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Quakers and the Indian Boarding School Movment Video

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Andrew Grant Presenter

Andrew Grant (he/him/relative) is a Quaker peace activist with a concern for Indigenous Relations. His work is supported in part by witness and ministry grants from the Legacy Fund of the New England Yearly Meeting. A ministry oversight committee in his monthly meeting provides moral support and accountability. His work is further guided by a two-spirit Indigenous elder Strong Oak (Abenaki) of Visioning B.E.A.R. Circle Intertribal Coalition. He is a trainer in their Walking In Balance With All Our Relations circle process. Together, Andrew and Strong Oak are working with others to form a Land Justice Affinity Group, to catalize conversations between land holders and Indigenous communities.
 
Andrew is a member of the NEYM Right Relationship Resource Group that reinforces Monthly Meetings' desire to improve relations with the peoples who were at home in this region before colonization. The group has distributed a formal Letter of Apology to Native Americans on behalf of the Yearly Meeting and is encouraging ongoing dialog with representatives of local tribes.
 
A trained facilitator with Toward Right Relationship With Native Peoples, Andrew worked with Paula Palmer and Gail Melix (Herring Pond Wampanoag) to present The Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools: Facing Our History and Ourselves, hosted by Beacon Hill Friends House in October 2022.
 
For the last several months, Andrew has been engaged in archival research in the Quaker collection at the University of Massachusetts, looking into Friends' involvement in "Indian education" and the forced assimilation of children. He has been invited to visit the special collection at Haverford College specifically to review material related to the Associated Executive Committee on Indian Affairs, the means by which Quakers collaborated across Yearly Meeting lines. He will be staying on campus, April 10-30. He will be carrying a travel minute from his home meeting, Mt Toby/Porcupine Mt/Kunkwachu Friends Meeting in the Leverett, Massachusetts (Nonotuck/Pocumtuck homeland).

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