Program

Reckoning & Repair: An Update from the Episcopal Boarding School Commission

This event took place on Wednesday, September 24.

Reckoning and Repair: An Update from the Episcopal Boarding School Commission was a vital conversation on The Episcopal Church’s work to confront its complicity in the Native American boarding school system. This webinar shares updates on archival investigations, oral histories, and the development of educational, pastoral, and liturgical resources. Building on the church’s commitment to truth-telling and reconciliation, the session invites clergy, lay leaders, and community members into deeper awareness of this painful legacy and the urgent task of repair.

In order to have the necessary context for this conversaion, you are encouraged to watch the documentary SUGARCANE. EDS screened this film on September 18 and it's available on Disney+ and hulu.

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This event has now passed. You can watch the recording below.

Expert Panelists:

The Rt. Rev. Mark Andrew Lattime

Bishop Lattime was consecrated the 8th Bishop Diocesan of Alaska September 4, 2010. His ministry and ecclesiastical oversight are among 48 Episcopal communities across the entire state of Alaska, including the Gwich’in villages of Forts Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Beaver, Venetie, Circle, Eagle, and Arctic Village. In addition to his diocesan ministry, he serves on the Task Force on Creation Care and Environmental Racism of The Episcopal Church. Bishop Lattime was also a representative on both the 2015 and 2018 Episcopal Church General Convention Legislative Committee on Environmental Stewardship and Care of Creation.

Miskopwaaganikwe – Leora Tadgerson

Leora is a proud citizen of Gnoozhikaaning, Bay Mills. She serves as Director of Reparations and Justice with the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. Leora’s role is focusing on truth telling, racial equity through restorative justice action, reconciliation research from the Native American boarding school era, and place-based community work and bridge building as a tribal liaison. Her research involves the Michigan-based Indian boarding school experience and the Episcopal run schools, where she serves as Chair for the MW062, Executive Council Committee for Indigenous Boarding Schools and Advocacy. Through Leora’s research, she hopes to aid in the healing of Native hearts.

Rachel Overstreet

Rachel Overstreet (Choctaw Nation) is FCNL’s legislative representative for Native American Advocacy. She advocates for policies that honor tribal sovereignty, help Native communities succeed, and repair relationships between faith communities, the government, and Native people. Rachel’s primary legislative focus is advocating for legislation that supports the goals of Truth and Healing. Before joining FCNL full-time in 2024, Rachel was a 2022-2023 Advocacy Corps Organizer, working to pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. She interned in the South Dakota State Senate, working to create effective partnerships between tribal governments and the state. During her time at the University of South Dakota, she served for two years as the President of Tiospaye Student Council and helped organize the largest diverse student-led event in the state, the USD Wacipi.

Dr. Veronica Pasfield

Dr. Veronica Pasfield is a citizen of Michigan's Bay Mills Indian Community. Dr. Pasfield's research centers the connections between war, resource extraction, and Federal Indian educational policy. Dr. Pasfield's great-grandfathers negotiated treaties that successfully averted Removal to faraway lands, but this was achieved via enormous cessions of land and valuable natural resources. Indian schools with qualified staff and modern provisions were one form of payment for these cessions in Michigan treaties. Dr. Pasfield's research focuses on the failure, fraud, and fight found in Indian boarding school histories. As the granddaughter of treaty signators, Dr. Pasfield insists that Tribes, tribal governments, and tribal sovereignty be centered in contemporary boarding school reckonings. Only government-to-government dealings can fulfill the treaty and trust obligations of the U.S. Department of the Interior to Tribal Nations. Dr. Pasfield earned a PhD in American Studies from the University of Michigan and serves as a repatriation officer for her Tribe. She graduated from the Anishinaabemowin Language Instructor’s Institute at Bay Mills Community College and uses language teachings to privilege Anishinaabe worldviews in her work.

The Rev. Dr. Paul Reynolds

The Rev. Dr. Paul Reynolds has whakapapa to the tribes of Nga Puhi, Ngati Tuwharetoa and Whanganui. Up until the end of 2023, he was a Kaiako/Lecturer at St. John’s Theological College in Auckland and was also Research Fellow/Director of Te Piri Poho, the 3-Tikanga Research Centre of St. John’s Theological College. He is currently a Director of the Kingi Ihaka Research Centre, Teaching Fellow at Trinity Methodist Theological College, Co-Editor of the Anglican Journal of Theology in Aotearoa and Oceania, and a member of the A127 Commission. He is a Kaupapa Māori Health researcher, an ordained priest in Te Haahi Mihinare (Anglican Church), a fledgling Indigenous theologian, and a son, moko, father and uncle.

Helpful Note:

MW062 is an Executive Council Resolution of The Episcopal Church that established a committee to focus on advocacy and support for Indigenous boarding schools in the wake of a comprehensive truth and reconciliation effort. Passed in 2022, the resolution calls for the church to work with Indigenous communities and leaders to understand and address the trauma resulting from its role in the residential boarding school system. It complements General Convention Resolution A127, which created a parallel fact-finding commission to investigate the church's historical involvement.

Resources:

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