In this source, Armstrong talks about her Okanagan heritage, and how the Okanagan culture views the modern world from a very pessimistic viewpoint. Armstrong is Okanagan, and she comes from British Columbia. Her maternal family is River Indian, while her paternal family is Mountain Indian, each having their role. The Okanagan believe in four “beings” that make us human. Firstly, the Physical self, which is the body of the Earth. It is sacred to the Okanagan culture. Secondly, the Emotional self is viewed as the essential part of being human. The Thinking-Intellectual self is the discipline to work, instead of having an automatic response to it. The Spiritual self is the individual being, the true self, which holds great power. Both the Thinking-Intellectual and the Spiritual self have no direct translation into English. On the other hand, the Okanagan culture believes that every person is born into a family and a community. Without this bond to a family and a community, a person is considered to be “crippled” or “incapacitated” and will fall apart. The bond with the community and family is very important. The Okanagan culture is deeply rooted in its bond with the Earth and the community, but unfortunately, however, as technology advances and governments grow, this bond seems to be falling apart. The result of the dispassion for Earth and the community are disease, famine, war, and refugees trying to escape environmental and social destruction. Technology is also rapidly causing destruction to this bond, as communicating via the internet gives no physical or personal link. People rapidly get disconnected from reality and the Earth as a whole. However, communities are still being built despite the odds being against them. 

Armstrong’s perspective of today’s society is all but irrelevant in 2022. Big corporations are destroying the world for profit, and people are all but ignorant of it. Communication via the internet has become the biggest way to do anything, ever since the rise of COVID-19, and maybe even Monkeypox. And even if we are face-to-face, technology is a big component of our lives that we can’t live without it. There are a lot of commodities any traditional Native Americans can’t live without. Still, however, there are people who are trying to make a change for Native Americans. But overall, I understand why the Okanagan tribe sees the world as nothing but a husk.

Armstrong, Jeanette. 1996 “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community” Pp. 460-470 in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds.), The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.

Many places currently are named by and for colonizers – or in this case, important landmarks like the El Capitan summit at Yosemite. However, many of these names have Native roots. El Capitan’s Native name was based of a Native story, and was called Measuring-Worm Stone. Many of these places have mythical significance because of these Native stories, which is why the Diné usually treat these places with respect. Unfortunately, many of these Native landmarks have been polluted, as is the case with the San Francisco peaks – originally named Dook’o’oosłííd. These names, are deeply rooted in community. However, changing these names disrupts that mythic connection. This is also the case with towns named after English colonizers. The Diné culture refuse to use names of those who have died, as to not give power to the dead. These ideals of the settlers and that of the Indigenous people don’t align, which results in multiple communities deciding on multiple names for the mountains. Historians Bill Tucker and Vernett Calhoun were unaware of the true name of El Capitan, because of this complication. It also doesn’t undermine the fact that the English settlers tried to erase Native culture, but small and very poor attempts to undo the damage lie in the retellings of these stories. The story of Measuring-Worm Stone was adapted into a children’s book where bears were trapped atop the mountain, instead of children.

Instead of looking at a larger community in the eyes of a Native one, this article talks about another instance of cultural erasure, and how it affects the Navajo culture. Like the Okanagan tribe, the Navajo culture highly respects the land and its stories. For example, the Hero Twins fought a monster atop what would become Mt. Taylor. Unfortunately, I can’t help but be upset at what are the worst attempts of trying to undo the damage the colonizers caused. It’s like putting a band-aid on a stab wound. Yet because of the historical inaccuracies, it’s more like putting a $2 Wal-Mart branded Band-Aid on a bleeding artery. It’s disappointing to see, yet I feel like the more people preach the truth, the slowly the damage will undo.

B. Toastie Image credit: Tony Abeyta May 1, 2022 From the print edition. “How Place Names Impact the Way We See Landscape.” High Country News – Know the West, High Country News, 1 May 2022, https://www.hcn.org/issues/54.5/people-places-how-place-names-impact-the-way-we-see-landscape. 

This article showcases some of the conditions of the boarding schools, the people who tried to change the boarding school practices, and the many programs that have also tried to change them. When the Meriam Report was published in 1928, it revealed many of the conditions of the Indian/Boarding Schools. One, for example, was the lack of federal funding. Many of the boarding schools did not have enough funding to provide food or clothing to their students. However, after the Meriam Report was published, Will Carson Ryan - the former Director of Indian Education - and John Collier - the former commissioner of Indian Affairs - tried to introduce changes to the boarding school system, but Collier’s Indian New Deal fell off during World War II. Will Carson Ryan and Williard Walcott Beatty - Ryan’s successor - only had a few years to change the boarding school system. Fortunately, Ryan and Beatty were successful, as they provided funding for the schools, and most notably, closed down many of the boarding schools that were mentioned in the Meriam Report. Finally, in 1946, the Navajo Special Program sought to “overcome some of the deficiencies in Navajo Education.” (Szasz, pg. 381) The project proved to be successful.

Much of the information brought up in this article is important to my topic, for example, the Meriam Report of 1928. It also brought up programs that I have never heard of, like the Navajo Special Program. Considering that Pueblo Bonito Boarding School was a federal Boarding School, I feel like many of the programs, changes, and conditions mentioned in the article heavily influenced the school, even throughout its changes.

Szasz Margaret Connell. Federal Boarding Schools and the Indian Child: 1920-1960. South Dakota State Historical Society, https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-7-4/federal- boarding-schools-and-the-indian-child-1920-1960/vol-07-no-4-federal- boarding-schools-and-the-indian-child.pdf

Unknown. "Pupils at Carlisle Native Industrial School, Pennsylvania (c. 1900)" Frontier Forts, 8 Dec. 2022, https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/images/carlisle.html

This chapter focuses on the creation of Boarding Schools and how the Miriam Report came to affect Native American Education as a whole - Including Navajo Education. Before Bosque Redondo or the Navajo Long Walk, the Federal Government never forced the Navajos to attend school. However, when the Treaty of 1868 was signed, many Navajos were obligated to attend school. However, many of the early Boarding Schools failed, and eventually, the Rev. Eleazor Wheelock approach was used to assimilate Native Americans. Eventually, the boarding schools grew in size, and by the end of 1930, 5,000 Navajos attended primary school. However, in 1926, Lewis Meriam released the Meriam Report, which highlighted the problems in Native areas, or in our case, education. Some of the recommendations included removing the “routinization” in boarding schools, not requiring a uniform and standardized curriculum, and other demands that would’ve improved the boarding schools for Native Americans as a whole.

The information and recommendations from the Meriam Report have a big impact on Boarding Schools as a whole, as many schools closed down as a result of the Meriam Report. I can see how this affects Pueblo Bonito, as many photos of the old school seem to have been when the boarding school was militarized, like many of the other boarding schools at the time. Unfortunately, many of the recommendations in the Meriam Report have gone ignored, as the boarding schools changed ever so slightly.

Thompson, Hildegard. “Navajo Education before 1930.” The Navajo's Long Walk of Education: History of Navajo Education, Navajo Community College Press, Tsaile, AZ, 1975, pp. 25–34.

Unknown. "Wounded Yellow Robe, Henry Standing Bear and Chauncy Yellow Robe, Sioux boys before and after they entered school in 1883 and three years later." Dickinson College Archives, 10 Dec. 2021, https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/the-history-of-minnesotas-native- american-boarding-schools/89-78048d07-1af1-475f-bf15-0a47fc59bfe6.

The video is a collection of many personal stories of the Navajo Boarding Schools. The video begins by explaining the 19th-century boarding schools, and how they took Navajo children away. The rest of the video explains the many experiences of boarding schools from different perspectives. For example, one person claimed they never learned basic English or Math, and another person claimed that they could never learn their language in the boarding schools.

Many of the experiences shared in the video are universal to any Native American who had to live in Boarding Schools, but in our case, the Boarding Schools did more damage than good. It stripped away many of people’s native identities, and it gave many other non-native people a bad interpretation of Native Americans. Considering many of the policies and programs at this time, this video gives us a glimpse at what Pueblo Bonito could’ve been when it was first established.

Jackson, Tracie. “Navajo Boarding School.” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Jan. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5HFmvw2ZM. 

Johnson, Gwilym. Personal Photo, 13 Nov, 2022

On the week of Nov. 6, I began searching for Herbert C. Statcher's book, "History of Crownpoint, New Mexico: 1910 to 1935 while Samuel Franklin Stacher was in charge as Superintendent." The book contains photos and a biography of Samuel F. Stacher, who established Pueblo Bonito Indian School. Previously, this book has been missing from the T'iis Ts'ozi Bi'olta school library. My goal with this Action Plan is to make this book readily available to those at T'iis Ts'ozi Bi'olta, and make it available online through the Internet Archive. I was able to scan a copy of the book at the UNM Zimmerman Library.

Johnson, Gwilym. Personal Photo, 13 Nov, 2022