Resistance & Resilience:
The Silenced Stories of the Indigenous People Forced to Endure the Boarding School Era
Ali Laferriere & Jessica Scott (MA)
National Endowment for the Humanities: "We the People" Migrant Waves in the Making of America
Guiding Questions
How did Massachusetts media engage in the promotion of American Indian boarding schools?
How do Indigenous voices tell stories of experiences at the American Indian boarding schools and residential schools?
How did Indigenous children resist assimilation in these boarding schools?
Synopsis
This text-set provides resources that honor the stories of resistance and resilience during the American Indian boarding school era in the United States. Through oral histories, first hand accounts, poetry, fiction and multi-media, this collection highlights how Indigenous children maintained connection to their culture despite attempts to strip them of their identities. This text-set also provides examples of how Massachusetts used media to reinforce the inaccurate depictions of Indian boarding schools.
Background Information
The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School
Founded by Captian Richard H. Pratt in Pennsylvania in 1879, on the premise of his philosophy to "kill the Indian in him, and save the man" to assimilate Indigenous people into the United States. Pratt's Carlisle School lead to the formation of many more Federal Indian Schools across the United States.
CIS-Resources_PrattSpeechExcerptShort_0.pdf
Terms to know & understand in this Text Set
The terminology used by the United States Federal Government is to refer to Indigenous people as "American Indians," which was an overarching term to include Native Americans and Native Hawaiians.
Residential Schools - CA
Indian Boarding Schools - USA
Federal American Indian Boarding School Sites
Compiled by the US Department of the Interior, this map shows the 408 federally recognized boarding schools within the United States.
Primary Sources
Student Records from the Carlisle Indian School in PA
Alfred DeGasse.pdfAlfred DeGrasse
Student file of Alfred DeGrasse, a member of the Wampanoag Nation, who entered the school on November 7, 1904, graduated in 1911, and ultimately departed on May 5, 1911.
Aramantha Cooper
Student file of Aramantha Cooper, a member of the Algonquin Nation, who entered the school on September 6, 1904, and departed on March 28, 1905.
Amantha Cooper.pdfLizette Pocknett.pdfLizette Pocknett
Student file of Lizette Pocknett, a member of the Mashpee Nation, who entered the school on November 7, 1904 and departed on June 30, 1907.
Images from the Carlisle Indian School, PA
Wounded Yellow Robe, Henry Standing Bear and Chauncy Yellow Robe, Sioux boys before and after they entered school in 1883 and three years later. From Dickinson College Archives
Anna Laura (Pretty Woman) c. 1880
Lucy Black Shortnose, Anna Laura, Justine La Framboise and Nancy Renville, c. 1880
First group of female students c. 1879
Students and instructor working in front of the blacksmith's shop, c. 1880
Students working in the shoe shop, c. 1881
Boston MA Newspaper
April 25, 1966
The North Adams Transcript
North Adams, Massachusetts
July 26, 1924
The Daily Item
Lynn, Massachusetts
April 11, 1905
The Boston Evening Transcript
Boston, Massachusetts
April 17, 1907
The Boston Evening Transcript
Boston, Massachusetts
August 13, 1973
Fitchburg Sentinel
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Texts (Fiction & Non-Fiction)
Fiction for the High School Classroom
When We Were Alone
Written by David Robertson, Illustrated by Julie Flett
A young Indigenous girl who is curious about why her grandmother always wears colourful clothing, keeps her hair long, speaks Cree, and loves to spend time with her brother. Her grandmother explains how residential schools enforced conformity and tried to destroy the culture of Indigenous residents.
I Am Not A Number
Written by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer, Illustrated by Gillian Newland.
Based on a true story, Irene is taken away from her home on Nipissing First Nation and brought to a residential school. The book showcases the experiences she has at the boarding school, including getting in trouble for speaking her native language. Her family decides to remove her from school and take a stand on keeping her home instead of forcing her to return.
Two Roads
This novel, written by Joseph Bruchac, tells the story of Cal Black, a twelve-year-old boy traveling on the rails with his pop. When Pop has to go to Washington, DC, he tells Cal about an important part of their identity -- that they are Creek Indians. Cal is being sent to the Challagi School, a government boarding school for Native Americans in Oklahoma. This coming-of-age tale showcases Cal's experience at the school, learning more about his heritage while also facing harsh conditions.
Non-Fiction
Children Left Behind: The Dark Legacy of Indian Mission Boarding Schools
Tim Giago weaves memoir, commentary, reflection and poetry together to boldly illustrate his often-horrific experiences as a child at an Indian Mission boarding school run by the Catholic Church.
Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School
Adam Fortunate Eagle offers an unforgettable memoir of his years as a young student at Pipestone Indian Boarding School in Minnesota. In this firsthand account, Fortunate Eagle lives up to his reputation as a “contrary warrior” by disproving the popular view of Indian boarding schools as bleak and prisonlike.
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.
Viola Martinez, California Paiute: Living in Two Worlds
The life story of Viola Martinez, an Owens Valley Paiute Indian of eastern California, extends over nine decades of the twentieth century. Viola experienced forced assimilation in an Indian boarding school, overcame racial stereotypes to pursue a college degree, and spent several years working at a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. Finding herself poised uncertainly between Indian and white worlds, Viola was determined to turn her marginalized existence into an opportunity for personal empowerment. In Viola Martinez, California Paiute, Diana Meyers Bahr recounts Viola’s extraordinary life story and examines her strategies for dealing with acculturation.
Video / Audio
Oral Histories & Podcasts
Our Stories, Our Strength: A Collection from the Legacy of Hope Foundation
Created by the Legacy of Hope Foundation, which is an Indigenous-led charitable organization founded in 2000 with the goal of educating about the "true histories of the Residential Schools" and more. This collection specifically includes oral histories of survivors of the Residentials schools throughout Canada, and the videos and most transcripts are available online.
Lucille talks about her time at Lejac Indian Residential School in Fraser Lake, where she was for about 8 years. She talks about her struggles with anxiety and addiction in the years after attending the school
Basil, a survivor of St. Michael's in Alert Bay, explains about his early experience at the school, and the abuse he faced. He also talks about the food, and their experiences working while at school, and what he has done after leaving.
Mary talks about her time at Lower Post Residential School, and some of the trauma that she and her family suffered from the experience. Mary talks about her healing journey in the aftermath of the school, and that it is a work in progress as a survivor.
A survivor of multiple boarding schools, Joseph talks about his experience in the schools, including the abuse he faced, the ways he resisted, and the complicated legacy of the schools.
Produced and released on NPR, this podcast episode deals with the experiences of many students at the Federal Indian Boarding schools. Speaking to multiple survivors of the boarding school era, this episode by Charla Bear gives space to hear directly from those who lived the traumas of the schools, and creates a space to educate people about them. This is part one of a two part series.
Deb Haaland
NPR: Haaland seeks healing for Native American boarding School survivors
"The skirt, a traditional Native garment, outshone everything in the Eisenhower building – and there is a story of empowerment and survival behind it"
Deb Haaland being sworn in on March 18th.
Music & Visual
The Secret Path
by Gord Downie
The Secret Path is an animated film from Gord Downie that tells the true story of Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old boy who died while trying to escape from a residential school and travel back home to his family over 400 miles away.
Videos
Two Spirit and LGBTQ: Resistance: The Legacy and Impacts of Indian Boarding Schools
Indian Boarding Schools were in large part designed to permanently alter Indigenous understandings of gender and sexuality.
NABS held a panel exploring the experience of Two Spirit and lgbtq+ folks in Indian Boarding Schools, those who have experienced the intergenerational impacts of Indian Boarding Schools, and resilience.
Into the West - Carlisle Indian School
Into the West, produced by Steven Spielberg, shows a Hollywood depiction of the Carlisle Indian School.
How the US Stole Thousands of Native American Children
Following years of Indigenous activism, the US phased out of assimilation boarding schools, however, found a new way to assimilate Native American children: promoting their adoption into white families. Watch the episode to find out how these two distinct eras in US history have had lasting impacts on Native American families.
