On Sept. 30 in Reid Ballroom, the Truth and Reconciliation Day film screening moved many of the 80 students, faculty and community members who attended to tears. Truth and Reconciliation Day honors the children who never came home and the survivors of Native American boarding schools. The screening, in collaboration with the Sheehan Gallery exhibit “Picturing Family: Métis Life in Walla Walla Valley,” focused on the horrible abuse Native American children suffered through at boarding schools and how that abuse impacted the rest of their lives.

After the screening, Jeanine Gordon, Special Assistant to the President for Native American Outreach, facilitated a panel where panelists Judy Fortney, Mari Sams Tester and River Freemont told their families’ stories of Native American boarding schools and answered questions from the community.

Gordon discussed how she felt planning the screening and how it caused her to examine her own family’s history.

“It was emotional. It was really exciting. Emotional in talking with my colleagues and family members about our pasts, and kinda digging through our own family and our past, talking about how things were broken. A lot of the questions that so many of us are asking today about why [this happened],” Gordon said. “Exciting in that the work is starting to come together on a strong level across the nation and across the world. When that happens, people are motivated to support initiatives and to help make change, to help bring the healing that needs to take place.”

Whitman College’s President, Sarah Bolton, discussed the importance of events like the Truth and Reconciliation Day screening and how they foster crucial change on campus.

“It is important for all members of the Whitman community to have the opportunity to learn about the true history of our region, which is the traditional homeland of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples,” Bolton said.

Bolton was not the only community member to highlight the importance of such events. Margaret Schaffter, a Walla Walla community member, stressed how important it is to remember the historical oppression of Native American people, especially in relation to the spaces we occupy today.

“I’m grateful Whitman is taking responsibility for its legacy,” Schaffter said. “I live a mile from the [Whitman] Mission, so it’s always present in my mind, the land that I’m on and the responsibility I have.”

Whitman College continues to take responsibility through collaboration with the local Native American tribes, working to create events and activities to benefit the Whitman community and the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples.

“Whitman College holds a shared Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). The MOA was developed and signed in 2017, and reaffirmed in 2022 and 2024. The MOA lays out a scope of activities for Whitman and the CTUIR to facilitate the development of many kinds of collaborative work which will be of mutual benefit,” Bolton said.

While Whitman College works to create mutually beneficial events, there is always room for improvement and future opportunities for critical engagement.

“My hope is that Whitman will continue to make space to talk about tribal initiatives, such as the Truth and Reconciliation Day, around the boarding schools era, and continue to explore, perhaps even through student research, what those effects are to communities today from the past, and then explore opportunities that will help continue to build the bridge, continue to build the relationship and move forward in a way that is healing for the Native American communities,” Gordon said.

The Truth and Reconciliation Day screening, as well as the Sheehan Gallery exhibit, are only part of the space being created at Whitman for tribal initiatives. November is Native American Heritage month, and with it comes a chance to learn more and celebrate Indigenous culture.

Gordon explained that the next event would be the school’s second annual film festival. The First Foods Film Festival, formerly called the Salmon Film Festival, will be held on Nov. 9 in Cordiner Hall. There will be opportunities to learn from traditional artists, as well as presentations and a film screening with a panel discussion afterward. 

Events like the Truth and Reconciliation Day screening and the First Foods Film Festival hold Whitman College responsible for its legacy while benefiting the local Native peoples. Whitman students and Walla Walla community members attend events such as these to raise awareness and to show the college that these events are important to the community as it moves forward.