Screening of "Home from School: The Children of Carlisle" featuring Jordan Dresser

To move forward they must heal the past.

In 2017 a delegation of Northern Arapaho tribal members traveled from Wyoming to Pennsylvania to retrieve remains of three children who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the 1880s. It’s a journey into the troubled history of Native American boarding schools and a quest to heal generational wounds.

Northern Arapaho Chairman Jordan Dresser will join us for this special screening. He is Associate Producer on this film and a Guest Curator of the Boulder Experience exhibit.

"Kill the Indian in him, and save the man" was the founding principle of the U.S. government-run Indian boarding school program starting in the late 19th Century. The program removed tens of thousands of Native American children from their tribal homelands, and through brutal assimilation tactics, stripped them of their languages, traditions and culture. The students were forced through a military-style, remedial education. Most children returned emotionally scarred, culturally unrooted with trauma that has echoed down the generations. Many students never returned home, having died at the schools. Home From School: The Children of Carlisle dives into history of the flagship federal boarding school, Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and follows the modern day journey of the Northern Arapaho tribe as they seek to bring home the remains of three children who died at Carlisle over 100 years ago.