Oldal 283 [283]
JAY TREATY: INDIGENOUS RIGHTS OF FREE CROSS-BORDER PASSAGE...
methods differed in each country. The major difference lay in the schools’
administration. Whereas most of the US boarding schools were largely secular
and run only or primarily by the state, the residential schools in Canada were
chiefly operated by the Church until the 1950s when First Nation leaders
finally succeeded in diminishing the church’s control. Without downplaying
the horrendous practices and intergenerational impacts the government¬
operated US boarding schools had on their Indigenous attendees, Marker
contends that Canadian church-run residential schools “were more brutal
tools of empire than the secular boarding schools because they tended to be
more militant about categorizations of Indigenous identity and inferiority.”°’
Moreover, residential schools in Canada lasted considerably longer than in
the US. In the 1970s, when Coast Salish children in British Columbia were
still experiencing physical, sexual, and cultural abuse in residential schools,
their relatives in Washington were reclaiming the boarding schools and
reappropriating them as tools for cultural renewal.°®
In the 1960s, Coast Salish children in Washington were integrated into public
schools, where they experienced harsh institutional racism, and which was
invigorated by continuing hostilities between white and Indigenous fishermen
over treaty rights. The return to Indian-only boarding schools in the 1970s was
thus an initiative that came directly from Indigenous communities. This time,
however, government-run boarding schools were seen as a “possible safe haven,”
free of oppression and blatant racism where Indigenous culture could thrive.
Hence, the history diverges for Coast Salish people on each side of the border
by a whole generation. Bands in Canada were subject to forced assimilation for
almost 20 more years than their US counterparts who initiated their cultural
revitalization efforts considerably sooner. Cross-border cultural gatherings and
co-operation is thus vital for Coast Salish whose ties were cut for many years and
where the border is the reason “Coast Salish communities in British Columbia
tell different kinds of stories than their relatives on the Washington State side
of the border.”** Current intensified cross-border cultural revitalization efforts
help to mitigate this gap and restore the shared Coast Salish identity.
Organized events include festivals, healing ceremonies, economic activities,
pow-wows, potlaches, naming ceremonies, religious ceremonies, canoe
journeys, and so forth. Notably, the Lummi Nation organized a week-long
event called “Paddle-to-Lummi” in 2007 that was also the first held potlatch
since 1937. Hundreds of people arrived in 73 canoes, some of whom had
paddled for hundreds of miles. Many others traveled by land and the total
number of participants reached 12000. Despite this seemingly high number of
attendees, many Coast Salish peoples were still unable to participate due to the
57 Ibid., 768.
58 Ibid., 766.
59 Ibid., 767.
* 281 °