Native Americans, from a wide range of tribes and allies gathered at Carlisle to pay their respects to the students, and discussed the history that took place at the school. In addition a conference was held that addressed the school’s complicated athletic history. Athletics were often a tool used to attract other Native Americans students […]
This paper begins with a discussion of the broader aspects of historical trauma among Alaska’s indigenous people, beginning in the late 1880s and continuing into most of the 1900s. Topics include: the introduction of Western illnesses and diseases, Western education (boarding schools) and forced Western Christianity. However the main focus of this paper is to […]
This thesis addresses a major gap in scholarship addressing Native American offreservation boarding schools in the United States, which to date has focused primarily on cultural loss and student experiences. Detailing off-reservation boarding schools’ institutional attacks on students’ language, family relations, and culture is without a doubt critical, but this thesis explores a different kind […]
The film focuses on a First Nations girl named Aila and her family on a reserve in Canada. Her parents attended residential school where they experienced trauma that continues to haunt them into adulthood, which results in substance abuse. During Aila’s childhood it is still mandatory that children attend residential school, but her family pays […]
Like a lot of the details of the United States historical relations with the indigenous inhabitants of this land, the story of the Indian boarding school policy of the United States government has largely been written out of the history books. Yet, this was a major federal policy. And it had major impacts, positive and […]
Visualizing a Mission: Artifacts and Imagery of the Carlisle Indian School, 1879-1918 examines artifacts associated with the nation’s first boarding school for Native Americans. The artifacts illustrate various educational, cultural, and visual facets of the Carlisle Indian School and how the institution served to “civilize” Native Americans as part of a larger process of government […]
“In those days the Indian schools were like jails and run along military lines, with roll calls four times a day. We had to stand at attention, or march in step. The B.I.A. thought that the best way to teach us was to stop us from being Indians. The Government teachers were all third-grade teachers. They […]
In the late 19th century, American Indian Policy was heavily influenced by those who believed in assimilating Native Americans through education reform. These policies aimed to assimilate students through Christianity and the destruction of Native American culture through a compulsory boarding school school system. The goal was to make Native American students indistinguishable from Christian, […]
At its sixth session, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recommended that an expert undertake a comparative study on the subject of boarding schools.1 This report provides a preliminary analysis of boarding school policies directed at indigenous peoples globally. Because of the diversity of indigenous peoples and the nation-states in which they are […]
Indian boarding schools were one of the cruelest experiments inflicted upon Native American communities across the United States. In most schools little emphasis was placed on education and the institutions became a breeding ground for abuse, cultural genocide, and forced assimilation. Years after their school experiences ended, students unable to cope with the trauma they […]
This article not only explains the history of the residential school system in the United States, but also in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. In all of these countries, children were often forcibly removed and had their culture and language taken away through forced assimilation. Australia continued to remove children until the 1970’s. The last […]
A curriculum on the history of Native American history, boarding schools, ethnic and cultural genocide, healing and reconciliation, and how to make a difference. This comprehensive educational tool is designed for educators and is a great resource towards understanding how history and intergenerational trauma continues to affect Native American communities today. The curriculum has information […]
