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.

Bibliography

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.pdf

Alfred 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.pdf

Lizette Pocknett.pdf

Lizette 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.

Listen along with the story here!

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 Mattess

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 Ambers

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.

Mary Caesar

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.

Joseph Desjarlais

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many: NPR

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.

Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ Identities Today and Centuries Ago

Indian Country Today -- 8 Things You Should Know About Two Spirit People

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.

Further Resources

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