Wednesday, November 20, 2024 – Remembering those who stood up to boarding schools

A Navajo family tells the story in Bad Indian: Hiding in Antelope Canyon, a new film about their relative Tadidinii, who was killed while refusing to return his daughter back to the boarding school from which she ran away. The men who killed him were acquitted. The family also gives tours of the part of Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation where Tadidinii hid out. Another Yerington Paiute boy repeatedly ran away and traveled the 50 miles back home until the boarding school administrators gave up. These are among the stories that descendants are uncovering about the dangers their relatives endured to resist forced attendance in boarding schools from the 1860s to the 1970s. We’ll hear some of the stories of danger, desperation, and courage.