Indian boarding schools

Indian boarding schools
Name	Indian boarding schools
Established	late 19th century
Country	United States, Canada
Type	Boarding schools for Indigenous children
Closed	20th century (many)

Indian boarding schools were institutions created primarily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to remove Indigenous children from familial and community settings and place them in residential institutions run by state, missionary, or church-affiliated bodies. These schools intersected with policies and personalities from United States Congress, Department of the Interior (United States), Office of Indian Affairs, Indian Affairs (Canada), Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Boarding school movement, Indian boarding school movement, and influential figures such as Richard Henry Pratt, Brigham Young, Ely S. Parker, Carl Schurz, Henry L. Dawes, Elliot Fry, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Collier (Native American advocate), Grover Cleveland, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, and religious organizations including Catholic Church, Methodist Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Anglican Church of Canada, Salvation Army, and Society of Jesus.

History

The historical development involved legislative acts, court decisions, and administrative directives such as the Dawes Act, Indian Appropriations Act, Peace Policy (US) initiatives, and international parallels like policies in Canada tied to the Indian Act (Canada), the formation of institutions like Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Haskell Indian Nations University, Chemawa Indian School, Alvin O. Turner School, Mohawk Institute Residential School, Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, Gordon Indian Residential School, and governmental reports including the Meriam Report. Early advocates and implementers ranged from military officers to missionaries, with prominent proponents including Richard Henry Pratt who founded Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and critics such as Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkála-Šá) and J. W. Powell. Cross-border influences connected policies in the United States and Canada with actors like Indian agent officials, private philanthropists such as Margaret Sanger (controversially associated with broader social reforms), and reformers tied to institutions including Smithsonian Institution and American Missionary Association.

Policies and Administration

Administration combined federal, provincial, and denominational control: agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (Canada), administrators such as Lewis Meriam (Meriam Report), and church bodies including Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church in Canada, and orders like the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Policies were shaped by legislation and court rulings such as the Snyder Act, Indian Citizenship Act, Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (Canada) precursor debates, and administrative practices involving boarding, funding, and oversight by entities like United States Department of Education predecessors and provincial departments in Ontario and British Columbia. Officials, superintendents, school principals, and boarding staff often came from networks tied to Board of Indian Commissioners, Indian agent posts, philanthropic organizations such as Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation, and missionary societies including Anglican Church of Canada missions and Catholic religious orders.

Curriculum and Daily Life

Curricula emphasized vocational training, religious instruction, and language suppression, with classroom and workshop models drawn from industrial and agricultural schools such as Carlisle Indian Industrial School and Mount Pleasant Industrial School. Daily regimens included regimented schedules, military-style drills inspired by United States Army practices, manual labor programs associated with agriculture projects on school lands, and religious services conducted by clergy from Methodist Episcopal Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Anglican Communion. Health and sanitation practices were influenced by contemporary public health actors like United States Public Health Service and medical figures documented in reports similar to the Meriam Report, while disciplinary regimes referenced policies from boarding administrators and legal instruments handled by entities such as Bureau of Indian Affairs and provincial authorities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Impact on Indigenous Communities

Impacts were multifaceted: cultural disruption affecting languages like Lakota language, Ojibwe language, Cree language, Navajo language, Blackfoot language, and Mohawk language; demographic and health consequences documented in epidemiological studies and survivor accounts referencing institutions such as Carlisle Indian Industrial School and Shubenacadie Indian Residential School; legal and land-tenure ramifications linked to policies under Dawes Act and treaty negotiations such as the Fort Laramie Treaty and Treaty of Fort Stanwix. Intergenerational trauma, loss of traditional knowledge maintained by leaders like Wilma Mankiller and Vine Deloria Jr., and socioeconomic effects intersected with Indigenous political movements represented by organizations such as National Congress of American Indians, Assembly of First Nations, and youth activism connected to groups like American Indian Movement.

Resistance, Adaptation, and Survivors' Voices

Resistance took forms from legal challenges in courts like the Supreme Court of the United States to grassroots activism exemplified by figures such as Red Power, Ada Deer, Wilma Mankiller, Vine Deloria Jr., Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkála-Šá), and collective actions including protests at sites associated with institutions like Alcatraz occupation and local petitions to agents like Indian agent. Survivors and cultural revivals have been led by elders, artists, and scholars documented through memoirs and works by Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Thomas King (writer), Diane Redmond, and testimonies collected in processes like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and various inquiries, while legal representation often involved firms and advocates linked to cases in provincial and federal courts.

Legacy, Reconciliation, and Legal Issues

Contemporary legacies include apologies and settlements negotiated through mechanisms such as the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (Canada), governmental apologies by cabinets of Canada and United States officials, commissions like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and litigation addressing abuse, missing children, and compensation overseen by courts including Federal Court of Canada and district courts in the United States. Ongoing legal debates concern records access, land claims connected to treaties like the Treaty of Waitangi (in comparative contexts), archival stewardship involving institutions like Library and Archives Canada, and commemorative projects led by museums and cultural centers such as the National Museum of the American Indian.

Category:Native American history