Native American girls buried at Milwaukee Catholic church are honored

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition confirmed reports and identified 14 Native American girls who were buried at Milwaukee’s Calvary Cemetery during the dark assimilation era in which boarding schools operated by churches and the federal government separated Native children from their families.

Sherri Catanach (Pojoaque Pueblo), spokesperson for the coalition, told Buffalo’s Fire that at least 11 of the girls were from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She said they were all between the ages of 9 and 20.

The statement came days after the National Week of Remembrance and Orange Shirt Day, awareness events about government boarding schools that took Native and First Nations people in the U.S. and Canada to force assimilation and break up tribal communities. 

The names of the girls were first published by ICT News and later confirmed by the boarding school coalition that has tracked documents and testimony outlining the history from that era. 

The 14 girls, whom burial records show died between 1884-1891, are Angeline/Angela Lafornoise, Alphonsine LeDoux, Rosalie Gladu, Ellen Laventure, Marie Jane Morris, Rosa Zuis, Mary Clementine Gladu, Madleine Wilkey, Justine Gladu, Ernestine Gladu, Matilda Smith, Virginia Plante, Maggie Nolan and Mary A. Spearry (Sperry).

Catanach said the coalition’s work documenting oral histories from boarding school survivors and  hosting events around the country to share their stories is vital today for overall child well-being.

“We want to be able to make sure that our relatives can heal from these traumas and fully understand what happened to our people,” she said. “This is American history, and educating all of us about it is essential to building a more honest and healed future for our children.”