Epistle to Friends in the U.S. and Canada from QIBS

The Quakers and 'Indian Boarding Schools' Research Network (QIBS) has issued an Epistle to Friends in the U.S. and Canada. Please read and share this Epistle with your monthly and yearly meetings. Here are some excerpts:

We believe that for Friends to build positive relationships with Native communities today, we need to examine our shared history with open minds and hearts. QIBS members apply rigorous research standards to this task. We also listen lovingly to the testimonies of both Native people and Friends as they speak to us through historical documents and through our interactions today. 

We hear cries of grief and anger from Native communities whose young people were taken away and taught to reject their entire way of life – their languages, cultures, and spiritual practices. We hear the earnest desire of our Quaker forebears to offer the perceived benefits of the European-American Christian way of life to Native people by means of assimilation. We hear from Native people today who express gratitude for these benefits, including those who became Quakers. At the same time, many continue to feel acute pain and grief. We hear Native and human rights organizations define the assimilationist programs of the boarding schools as cultural genocide. And we see how Native communities are working to heal these deep wounds by teaching their languages, revitalizing their cultures, and defending their sovereignty.

Quakers can support Native-led healing processes, and some monthly and yearly meetings are already doing this. We invite you to learn about the efforts of Alaska Friends Conference, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, and New England Yearly Meeting (included in the Resources below). Other meetings are supporting Indigenous language education programs, Land Back projects, and legislation to create a U.S. Truth and Healing Commission. We are encouraged by these Friendly acts of conscience and pray that they will multiply in the coming years.