Michigan Indian Boarding School Survivors Speak Out: A Narrative History

The impact of Indian boarding schools has been devastating for generations of Native Americans, and the aftershocks continue to affect their descendants today. Michigan was home to three: in Baraga, Harbor Springs and Mt. Pleasant. The last to close was Holy Childhood School of Jesus, in Harbor Springs, in 1983. Sharon Marie Brunner set out to intensively study the family history and boarding school experience of nine Native American survivors who attended either the Mt. Pleasant or Harbor Springs institutions. Each faced problems linked to the scars of this experience, although their recollections included positive and negative reports. A woman whose mother attended one of these institutions, and a member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Brunner is uniquely positioned to understand the cultural background.

Brunner deftly teases out the themes from in-person interviews transcribed in 2001. Surprising similarities and differences are explored in this highly researched social work treatise. Abuses are documented in the hope that we can prevent such a calamity from ever happening again. Whether or not you have any Native American heritage, this book is crucial to under-standing the lived experience of our fellow human beings and how we can do better. Social workers, educators and those in human services must read this book to develop policies that address the unique challenges and strengths of Native American people.

＂Sharon Brunner provides a thoroughly researched, thoughtfully presented discussion of one of the dark sins of America: Indian Boarding Schools. The interviews with nine Northern Michigan residents, recounting their times in these schools and how the rest of their lives were affected, are deeply moving.＂ -Jon C. Stott, author, Native Americans in Children’s Literature

＂Sharon Brunner is a prolific writer who uses her Native American roots to craft stories that speak of the trauma Indigenous people experienced as a result of being forced to live in Christian boarding schools. Children were taken from their families, their culture and their roots. Brunner’s true stories are written with a passion that flows from deep within her.＂ -Sharon Kennedy, EUP News ＂Sharon Brunner’s Michigan Indian Boarding School Survivors Speak Out is meticulously researched and a recommended read for the serious student of Native American history. The author focuses on the accounts of nine former boarding school residents and the effects their experiences had on their lives and the lives of their descendants. Especially appreciated is the author’s detailed background presentation against which she weaves these personal narratives. Reading this book is helping me as I research my grandfather’s story.＂ -Ann Dallman, freelance journalist and author of the award-winning Cady Whirlwind Thunder mystery series.

＂In Michigan Indian Boarding School Survivors Speak Out, Brunner provides an unprecedented and systematic discussion, with first-person accounts of multifarious abuses to the boys and girls consigned to these institutions. The fact that many were able to resist and overcome this soul-crushing experience is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.＂ -Victor Volkman, Marquette Monthly

＂As an Australian political activist, I have been campaigning for justice for my country’s First Nations people. Therefore, Sharon Brunner’s account of the sufferings of Native Americans in much the same way, during much the same times, spoke to my heart. It is essential for all of us to know about the genocide, disdain, cultural destruction, and discrimination heaped on all the original inhabitants of the lands Europeans stole. The book is based on Sharon’s qualitative research and gives a useful literature survey. I can recommend it to anyone with empathy and a sense of justice.＂ -Robert Rich, PhD