1819 - 2013 A History of American Indian Education
This Education Week website, by Dr. Jon Reyhner and Education Week staff, explores the historic timeline of American Indian Education from 1819 to 2013.
Affirming identity: The Role of Language and Culture in American Indian Education
This Cogent Education Journal (Vol 4, 2017 Issue 1), authored by Dr. Jon Reyhner, explores the role of language and culture in American Indian Education also with respect to assimilation, human rights, language, and cultural revitalization.
Assimilating the American Indian into Civilized Society
From the 1880s through the 1920s, the "assimilationists" saw the non-reservation boarding school as the best way to make young Indian children accept white men's beliefs and value systems. This reference provides an overview of this period.
Assimilation Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in the Pacific Northwest
An essay by Carolyn J. Marr, an anthropologist and photographs librarian at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington, providing a historical perspective on Indian boarding schools in the Pacific Northwest.
Assimilation through Education
This Library of Congress website offers historical context, a teaching guide, and online resources addressing the assimilation of American Indians through education.
Carlisle Indian School - U.S.
This online resource offers a historical overview of the Carlisle Indian School and the students who attended the school.
Chemawa Indian School - U.S.
This link is to the website of the Chemawa Indian School of Salem, Oregon. This boarding school dates back to the 1870s when the U.S. government authorized a boarding school for Indian children in the northwest. Chemawa is the oldest of four off-reservation continuing boarding schools operating in the United States. The schools share a complicated history, dating back to the late 19th century, when their goal was to assimilate Native children into American society, sometimes by force. Through the last century, federal and tribal leaders refocused schools like Chemawa to support teenagers’ Native culture and prepare them for college and careers.
Federal Education Policy & Off-Reservation Schools 1870-1933
This resource from the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University provides an overview of Indian education from 1870-1933. The review offers educators a synopsis of the history of Indian education during that time period.
Ft. Lewis Indian School/College - U.S.
This resource provides a historical overview of the Ft. Lewis Indian School, located in southwest Colorado, and students who attended the school.
Health Care to Native Americans: Indian School Hospitals - U.S.
This U.S. National Library of Medicine resource offers an online version of a 1994 exhibit on health care to Native Americans. This document presents Indian school hospitals under the Office of Indian Affairs during the period of 1883-1916. It offers educators insights into how health care and health education was provided at the Indian schools.
Indian Boarding School Photo Gallery - U.S.
As this resource notes, "Administrators of the Indian Boarding Schools took some pride in creating "before" and "after" photographs that showed their power to suppress traditional Native American clothing and culture." The website offers examples of such photographs.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
This National Native American Boarding School Health Coalition website states, "The truth about the United States Indian boarding school policy has largely been written out of the history books. There were nearly 500 government-funded, church-run Indian Boarding schools across the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their native languages. The social, emotional, spiritual, and cultural devastation from boarding school experiences have passed down to Native American individuals, families, communities and Tribal Nations today."
And Now We Rise
This 2018 website features a documentary film introducing a portrait of Samuel Johns, a young Athabaskan hip hop artist, and founder of the Forget Me Not Facebook Group, which connects homeless, far flung family members, and displaced people in Alaska, and the United States. Samuel is an activist for a cultural renaissance, as he heals from his own legacy of historical trauma. The producer states, "the general public needs to understand the impact historical trauma has had on our indigenous people, and how they are becoming involved and becoming the change. The change is brewing, and it’s hopeful."
And Our Mothers Cried - U.S. Boarding School
For several generations of Native American children, including Chickasaws, the reality of the late 19th and early 20th centuries meant separation from their families and indoctrination into a culture that wasn’t their own. This was the boarding school era, with the infamous slogan, "Kill the Indian. Save the Man." Children were sent to distant boarding schools to learn skills that would assimilate them into white culture. The schools emphasized labor-intensive trades and a basic education focused on English, with most students prohibited from speaking their native language. Separation from family and community supported the goal to erase their way of life. In this documentary, you’ll meet some of the Chickasaws who lived through the boarding school era. Now tribal elders, they say the boarding school experience was filled with unforgettable moments – some good and some they wish they could forget.
Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories
Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories is the updated installation of the long-running Boarding School exhibition at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Since opening in 2000, 'Remembering Our Indian School Days: The Boarding School Experience', has become the Heard Museum’s most thematically powerful exhibition. Over the past two decades, interest in American Indian boarding schools and scholarship about the subject has increased. The initial embedded video entitled, "What is Education?", focuses on how American Indian Boarding Schools have had longstanding ill-effects on Native American Indian Education.
Canandian Residential School Survivor Talks About the Electric Chair at St. Anne's Residential School
In this 2018 video, St. Anne’s Residential School survivor, Chris Metatawabin, talks about his experiences from 1960 to 1968 at the notorious school that had an electric chair.
Indian Boarding School Plan: U.S. Government and Christians
This 2008 video features the plan for American Indian Boarding Schools as the US Government, and Christians, develop a joint plan to rob Indian children of their culture. "Missionaries are soldiers in disguise."
Indian Education: Assimilation, Segregation or Extermination? The Carlisle School U.S. ( Part Two Video)
This 2017 video features Part 2 of a Power Point presentation on American Indian History coursework featuring the Carlisle Indian Boarding School.
Indian Education: Assimilation, Segregation, or Extermination? Carlisle PA U.S. (Part One )
This March 21, 2017 video follows an educational Power Point presentation of American Indian coursework regarding American Indian Education, History and Boarding Schools.
Indian School Whisperer, Dave Archambault, Sr.
In this 2013 video, Dave Archambault, Sr., states that existing and past schooling policies of the U.S. government are effectively genocide; wasting the customs and beliefs of First Americans. Born on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Dave Leon Archambault received the Lakota name, 'Itazipo Wakinyan' meaning Thunder Bow. He holds a Masters Degree in Education Administration from Penn State University. Mr. Archambault has worked as an educator, an administrator, and a consultant at Indian schools and tribal colleges throughout his career.
It Was Bad, or It Was Good: Alaska Natives in Past Boarding Schools
In this 2008, Volume 47, Issue 3, of the Journal of American Indian Education, author Diane Hirsberg shares boarding school experiences collected from over 60 former Native American Alaskan Indians who attended boarding schools, or participated in an urban boarding home program run by either the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), private churches or the State of Alaska. Taken from rural communities that lacked either primary or secondary schools, former boarding school students' experiences reveal a glimpse of both the positive and negative effects of past boarding schools. Many spoke with ambivalence about their boarding school experience, finding both good and bad elements. This article presents some of the findings of this study.
KUPER ISLAND ~ Canadian Residential School Survivors Documentary (Curriculum & Material Grades 5, 10-12)
Published in 2013, this documentary, 'KUPER ISLAND: Return to the Healing Circle', Canadian Residential School Survivors provide an in-depth recounting of daily life at Kuper Island, which is a remote island off the coast of British Columbia. They called it Alcatraz. For almost a century, hundreds of Coast Salish children were sent to Kuper Island, where they were forbidden from speaking their native language, forced to deny their cultural heritage, and often faced physical and sexual abuse. Some died trying to escape on logs across the water. Many more died later, trying to escape their memories. In the past, British Columbia students did not typically learn about residential schools until Grade 11 social studies. Currently, curriculum material is available for Grades 5, 10, 11 and 12.
Montana Mosaic: Native American Indian Boarding Schools
This 2006 video features 'Montana Mosaic: Indian Boarding Schools', directed by Gita Saedi Kiely. The motto, "Kill the Indian, save the man.", created by Captain Henry Pratt sums up the American government's Native American Indian policy during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Recounting the Horrors of St. Anne's Residential School - Canada
In this 2018 video, St. Anne's Residential School, located in Canada, survivor Leo Ashamock describes the abuse he experienced at the notorious residential school at Fort Albany First Nation in northeastern Ontario, and the fear of being put in an electric chair.
Tribal Leaders Speak: The State of Indian Education (2010)
This 2010 Department of Education report details the consultations with Tribal Leaders in Indian Country by the Department of Education, an action which had never occurred before. The Obama administration committed to serve Native American Indian students better by collaborating with the people who know their students best; tribal leaders. During these consultations, tribal leaders addressed the following: failure to fulfill historic trust responsibilities; the "disconnect" between federal, state, and local government; insufficient funding; stressed the need to recruit and retain highly effective teachers and leaders; their need to collect and analyze student data; the impact of poverty and need for comprehensive student support; and the need for seamless cradle-to-career pipeline.
Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York ( Part 1 of 3)
This 2013 video features 'Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York documentary'. Boarding schools in the United States, and Residential schools in Canada, have had a lasting impact on Native American communities. Native American families in Western New York and Ontario continue to feel the impact of the Thomas Indian School and the Mohawk Institute. Survivors speak of traumatic separation from their families, abuse, and a systematic assault on their language and culture.
Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York (Part 2 of 3)
This 2013 video features 'Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York' documentary, and is the 2nd part of a 3 part documentary series. Boarding schools in the United States, and Residential schools in Canada have had a lasting impact on Native American communities. Native American families in Western New York and Ontario continue to feel the impact of the Thomas Indian School and the Mohawk Institute. Survivors speak of traumatic separation from their families, abuse, and a systematic assault on their language and culture.
Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York (Part 3 of 3)
This 2013 video is Part 3 is the last of a 3-part series of the documentary, 'Unseen Tears Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York'. This 2013 documentary tells the story of Native American Indian Boarding schools in the United States, as well as Residential Schools in Canada. Native American Indian Boarding School survivors speak of traumatic separation from their families, abuse, and a systematic assault on their language and culture. Thus, American Boarding Schools have had a lasting impact on Native American students, families and communities. Native American families in Western New York and Ontario continue to feel the impact of the Thomas Indian School and the Mohawk Institute.
Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools
This 2018 PBS video about Native American Boarding Schools in Utah recounts a dark time in American History and further, takes a moving and insightful look into the history, operation, and legacy of the federal Indian Boarding School system, whose goal was total assimilation of Native Americans at the cost of stripping away Native culture, tradition, and language.
Wawahte: Stories of Residential School Survivors - Canadian
Wawahte is an educational documentary based on the book, 'Wawahte: Stories of Residential School Survivors' by Robert P. Wells, first published in 2012. Wawahte tells the story of Canadian Indian Residential Schools from the perspective of three of survivors. This documentary is free to be screened for elementary and high school students states author Robert Wells and producer John Sanfilippo, who are available for screenings and discussions via the Wawahte website.
White Man's Way - Genoa Indian School U.S. (1884 - 1934)
This July 10, 1986, PBS video features the Genoa Indian School in Genoa, Nebraska which opened in Pawnee Indian Country in 1884. Former Genoa students, teachers and administrators are interviewed in this video offering first-account stories, both good and bad, on what life was like at Genoa Indian School. Further, the video asks the question, What is in store for future Native American Indian generations? The answer includes the restoration of Native Indian culture, history in addition to outer world lessons at Haskell Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas; and language at the UMO 'N HA TA'PASKA School.
Death at Residential Schools - Canadian
This 2015 video recounts the deaths of Native Indian students forced to attend Canadian residential schools. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report in 2015. Among its findings, the report offers more details on the scale of tragedy at residential schools. Thousands of native children died in that system. These findings only begin to show how Native Indian lives were erased, and loving families were changed forever.
Indian Boarding School Abuse - U.S.
This video, published on Feb 17, 2016, features a Lakota woman, Joanne Tall, as she describes the abuse she received as a 12 year old girl in a "christian" Native American Indian Boarding school.
Into the West - Carlisle Indian School U.S.
This 10-minute video features a clip from TNT's mini-series "Into the West" featuring what young Native American children went through in the name of education and assimilation. In 1879, American Indian children were forced to become students and attend the Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Life And Death At Chemawa Indian School (U.S.)
This October 2017 OPB article features three students, who came from three different states, and three different tribes to attend Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. Now, their three mothers are struggling to understand how their children’s promising futures fell apart, and what role the federally run boarding school played. This 2017 article also includes: school handbook, student statistics, incidents at Chemawa from 2010-2017, and federal grant information.
New Heritage Minute Explores Dark History of Canandian Residential Schools
'The National Show', a 2016 CBC News show, aired this account of how Native Indian students were treated at some of the Native Indian Residential schools in Canada.
Our Spirits Don't Speak English: American Indian Boarding School
This 2008 video features an excerpt from the film,"Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School."
Stolen Children – Canadian Residential School Survivors Speak Out
This video, published online June 2nd, 2015, exemplifies how deeply Canadian Residential Schools affected survivors, their children, and their grandchildren. Click here for the full story.
What They Took Away - Reflections on Native American Boarding Schools
This 2015 video features Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement (A.I.M), as he reflects on his experiences with Native American Indian boarding schools, and how his familial relationships were affected.