Artist and activist Pura Fé is working to heal the trauma of Indigenous Children who have been forcibly removed from their families. Pura Fé: Healing the Soul-Pain of Our Indigenous Children through Music By René Locklear White, Lt. Col. USAF (Retired) Sanctuary on the Trail™ Native American Church of Virginia Lumbee Indian   Our indigenous children are our sacred seed. Many are suffering and need our help. Pura Fé ’s progressive folk and blues tones invoke our ancestors and are part of a vocal masterpiece aimed at helping heal indigenous children and families forcibly removed from their people. Taking indigenous children away from their families is still happening across the United States and Canada, resulting in thousands of children experiencing “soul pain” through grief, disempowerment and spiritual disconnection. What most people believed was over, with the boarding schools, is still affecting generations of children. According to national reports, nearly 700 indigenous children in South Dakota alone are being removed from their homes every year, sometimes in questionable and suspicious circumstances. Government programs remove children from reservations and place them in white foster homes. In these homes, our indigenous children are experiencing a long list of abuses including sexual violence, physical abandonment, and mental trauma. The crisis in Saskatoon, Canada foster homes includes overcrowding. Some families try to care for as many as 15 Native children and youth at the same time. There are reports of children being beaten and “crawling around with lice.” “The foster homes are so overcrowded, officials are locking youth in prison cells,” said Pura Fé who lives a few hours from Saskatoon on a reservation in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. “Taking children away from the families is the most traumatic thing you can do to a child, to a family, and to a people,” added Pura Fé who is...

Continue Reading