In 2024, a group of Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican youth and adults arrived at the home of the Dominican Sisters of Hope in Ossinings, New York. Each would take part in an experimental retreat to acquaint youth with their ancestral homelands and traditional teachings. The Dominican Sisters of Hope’s attempt to understand the history of the land they occupied led them to connect with the citizens of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans and understand the connections between the Catholic church and the generational impact of Catholic-run boarding schools. Through this unique partnership, a Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican team used cultural teachings to empower youth to recognize ongoing trauma and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The Homelands Project has come to symbolize a path forward through which youth engage with their ancestral land as a way to address the ongoing impacts of boarding schools and assimilation on their reservation.

Oral histories were gathered from the 2024 and 2025 trips to the Center at Mariondale, the Sister’s home. The recordings provide insight into the relationship and collaboration experienced by the youth, their chaperones, teachers, and the Dominican Sisters of Hope. Analysis of the oral histories indicate a framework that Catholic entities, responsible for more than eighty-seven Catholic Indian Boarding schools across 22 states, can use to build relationships with Indigenous people and make reparations for harms of boarding schools that were perpetuated by the Catholic church. The oral histories of the participants in Homelands Project illustrates how youth perceive the generational impact of attendance at boarding schools on their families and provide an analysis of the experience as an avenue of reconciliation between religious run boarding schools and tribes.