2025
We are fundraising and planning an intimate gathering in Philadelphia. Over five days, five communities will visit their children at two cemeteries for the first time and will commemorate them. Intra-community dialogue will take place to create support systems as leaders decide if to repatriate their children or pursue other pathways of commemoration.
2024 has been a big year! Our efforts have been focused on fundraising to support our future activities. We have networked with Quaker communities and secured financial support, forged relationships with the Woodlands Cemetery, secured over 100K of in-kind donations, and are co-editing a collection of boarding school stories by Indigenous writers. We presented Shaking the Clouds at the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, and will close our year by incorporating Shaking the Clouds as a non-profit in Canada where the work is taking us.
We have mapped out the vision for Shaking the Clouds, connected with 16 Tribal Historic Preservation Officers and have been in communication with five of them regarding our research on children who potentially belong to their communities.
Shaking the Clouds (formerly, the Carlisle Indian School Farmhouse Coalition) halted plans for the demolition of Carlisle’s Farmhouse, gathered the voices of Carlisle descendants , and began a collaborative relationship with Preservation Pennsylvania as our Fiscal Sponsor.