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A28 u.s. news
Dialuna 4 aPRil 2022

National park battlefield irises may mark razed Black homes

soldiers and sailors rest with was used at night as a dance road.
later U.S military members. hall. In February of last year, Sal-
athe and other members of
“We may never know for cer- For decades families lived and his Louisiana Iris Conserva-
tain” that the flowers were worked in the small commu- tion Initiative were planting
planted by residents, but it nity built where American a small group of blue iris in
seems very likely, said Gary forces had defeated the pow- another part of the park. Sal-
Salathe, who created a group erful British military on Jan. athe, whose group seeks to
to rescue native irises and 8, 1815. save Louisiana irises from
who first noticed those on areas slated for develop-
the battlefield. In the early 1960s, with an ment and plant them in vis-
eye toward unifying the na- ible spots in nature preserves
The community, called “The tional park in time for the and parks, noticed long, tall
Village” by people who lived battle’s 150th anniversary in leaves growing in the grass
there, was founded around 1965, the park service tried a distance from the road.
1870 by Jean-Pierre Fazende, to buy the land. Owners re- They looked like irises. A
a grocer from a family promi- fused. Eventually, Congress closer look confirmed it. He
nent in the social class known approved expropriation and and park rangers went back a
(AP) — Nearly 60 years grandson of the community’s as free people of color, said the community was demol- month later when the flow-
ago, a historic Black com- founder, says he thinks it’s a Bill Hyland, the official his- ished. ers bloomed and got two sur-
munity founded as a home tragedy that Fazendeville was torian for St. Bernard Par- prises.
for newly freed slaves was torn down and wonderful ish, where the national park Homeowners were paid
demolished to expand a that the dark purple irises and is located southeast of New about $6,000 at a time when First, the irises were dark
national park commemo- white and pink crinum lilies Orleans along the Mississippi new homes in the area cost purple, not the better known
rating the Battle of New have been discovered. River. $16,000, according to a 2014 light blue iris that is the state
Orleans and Civil War ca- article in the “64 Parishes” flower. Then came a more
sualties. Now park rang- The flowers were first no- Fazende wanted to give re- magazine published by the startling discovery — crinum
ers and iris enthusiasts ticed last spring, nearly 60 cently freed slaves a place to Louisiana Endowment for lilies. Volunteer Paul Chris-
believe they may have years after the tiny com- live. So he subdivided an in- the Humanities. In later tiansen recognized them as a
found a botanical remind- munity was expropriated herited strip of land that was years, the park service ad- species from Africa, possibly
er — Louisiana irises and to join the national park’s wide enough only for a single dressed the expropriation in brought by enslaved people,
African lilies that the vil- two sections. One part was row of houses into 33 lots for an article on its website. that could not have been
lage’s residents may have the land where the Battle of a “freedmen’s colony.” The growing wild there.
planted. New Orleans was fought; the land eventually included 30 In 2010, a marker commem-
other was a national cemetery homes, a church, bars, a gro- orating Fazendeville was “They would have had to be
Woody Keim, a great-great- where about 7,300 Union cery store and a school that erected near the battlefield planted by people,” he said.

Missouri regulates boarding schools after abuse allegations

(AP) - Maggie Drew’s dad sent is charged with child sex crimes and
her to Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch five employees are accused of assault, Supporters of religious boarding Messages left with the Household-
in Missouri in 2007, hoping strict though Missouri’s attorney general schools say they provide structure ers’ attorney were not returned. In
Christian teachings would stop thinks many more workers should to troubled young people. Megan an August interview with the Star,
his 14-year-old daughter’s teen- have been charged. Stokes, executive director of Nation- the couple said the accusers made up
age rebellion. al Association of Therapeutic Schools their stories.
The schools are unrelated and are not and Programs, said the wrongdoing
Instead, Drew said, she found herself affiliated with any particular Chris- alleged at Agape and Circle of Hope
in a nightmare, sexually abused by tian denomination. But both opened is exceedingly uncommon.
one of the boarding school’s found- in southwest Missouri under a 1982
ers and left with permanent spinal in- state law that gave religious boarding Yet unlike Missouri and many other
juries after a fall from a hay barn for schools free rein and the state no way states, her trade association requires
which she received no medical atten- to monitor how kids were educated. state licensing for all of its 150 mem-
tion. Even the health department had no ber schools, including the religious
oversight, including for schools that ones. Agape is not a member, nor was
Just 25 miles away at another Chris- claimed to address mental health, be- Circle of Hope.
tian boarding school, Brett Harper havioral and addiction issues.
says he endured abuse that included Boyd and Stephanie Householder
staff members stomping on his back. The new law approved last year fol- opened Circle of Hope in 2006 in the
He said his injuries required two spi- lowed extensive reporting from The remote town of Humansville. “We
nal surgeries and left him disabled. Kansas City Star that found that sev- use the BIBLE to teach (girls) that
eral faith-based boarding schools, in- they are to obey their Parents and the
They are among dozens of people cluding Agape, relocated to Missouri authority over them,” the school’s
who say they were abused at either after being investigated or shut down website, which has been taken down,
Circle of Hope or Agape Boarding for abuse or neglect elsewhere. stated.
School — allegations that helped
prompt a new Missouri law aimed at Legislators heard testimony from for- The school closed amid a 2020 in-
reining in religious boarding schools mer students such as Chanel Mare, vestigation; 25 girls were removed.
that for decades went without any who told of girls at Circle of Hope In March 2021, Boyd Householder,
oversight by the state. being forced to eat their own vomit; 72, was charged with 79 crimes and
and James Matthew Lawson, who Stephanie, 56, was charged with 22.
“I still have nightmares about these said he was raped at Agape and called
people and the things they did to us,” “seizure boy” because of his epilepsy. Sixteen former residents alleged
Drew said. they were restrained with handcuffs,
The Associated Press generally does whipped with belts, and punched.
The founders of Circle of Hope not name victims of sexual abuse, but Nearly two dozen counts against
face around 100 charges, some al- Larson and Drew both came forward Boyd Householder accuse him of
leging sexual abuse. Agape’s doctor publicly to discuss the allegations. sexual contact with girls.