September 10, 2024 | By Robert Creenan | niagara-gazette.com
Pictured above: The Thomas Asylum for Orphaned and Destitute Native children on the Cattaraugus Territory.
A topic hardly touched on in American history textbooks took center stage Tuesday, September 10th as Niagara University Professor Dr. Lori Quigley shared some traumatic parts of her family story.
Lori Quigley, the Leadership and Policy program coordinator and a Seneca Nation member, gave a presentation called “Thomas Indian School: My Journey Towards Understanding,” about her mother’s experiences at the native boarding school. It took place at the Castellani Art Museum on the NU campus.
“I want people to have an understanding of this history of a residential boarding school and this part of American history,” Quigley said.
Quigley’s mother Marlene Bennett was designated an orphan and state ward at age 5. She was then placed in the Thomas Asylum for Orphaned and Destitute Indian Children in the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation near Irving, where she lived and was a student for the next 10 years.
The school took in children from native tribes across the state, including all six Haudenosaunee nations and two from Long Island. It was one of hundred’s set up across the country for the purpose of “civilizing” native youths.
“Her experiences were similar to other children,” Quigley said. “They had good and bad experiences, some more tragic than others.”
The Thomas Indian School was started in 1855 by two Presbyterian missionaries, the Rev. Asher Wright and his wife Laura. The state took control in 1875 and with that takeover came more forced cultural assimilation. Its campus was built in 1900 and closed for good in 1957.
The school building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Quigley has done research on these schools for the past 25 years, focusing on the impact of these in New York and Ontario. She does give talks on this subject around this time of year due to Orange Shirt Day. She has spoken at other schools and universities, the Seneca Nation, the State Supreme Court, and even has one planned for Ralph Lauren next week.
The presentation is one event NU is hosting to commemorate National Truth and Reconciliation Day, or Orange Shirt Day, on Sept. 30. The day originated in Canada as a recognition of the past Canadian Indian Residential Schools and the various abuses occurring there. New York state formally recognized it as Every Child Matters Day in 2022.
More campus events commemorating that are in the works, with a committee made up of students, faculty and a Tuscarora Nation member planning them.
