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Defining the Worth of an Apology: Presbyterian Church Statement at Afn Can Help Past Wounds Heal

News-Miners
October 26, 2016

http://www.newsminer.com/opinion/editorials/defining-the-worth-of-an-apology-presbyterian-church-statement-at/article_a83172e6-9b35-11e6-8ab9-cfb485d79cb1.html

News-Miner opinion: On the closing day of the Alaska Federation of Natives’ 50th annual convention, one statement made waves across the state. The general assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A., prompted by its Alaska members, extended an apology to AFN and its members for abuses of Alaska Natives in church schools and boarding schools its members ran or participated in. The abuses of Alaska boarding schools are well established but poorly documented, and by offering an apology, the Presbyterian Church has taken a step to bridge divides of resentment and suspicion.

When Alaska became a territory in 1867, no formal system of education existed in villages across the state — what schools there were had been established outside of any organized effort, and were focused mostly on religious education. The federal Organic Act of 1884 marked the first real effort to institute a school system in the territory; it established a system of government-run “day schools” and a smaller number of centralized boarding schools across Alaska. Some schools were run directly by the government, while many were run as contract schools by missionaries from the Catholic, Congregational, Episcopal, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Swedish-Evangelical faiths.

Institutional attitudes toward Alaska Natives in the 1800s and well into the 1900s took a dim view of their traditional culture and language. “They are savages, and with the exception of those in Southern Alaska, have not had civilizing, educational, or religious advantages,” Presbyterian missionary and Alaska school administrator Sheldon Jackson said in an address to Congress. “(Missionaries) must try to educate them out of and away from the training of their home-life. They need to be taught both the law of God and the law of the land,” Jackson said in the same address.

Jackson’s statements were emblematic of boarding school culture. Generations of Alaska Native children were taught at schools, often far from their homes and families, where they were often punished harshly for speaking or writing their own language. In the worst cases, instances of physical and even sexual abuse of students were widespread. The boarding school system persisted in some form until the 1970s, and though the quality of education had improved over the decades, boarding school students from the 1960s interviewed in 2005 by the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute for Social and Economic Research still recounted stories of abuse. Sixty percent of those students said they wouldn’t send their children to a boarding school.

There are Alaskans who feel the Presbyterian Church’s apology was unnecessary. They ask why the present-day incarnation of the church must answer for the abuses of the relatively distant past, as few who experienced mistreatment in church-run boarding schools are still alive to accept that apology. How far back, they ask, must we reach in seeking to atone for past wrongs rather than treating them simply as water long passed under the bridge?

In another camp, there are Alaskans who feel a simple apology from the church is far from enough. They seek truth and reconciliation councils similar to those that have occurred in Canada under similar circumstances, with concrete steps taken and policy made that attempts to make remedy to current generations for events their forebears suffered. For them, words alone seem insignificant.

It’s true that words can’t make a wrong committed in the past cease to exist. And the question of where we draw the line between making amends for past wrongs and consigning them to history will remain a subject of debate well into the future. But the Presbyterian Church’s decision to apologize is meaningful to many Alaskans, particularly those whose parents and grandparents were educated at schools operated by the church. For evidence that church action on confronting the ills of the boarding school system can be meaningful, one need look no further than the Episcopal Diocese, which for decades has held events known as Healing Convocations in villages and successfully regained the trust of many members of the Native community through inclusive practices.

Words may not erase a wrong, but they can soothe a conscience and put a grudge to rest. With its apology to AFN and its members, the Presbyterian Church has moved in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

 




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