The project began as an individual research initiative and gradually evolved into a community-led effort. As more information emerged, volunteers engaged the community to gather input on the next steps. The outreach sessions expanded to include regional Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, who visited the site to review research alongside team leaders and volunteers. Their feedback emphasized the need to protect the land, ensuring the safety of the children’s graves and unmarked burial sites while also preserving and sharing the legacy of both the children and the federal boarding school system.
In late 2021, the group secured a $2.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund the Memorial’s initial construction. These funds not only allowed construction to commence on the Memorial but also provided the initial resources to establish a nonprofit organization to support the site’s ongoing maintenance and operations once the construction is complete.
The project addresses multiple interconnected needs: the lack of public knowledge about the federal Indian boarding school system; the continued marginalization of Indigenous histories and voices; unresolved grief and trauma within Indigenous communities; and deep social divisions in Rapid City rooted in historic and ongoing land dispossession. These needs demand a response that is not only tangible but also active, inclusive, and ongoing.
Through the creation of a physical site that centers Indigenous leadership, art, oral history, and ceremony, the Memorial becomes part of the process of broader community healing. It reconnects land, memory, and education through a shared space that fosters reflection, learning, and dialogue, offering the most comprehensive and culturally appropriate way to meet these multigenerational needs.
About Us
We are working to complete and expand the Remembering the Children Memorial, a site of public art, education, and healing on the grounds of the former Rapid City Indian Boarding School. As we finalize the completion of key Phase 1 components, as well as organizational capacity building, including staffing and operations, we are also working to transition to a standalone nonprofit that ensures the site remains a viable resource for public education, historic preservation, and healing. As Remembering the Children has been a fiscal sponsor of Black Hills Area Community Foundation and now has official 501c3 status it is time for the ED to officially transfer and establish systems and operations to continue community outreach and education as the site opens to the public.
Remembering the Children continues to solidify organizational structure and focus on critical capacity-building activities such as ongoing grant writing, fundraising, and strategic planning. This will ensure the site is supported by a sustainable and resilient nonprofit structure that will continue ongoing maintenance and operations.
