| January 9, 2025 
Homegoings By Elodie Reed,James Stewart
Photo: Beverly Little Thunder
Graphic: Elodie Reed
“They kept talking about healing, they kept using that word ‘heal.’ But I wondered — I thought I knew what it meant, but I don’t think I know what it means. Because how do you heal from something like that?” - Beverly Little Thunder
In this episode, Vermont Public reporter Elodie Reed joins Huntington, Vermont resident and Lakota elder Beverly Little Thunder and her daughter, Lushanya Echeverria, at the movies. Together they watch the documentary Sugarcane, about the horrific history and intergenerational trauma of residential or boarding schools.
This is the latest episode of Homegoings, a podcast that features fearless conversations about race, and YOU are welcome here. Follow the series here.
Homegoings is a show that doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations. We’ve tackled stories of abuse, self-harm, racism and the lingering trauma of slavery. In this episode we dive into another skeleton in our country’s closet: the systemic erasure of Indigenous culture and communities.
The United States has a long history of policies and practices that forcibly removed Indigenous children from their families. One way this happened was through adoption, until the U.S. passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, in 1978. This episode begins with our associate producer James Stewart telling the story of his grandfather, John Stewart.
Photo: James Stewart/Courtesy
From what James pieced together from his grandfather, John Stewart was taken from his Native American parents as an infant and adopted by a white family in Louisiana.
Photo: James Stewart/Courtesy
“My dad, my family, we don’t talk about it; about who John was before he was John Stewart, about who I am, about the history of Indigenous erasure that, as far as I know, is also part of our family history.” - James Stewart
Another way this happened was residential schools, also known as boarding schools. These schools were government-sponsored, church-run institutions that Indigenous children attended — often by force — during the 19th and 20th centuries in the U.S. and Canada. The schools were designed to strip children of their Indigenous language, culture and community, and assimilate them into white, Christian, European society. Investigations by both federal governments have since shown that thousands of children died at these institutions. They also note widespread physical and sexual abuse that created lasting trauma for survivors and their descendants.
Beverly Little Thunder is a resident of Huntington, Vermont and a Lakota elder, enrolled in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. Several generations of her family have firsthand experience with these boarding schools.
You can't sit in a room and then just start talking about it. It has to be something that people are willing to talk about. And a lot of our elders, you know, who are in their 80s and 90s, they just kind of shake their heads and get this, you know, sad look on their face and: 'Yeah, that was hard.' And then change the subject. - Beverly Little Thunder
In this episode we join Beverly, her daughter, Lushanya Echeverria, and Vermont Public reporter Elodie Reed as they attend a screening of the documentary Sugarcane, about the horrific history and intergenerational trauma of residential schools.
The new documentary "Sugarcane" is described by its makers as "a stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life... an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning."
It’s a hard subject and it’s time we start talking about it.
***A heads up: This story covers sensitive material, such as sexual abuse. If you or someone you know needs help, contact the National Sexual Abuse Hotline at 800-656-HOPE.
This story was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
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