• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
YoutbueFacebookTwitterinstagram Blog Shop Login DONATE

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

Working for Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation for Boarding School Survivors and Descendants

  • Education
    • US Indian Boarding School History
    • Impact of Historical Trauma
    • Healing Voices Movement – Stories
    • The Blanket Exercise
    • Truth and Healing Curriculum
    • Resources
  • Advocacy
    • UN Filing on Missing Children
    • Carlisle Repatriation
    • Resolutions and Petitions
  • Healing
    • Resources for Self-Care and Trauma
    • Healing Voices Movement
    • Tribal Consultations
    • Community Gatherings
    • For Churches
  • About Us
    • History
    • Board and Staff
    • Membership
    • Annual Reports
    • Partners
    • Announcements
    • In The News
    • Donate
  • Get Involved
    • Events
    • Donate
    • Child Removal Survey
    • Subscribe to e-News
    • For Churches
    • For Survivors and Descendants
    • For Teachers
    • For Community Allies
  • Resource Database
You are here: Home / About Us / Board and Staff

Board and Staff

Board of NABS

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

Our Mission: To pursue truth, healing, and reconciliation to address ongoing intergenerational trauma from the U.S. Indian Boarding School policy and to support community-led healing.

How We Started

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in June 2012 under the laws of the Navajo Nation.

We were formed after a national symposium in 2011. Leaders from the U.S. and Canada came together to discuss the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the need for such a process in the U.S.

NABS was created to develop and implement a national strategy that increases public awareness and cultivates healing for the profound trauma experienced by individuals, families, communities, American Indian and Alaska Native Nations resulting from the U.S. adoption and implementation of the Boarding School Policy of 1869.

NABS was fiscally sponsored by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) until it became financially independent in 2015.

Staff and Board

Our Executive Staff and Board of Directors are 100% Native American representing an array of personal experience with and national expertise about U.S. Indian Boarding Schools.

Staff

Christine Diindiisi McCleave, M.A., Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, Chief Executive Officer
Vance Blackfox, Cherokee Nation, Director of Communications
Stephen Curley, MALIS, Diné/Navajo Nation, Director of Digital Archives
Samuel B. Torres, Ed.D., Director of Research and Program
Jennifer Blevins, Operations Manager

Board of Directors

Joannie Suina Romero, Pueblo of Cochiti, President
Ruth Anna Buffalo, Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation, 1st Vice President
Rochelle Ettawageshik, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, 2nd Vice President
Maka Black Elk, Oglala Lakota Nation, Secretary
Travis Miller, Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, Treasurer
Juana Majel-Dixon, Ph.D., Pauma-Yuima Band of Luiseño Indians
Sarah Eagle Heart, Oglala Lakota Nation
James LaBelle, Sr., Port Graham Tribe of Inupiaq
Michael Yellow Bird, Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation

Previous Board Members
We are grateful to our previous Board Members for their service and commitment to Boarding School Healing. Thank you!

Marlene Helgemo, Ho-Chunk Nation (2014-2020)
Sandy White Hawk, Sicangu Lakota (2015-2020)
Vance Blackfox, Cherokee Nation (2017-2019)
Henry Cagey, Lummi Nation (2017-2019)
Jacob Davis, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (2016-2018)
Jerilyn DeCoteau, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (2014-2018)
Denise Lajimodiere, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (2012-2018)
Patricia Whitefoot, Yakama Nation (2014-2017)
Chase Iron Eyes, Standing Rock (2015-2017)
Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation (2014-2016)
Elicia Goodsoldier, Dine/Spirit Lake Dakota (2015-2016)
Edna Brillion, Haida/Cree
Rosemary Gibbons, Mimbres Apache/ Chicana
Don Coyhis, Mohican

Coalition

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition is a membership organization comprised of over 100 Native and Non-Native members and organizations committed to boarding school healing.

All Members of the Board of Directors are Regular Members of the Coalition. Learn how to become a Coalition Member.

Primary Sidebar

Shop For Our Cause

Now available! T-shirts, hoodies, and hats to support boarding school healing!
Shop Now

Support Justice & Healing

Help us work towards truth, healing, and justice for Indian Boarding School impacts.

DONATE TODAY
The time for Healing and Justice is Now

Subscribe to e-News




* indicates required

Footer

  • About Us
  • News
  • Membership
  • Get Involved
  • Healing Voices Blog

© National Native American
Boarding School Healing Coalition
2525 E. Franklin Ave., Ste. 120
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Phone: 612.354.7700

Contact Us

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

* indicates required

SEARCH OUR WEBSITE

SITE MAP  |  PRIVACY POLICY

Copyright © 2021 · Maker Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Curriculum Request