A few months ago, alumni of Intermountain Indian School found out there was a petition in Brigham City to get rid of the ‘I’ on the mountain. The singular, white letter is a reminder of the school’s past. Many Americans are just now learning about schools like Intermountain, following the discoveries earlier this year of hundreds of Indigenous bodiesburied in unmarked graves outside residential schools in Canada.
Similar schools existed throughout the U.S., and the U.S. Department of the Interior is now investigating the country’s boarding school system. Native advocates in Utah hope schools here will also be investigated, including Intermountain.
KUER’s Ivana Martinez joined alumni of the school as they gathered Friday to restore the “I” on the mountainside.