A play about the Native boarding school experience and its effect on future generations is being staged at the University of Montana.

"The Strength of Indian Women" was written by Vera Manuel, a Native woman from Canada. She based it on stories told by her mother about being forced to attend government-run schools.

"I didn't make up the stories told in �Strength of Indian Women,'" Manuel told Jodi Rave Lee of The Missoulian. "They came from pictures my mother painted for me with her words; words that helped me see her as a little girl for the first time."

In conjunction with the play, Manuel is facilitating a workshop today to discuss historical trauma and the healing process.

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Female cast unearths pain Natives suffered at boarding schools (The Missoulian 5/9)