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This summer, Petoskey-based writer Alexandra Dailey attended a national Road to Healing event in Pellston—part of a year-long tour by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (a Michigan native) to provide a platform for survivors of the federal Indian boarding schools to share their experiences and grievances. On Thanksgiving today, as she and her white family members gather and express thanks for their homes, shelters, and jobs, she plans to recognize her privilege of not having familial trauma associated with the Indian boarding school system. She writes in the Glen Arbor Sun that she will be grateful for the healing that is occurring within the tribal communities—grateful that she was able to witness the beginnings of the healing that is yet to come for our Native neighbors.

United States Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Thursday, Aug. 11, before she traveled north to Pellston to meet with survivors of Federal Indian Boarding Schools. At Sleeping Bear, she toured Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, visited the Dune Climb, and sites at Glen Haven including the Sleeping Bear Inn, the cannery and Lake Michigan. Haaland’s visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes was the second by a U.S. Secretary of the Interior. In June 1998, Secretary Stewart Udall spoke at an emotional standing-room-only public gathering at the Sleeping Bear Dunes—the Park he helped establish.