Monday, February 11, 2008

Recommended Materials: Government and Christian-run Boarding and Residential Schools for Native Students

Recommended Materials: 
Government and Christian-run Boarding 
and Residential Schools for Native Students
(Originally published on Feb 11, 2008 as a blog post; 
Updated and published as a page on our menu bar on June 29, 2021)

The goal of boarding and residential schools in the United States and Canada was to "kill the Indian" and "save the man." Some characterize the schools as efforts to assimilate Native peoples into white society but beneath that effort was the goal of undermining our status as peoples of sovereign nations by removing our children so that we would cease to exist as Native People. If that occurred, all of our lands and resources would be fully available to non-Native people. 

In 2007, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established in Canada to document the harms of the residential schools there. We recommend you read through the TRC pages and subsequent writings that document its failures to achieve stated goals. In June of 2021, reports of hundreds of unmarked graves at residential schools were published. We recommend Why David A. Robertson curated a list of books about residential schools (published on June 24, 2021) for his response to news of these unmarked graves. On his list of 48 books, we are adding the ones we have read to our list below. 

In 2021, Deb Haaland (Acoma), Secretary of the Interior under President Biden, announced an initiative to examine the boarding schools in the U.S. 

White writers have written books that whitewash the schools. Those books (by Ann Rinaldi and Eve Bunting) do not appear below. We have also found some books by writers (John Smelcer and Melanie Florence) who claim a Native identity to be problematic and they do not appear on our list.

As more resources and books are published on this topic, we will add them to this list. We recommend items listed here, and we welcome your suggestions. 



LITERATURE

Picture Books
  • Callaghan, Jodie. The Train. Second Story Press, 2021.
  • Campbell, Nicola. Shi-shi-etko. Groundwood Books, 2005
  • Campbell, Nicola. Shin-shin's Canoe. Groundwood Books, 2008.
  • Dupuis, Jenny Kay. I Am Not A Number. Second Story Press, 2016.
  • Jordan-Fenton, Christy and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton. Fatty Legs: A True Story, Annick Press. 2010 and 2020.
  • LaFlesche, Francis. The Middle Five: Indian Schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe, University of Nebraska Press, 1978. (Originally published in 1900)
  • Loyie, Larry, and Constance Brissenden. As Long as the Rivers Flow: A Last Summer before Residential School. Groundwood Books, 2003.
  • Robertson, David A. When We Were Alone. Highwater Press. 2019.
  • Santiago, Chiori. Home to Medicine Mountain. Children’s Book Press, 1998.
Books for Middle and/or High School Students
  • Dimaline, Cherie. The Marrow Thieves. DCB, 2017.
  • Mosionier, Beatrice. In Search of April Raintree. Pemmican Publications, 1983.
  • Qoyawayma, Polingaysi. No Turning Back: A Hopi Indian Woman’s Struggle to Live in Two Worlds, University of New Mexico Press, 1977.
  • Sterling, Shirley. My Name Is Seepeetza. Groundwood Books, 1998.
  • Tohe, Laura. No Parole Today. West End Press, 1999.


NON-FICTION, HIGH SCHOOL/COLLEGE
  • Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928, University Press of Kansas, 1997
  • Archuleta, Margaret, Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Eds.) Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, Heard Museum, 2000
  • Child, Brenda. Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940, University of Nebraska Press, 2000
  • Cobb, Amanda J. Listening to our Grandmothers' Stories: The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females, 1852-1949. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000
  • Gilbert, Matthew Sakiestewa. Education Beyond the Mesas. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
  • Johnson, Basil. Indian School Days, University of Oklahoma Press, 1995
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School, University of Nebraska Press, 1995
  • Trafzer, Clifford E., Jean A. Keller, and Lorene Sisquoc. Boarding School Blues: Revisiting American Indian Educational Experiences, Bison Books, 2006.

WEBSITES

VIDEO
  • The Indian Boarding Schools: Keeping the Culture Alive, is a two-part series, prepared with the full participation of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office. Go here to order the series and view the trailer.
  • In the White Man's Image, PBS, 1992
  • Shi-shi-etko, Moving Images Distribution, 2009.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The topic of boarding schools is very much alive in the discourse of social studies educators I have been listening to lately. Also, here is a Webquest on the subject, tailored for upper elementary and middle school students:
Boarding School Webquest

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Good for Nothing by Michel Noel is also very good for teen readers. Noel is a Metis author from Quebec and the book is available in English and French. It's set after a young man (Nipishish) leaves residential school, but he continually references back to his experiences and their effect on his life and community.

It's set in Quebec Canada.

No Time to Say Goodbye by Sylvia Olsen with Rita Morris and Ann Sam is also awesome. It's set on the West coast of British Columbia - Kuper Island Residential school.

This is such a helpful site you've created.

B

Kaira said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Debbie Reese said...

The two "Comment deleted" comments were from a website about private boarding schools. The comments had nothing to do with American Indians or American Indian boarding schools. Someone from that site submitted comments here that were intended to draw readers to their site. I've deleted both of them.

Top boarding schools in India said...

All this may be subversive and impractical. However, it leads to the million dollar question- what kind of school do you want for your kids?

Anonymous said...

I would also recommend Fatty Legs: True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton; Liz Amini-Holmes, illus. and its sequel A Stranger at Home.

For older readers, the graphic novel Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story by David Alexander Robertson and Scott B. Henderson is also very powerful.

Thank you for your excellent site. As a relatively new educator and teacher librarian, it is a fabulous resource.

Jen Goerzen

Kinnikinnick Library said...

I would also recommend Fatty Legs: True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton; Liz Amini-Holmes, illus. and its sequel A Stranger at Home.

For older readers, the graphic novel Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story by David Alexander Robertson and Scott B. Henderson is also very powerful.

Thank you for your excellent site. As a relatively new educator and teacher librarian, it is a fabulous resource.

Jen Goerzen