Native American Heritage Month Opens With Documentary Screening Nov. 4 at UW

As part of National Native American Heritage Month, the documentary “Home From School: The Children of Carlisle” will be screened at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, in the University of Wyoming College of Arts and Sciences auditorium.

The documentary focuses on a band of Northern Arapaho tribal elders and youth who journeyed from the Wind River Indian Reservation to Pennsylvania in 2017 to retrieve the bodies of three children buried at Carlisle Indian Industrial School more than a century ago. Tribal members battled the U.S. Army bureaucracy, white community indifference and their own dark chapter in American history in a triumphant quest to bring the buried boys back and to heal historical wounds, according to the documentary.

UW’s Keepers of the Fire student organization and the Native American Education, Research and Cultural Center (NAERCC) sponsor the documentary’s screening. Members encourage participants to wear orange clothing in solidarity with the children who were “stolen and lost to the boarding schools.”

“We want everyone to remember that it is not just this month we celebrate being Indigenous; we take pride in our rich culture and identity every day,” says Reinette Tendore, NAERCC program director. “It also is a time that we want to educate and share knowledge of who we are and where we come from with the broader UW campus and communities.”

Following the film’s screening, a panel discussion with some of the makers of the documentary will be featured: Sophie Barksdale, the documentary’s co-producer from Lander; Jordan Dresser, the Northern Arapaho Business Council chairman; Yufna Soldier Wolf, the former director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office; and Juwan Willow, a UW history student from Ethete. All are Northern Arapaho tribal members.

After the screening and panel discussion, a reception will be held at the NAERCC, located at 10th Street and Ivinson Avenue.

For more information, email Tendore at reinette@uwyo.edu.