spiritual genocidalists, 1885 ECD

[image is from here]

This is a very painful story told by Andrew Windy Boy (Chippewa/Cree) about being humiliated and culturally assaulted. The image above and the video interview below are both speak about the genocide that happened at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in North America. More information about the film this interview is from, follows the video.

The mass murder of human beings is just one method of committing genocide. Oppressors taking away a people's religion and their language are two other ways to achieve the same goal.

June 16, 2008
Rich-Heape Films Releases New Documentary
“Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School”

June 1 2008, Rich-Heape Films released its long awaited documentary titled "Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School". On June 10, 2008, the government of Canada formally apologized to the World, in a solemn parliament session for its treatment of Indians in the last century. Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper apologized for previous governments' policies of taking Indian children from their parents and homes and forcing them into residential Roman Catholic schools.

Now, in this [2008] documentary, learn why this formal apology had to be made.

UPC# 652648680436

Dallas — Street Date June 10, 2008 —Native American owned Rich-Heape Films announces the release of “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School,” a documentary that examines an educational system that was designed to destroy Indian culture and tribal unity. When it began in 1879, the philosophy of the Indian boarding school system was “to kill the Indian and save the man,” the mission statement of Captain Richard Henry Pratt, founder and superintendent of Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania until 1904.

Jim Thorpe (Sauk and Fox), the iconic hero survived the boarding school system. Grace Thorpe (Sauk and Fox), his daughter, in her last interview before she passed away on April 4, 2008, discusses boarding school experiences in the new documentary.

The battle against and the victory over the boarding school monster is told by educators, former and current students who were interviewed at Carlisle; Sherman Indian School, Riverside, Calif.; Sequoyah High School, Tahlequah, Okla.; Anchorage, Alaska; and other locations.

One of the most compelling is an interview with Andrew Windy Boy (Chippewa/Cree), from which the title is taken. Windy Boy, who attended boarding schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s, talks about the assault on his culture.

“[They] took me to the boarding school where I wasn’t allowed to talk my native tongue or practice my native ways.

“I didn’t know any other language so whenever I’d talk, it would come out. Cree would come out. And whenever I’d talk, I’d get hit.

“We met Andrew Windy Boy in 2002 while on the Summit Lake Paiute Reservation in northern Nevada. Andrew’s oral history of his boarding school experience was the inspiration for this film,” says Steven R. Heape, Cherokee Nation Citizen and executive producer of Rich-Heape Films. “Andrew’s story is not one you will find or hear in the public school system. He and other survivors of the boarding school system truly have my respect for what was endured just for being an Indian child. This is a story that must be told and not forgotten,” Heape said.

In addition to Grace Thorpe, participants include Henrietta Mann (Southern Cheyenne), Ph.D., endowed chair in Native American Studies at Montana State University – Bozeman, and Daniel R. Wildcat (Yuchi of the Muscogee Nation), Ph.D., co-director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center and member of the faculty of American Indians Studies.

Gayle Ross, renowned Cherokee storyteller and Great Granddaughter of Chief John Ross, is host and narrator of the film.

August Schellenberg narrated the opening introduction statement.

Screenwriter of the film is Dan Agent (Cherokee/Choctaw), former editor of the Cherokee Phoenix from November 1999 through 2006, original story by Karl Tipre.

“Our Spirits Don’t Speak English; Indian Boarding Schools” is the latest addition to the Native-owned film company’s portfolio of award winning films, that includes “Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy,” released in 2006 and chosen “Best Documentary Feature” at the 31st Annual American Indian Film Festival.

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