Indigenous America: Boarding School

An overview of efforts to provide formal schooling to the children of native peoples of North America, from seventeenth century New France to the residential Indian schools of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the Indian charter schools of the twenty-first. The racial assumptions of the White majority, the ambivalence of Indian families and tribes about the schooling offered to their children and youth, the uneasy cooperation between church groups and government, and efforts to maintain or revive native languages, are discussed in a perspective covering both Canada and the United States. From Publisher.

Drawing on firsthand accounts from teachers and students, American Indian Education considers and analyzes shifting educational policies and philosophies, paying special attention to the passage of the Native American Languages Act and current efforts to revitalize Native American cultures. From Publisher

Artfully weaving old photographs, first-person accounts, and well-organized text and verse, the editors present important and predominantly Native views of some 'good, bad, and ugly' aspects of Indian boarding school life. From Choice Journal

Boarding School Blues ranges widely in scope, addressing issues such as sports, runaways, punishment, physical plants, and Christianity. With comparative studies of the various schools, regions, tribes, and aboriginal peoples of the Americas and Australia, the book reveals both the light and the dark aspects of the boarding school experience and illuminates the vast gray area in between. From Publisher

A sympathetic yet objective account of the vacillating policies and attitudes affecting the education of the American Indian. . . . Based on extensive interviews as well as archival and published sources, the book traces the shifts from assimilation to termination to self-determination. From Publisher

Margaret Connell Szasz’s remarkable synthesis of archival and published materials is a detailed and engaging story told from both Indian and European perspectives. From Publisher

Lomawaima allows the Chilocco students to speak for themselves. In recollections juxtaposed against the official records of racist ideology and repressive practice, students from the 1920s and 1930s recall their loneliness and demoralization but also remember with pride the love and mutual support binding them together—the forging of new pan-Indian identities and reinforcement of old tribal ones. From Publisher

In To Change Them Forever, Clyde Ellis surveys changes in government policy and tells how the Kiowa people resisted and accommodated the efforts of school personnel to transform them. Ellis combines archival research with personal memoirs, conversations with former students, and the school’s official records to portray a school often at odds with official policy and frequently neglected by the Indian Services bureaucracy. From Publisher

In this fascinating portrait of American Indian education over the past century, the authors critically evaluate U.S. education policies and practices, from early 20th-century federal incarnations of colonial education through the contemporary standards movement. From Publisher

The Carlisle Indian School and the Haskell Institute in Kansas were among the many federally operated boarding schools enacting the U.S. government's education policy toward Native Americans from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century…, To Show What an Indian Can Do explores the history of sports programs at these institutions and, drawing on the recollections of former students, describes the importance of competitive sports in their lives. From Publisher

Fear-Segal draws upon a rich array of source material. Traditional archival research is interwoven with analysis of maps, drawings, photographs, the built environment, and supplemented by oral and family histories. Creative use of new theoretical and interpretive perspectives brings fresh insights to the subject matter. From Publisher

Power and Place examines the issues facing Native American students as they progress through the schools, colleges, and on into professions. This collection of sixteen essays is at once philosophic, practical, and visionary. From Publisher

Inspired by the writings of the late Vine Deloria and other Indian scholars, tribal college faculty and key administrators are attempting to take control of the science curriculum and create courses and entire degree programs that link Native and Western ways of knowing. With growing confidence, colleges are validating traditional tribal knowledge and exploring scientific concepts from a Native perspective. from Publisher

This may well be the most important book you will read on the United States educational system viewed through the lens of the Native American experience; its history, present, and future, come into focus. Red Pedagogy is a classic work already, and with this 10th Anniversary edition, it soars beyond the original text to a collective collaboration, expanding and deepening its profound thesis, which in the 21st century finds Native Nations as prisoners of democracy under a continuing colonial regime. Free of jargon, this beautifully composed, powerful, and ultimately hopeful book should be read by everyone. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz

In a time of global environmental degradation, the science and worldview of the continent's First Peoples offer perspectives that can help us work toward solutions. From Publisher

Contributors to The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue have drawn on documents held at the Sherman Indian Museum to explore topics such as the building of Sherman, the school’s Mission architecture, the nursing program, the Special Five-Year Navajo Program, the Sherman cemetery, and a photo essay depicting life at the school. From Publisher

Many Hopi schoolchildren, deeply conversant in Hopi values and traditional education before being sent to Sherman Institute, resisted this program of acculturation. Immersed in learning about another world, generations of Hopi children drew on their culture to skillfully navigate a system designed to change them irrevocably. From Publisher