Indian Boarding and Residential Schools Sites of Conscience Project

Confronting Diverse Legacies of the Past
In the late 19th century, the governments of the United States and Canada began establishing boarding, or residential schools specifically to assimilate Native children. Through this educational experiment, they hoped to solve the “Indian problem” by “civilizing” the population, erasing their traditions, customs and identity from a young age. Thousands of Native children were forcibly sent far from their homes to live in these schools. Many struggled with loneliness and fear away from their tribal homes and familiar customs, but others thrived despite the hardships, forming lifelong friendships, rejecting the norms being imposed on them, and preserving their Indian identities.
The Indian Boarding and Residential Schools Sites of Conscience Project aims to use the history of boarding and residential schools to address critical questions about contemporary issues facing Native communities. The project works to establish school sites as new centers for communities to confront the difficult histories of boarding schools and to discuss their diverse legacies today.

Read about the latest activities of this and other networks here here.

Pilot Participants

Chilocco Indian Agricultural School
Contact: Bret Carter, Preservation Volunteer
Tel: 580-716-5649
Email: bretac@swbell.net

Founded in 1883-84, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School was one of the first, large off-reservation boarding schools established by the Federal Government for the education of American Indian students. The school offered academic and vocational training to children of tribes across the United States. Its mission of assimilation and acculturation developed over time with the development of new educational theories and changed relations between the Federal Government and the tribes. The former campus is now owned by the Cherokee, Kaw Nation, Ponca Nation, Tonkawa, Otoe Missouri Tribe and the Pawnee Nation, and the Council of Confederated Chilocco Tribes. It is the largest remaining site and best preserved of all the significant non-reservation American Indian schools and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Haskell Indian Industrial Training School
Contact: Linda Sue Warner, President
Haskell Indian Nations University
155 Indian Avenue
Lawrence, Kansas 66046-4800
USA
Tel: (785) 749-8497
Email: lwarner@haskell.edu

In 1884 Haskell Institute began as the United States Indian Industrial Training School, an educational programme that focused on agricultural education in grades one through five. Initially, the curriculum focused on assimilation – teaching the Indian boys and girls skills thought to be needed to become productive members of the dominant society. Industrial training became an important part of the curriculum in the early 1930s, and by 1935 Haskell began to evolve into a post-secondary school, vocational-technical institution.
Today, the site is home to Haskell Indian Nations University, which offers a college curriculum, integrating American Indian/Alaska Native culture into all its curricula, and is a national centre for Indian education, research, and cultural preservation. The site also includes the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum which offers exhibits, tours, limited research services, and a museum medicinal garden.

Sherman Indian School
Contact: Lorene Sisquoc, Museum Curator
Sherman Indian Museum
9010 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA 92503
USA
Tel: 951-276-6719
Email: lsisquoc@charter.net
Website: www.shermanindianmuseum.org

Sherman Indian High School was founded by the United States Government to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream society. Hundreds of Native American children were removed from their homes and tribal cultures, sent to these schools to be educated, taught a trade and required to conform to the dominant American society. Because of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ policies, students did not return home for several years and many died and were buried in the school cemetery which still remains. Today Sherman Indian High School still provides education for Native American students. The Sherman Museum is housed in the one remaining building of the original campus, offering guided and self-guided tours, school history lectures, a native plant garden, and cultural presentations including hands-on workshops on Native American toys and games, plant uses, rock art, music/instruments and basketry.