We are excited to announce an update for our opening keynote at the Crossings and Connections: Norwegian Migration to North America conference at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, June 18–22, 2025. Following St. Olaf President Susan Rundell Singer’s welcome, our opening keynote will be not just one, but three representatives from National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS): Deidre Whiteman, Sandy White Hawk and Sam Torres. Their talk is titled: Reckoning with the Historical Legacy of Settler Colonialism: Indian Boarding Schools, Intergenerational Memory, and Community-Based Healing.
This keynote presentation places Norwegian migration to the United States and Canada within the broader framework of settler colonialism and explores the lasting impact of a significant aspect of settler colonialism, the removal of Native children to Indian boarding schools. It emphasizes the crucial role of intergenerational memory in truth-telling, accountability, and healing. Drawing on personal family histories, community narratives, and historical records, the presentation examines how Native families and communities have endured the trauma of boarding school experiences across generations. By centering Native voices and knowledge systems, the keynote highlights the importance of community-based healing efforts and the necessity of confronting historical harm through collective remembrance, education, and advocacy.
The Blanket Exercise
Later in the day (from 12.30-1.30 and 1.45-2.45) conference participants will have the opportunity to participate in a Blanket Exercise (Spotlight Session I), an experiential learning tool that leads a group of participants through 500+ years of Indigenous history that highlights Native American relationships with European explorers, colonial settlers, and the U.S. federal and state governments.
The exercise is interactive and requires participants, as they are able, to stand and move throughout the experience. The Blanket Exercise was first created in Canada and has been used to educate general populations there, in the United States, and in many other parts of the world. The Exercise engages participants both intellectually and emotionally and can in some instances affect individuals deeply.
Each session is limited to 40 participants. There will be a total of 2 sessions offered.
This spotlight session requires pre-registration. Fill this form out to indicate your interest in attending this event. If more people indicate interest than what we can accommodate, we will prioritize full conference participants over daily or commuters. You will be notified the week before the conference (week 24) if you have a spot.
As we work towards greater understanding of Norwegian-American history, including the interactions between and shared histories of Indigenous Americans and Norwegian immigrants and their descendants, their combined voices are a valuable addition to our conference.
Following this keynote, researcher Dr. Anna Peterson will hold a plenary session highlighting three specific cases of Norwegian American/Native American interactions: Norwegians and the US-Dakota War of 1862, Norwegians on the Spirit Lake Reservation, and the Norwegian-American run Bethany Indian Mission. A special food truck lunch that day will also feature local native vendors.
Keynote bios:
Deidre Whiteman is the Director of Research and Education at NABS. In this role she educates and promotes dialogue within and between indigenous and immigrant communities. Her career has included many talks on various impacts of settler-colonialism, most notably Native American boarding schools, which her grandparents attended in the 1920s and 1930s. Deidre Whiteman is Spirit Lake Dakota and Hidatsa and is also a descendant of the Meskwaki and Turtle Mt. Ojibwe Nations.
Sandra White Hawk is the Elder-in-Residence and a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. She is the founder and Director of First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI) which is the first organization of its kind whose goal it is to create a resource for First Nations people impacted by foster care or adoption to return home, reconnect, and reclaim their identity. The Institute also serves as a resource to enhance the knowledge and skills of practitioners who serve First Nations people. Sandra organizes Truth Healing Reconciliation Community Forums that bring together adoptees/fostered individuals and their families and professionals with the goal to identify post adoption issues and to identify strategies that will prevent removal of First Nations children. She has also initiated an ongoing support group for adoptees and birth relatives in the Twin Cities Area.
Sam Torres is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer for NABS and has been a fundamental part of the team since 2019. There his contributions have included leading research teams through several projects such as the Indian Child Removal Study with the First Nations Repatriation Institute and the University of Minnesota, as well as the development of Indian boarding school research and coordinating with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. Sam has a doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice from Loyola Marymount University. With his extensive experience as a researcher, writer, educator, and leader, Dr. Torres holds a deep passion for decolonizing fixed knowledge systems, centering ancestral knowledge and histories, and working in community to promote Indigenous futures. A bicultural human being, Samuel Torres is Mexica/Nahua on his father’s side, and Irish/Scottish from his mother. In addition to actively learning and practicing Nahua language, traditions, and ceremony, he belongs to the Mexica kinship community, Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Torres serves on the Board of Directors for Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center (St. Paul, MN) and the Educator’s Institute for Human Rights (Washington, DC).