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Bibliography of Indian Boarding Schools: Approximately 1875 TO 1940

Labriola Center


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The following bibliography lists reference material dealing with Indian boarding schools during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These resources include material found in the Labriola National American Indian Data Center in the University Libraries at Arizona State University, websites, and other research facilities. This subject guide is also located on the Labriola Center website at www.asu.edu/lib/archives/labriola.htm



GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT BOARDING SCHOOLS


The most famous boarding school for Indian children was the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, founded by Richard Pratt in 1879. The philosophy and intent of this and most subsequent schools was to assimilate Indian children by removing them from their native cultures, and teaching them the manners, dress, and job skills that were deemed important by the school founders and administrators.
Carlise Indian School

While boarding schools still exist, most had changed their practices of forced assimilation by the 1930s. This bibliography only covers the schools from 1879 to 1940. It does not contain any novels. It is not a complete list.



Books

Aboriginal Education: Fulfilling the Promise, Marlene Brant Castellano, Lynne Davis and Louise Lahache. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000.  Education is at the heart of the struggle of Aboriginal peoples to regain control over their lives as communities and nations. The promise of education is that it will instruct the people in ways to live long and well, respecting the wisdom of their ancestors and fulfilling their responsibilities in the circle of life. Aboriginal Education documents the significant gains in recent years in fulfilling this promise. It also analyzes the institutional inertia and government policies that continue to get in the way.

American Indian Children at School, 1850-1930, Michael C. Coleman. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.  Indian autobiographies from many published sources give an overview of life at the boarding schools.  A bibliography of these primary sources is included. 

American Indian Education: A History, Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004.  In this comprehensive history of American Indian education in the United States from colonial times to the present, historians and educators Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder explore the broad spectrum of Native experiences in missionary, government, and tribal boarding and day schools. This up-to-date survey is the first one-volume source for those interested in educational reform policies and missionary and government efforts to Christianize and "civilize" American Indian children.

American Indians and Alaska Natives in Postsecondary Education, D. Michael Pavel.Washington, DC : U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, 1998.

Assimilation’s Agent: My Life as a Superintendent in the Indian Boarding School System, Edwin L. Chalcraft. Edited and with an introduction by Cary C. Collins.  Lincoln:  University of Nebraska Press, 2004.  During the 19th century, Chalcraft was a superintendent in off-reservation boarding schools in the Pacific Northwest.

Away from Home:  American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000, Margaret L. Archuleta, Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima, editors.  Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2000. (Created for the Heard Museum’s 2001 exhibit on boarding schools.)

Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940, Brenda J. Child.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.  Child uses interviews, letters from children, and archival sources to describe boarding school life from the perspective of former students and their families.  Focus is on Flandreau and Haskell Institute.

Education and the American Indian: the Road to Self-determination Since 1928, Margaret Szasz. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.  First published in 1974, Education and the American Indian has been widely praised as the first full-length study of federal Indian policy. This revised edition brings the book up to date through 1998 with the addition of analysis and interpretation of trends and policies that have shaped Indian education in the 1980s and 1990s and will persist into the twenty-first century.


Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928, David Wallace Adams. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995.

“A History of Indian Education by the Mormons, 1830-1900,” Lawrence Coates.  Ed.D. Dissertation, Ball State University, 1969.

Indian Orphanages, Marilyn Holt. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2001.  Holt carefully examines the establishment of Indian orphanages in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a previously little-studied subject. She discusses the emergence of orphanages in tribal communities ranging from the Seneca to the Sioux and their provision of basic care, including education.

Learn in Beauty: Indigenous Education for a New Century, Jon Reyhner, ed. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University, 2000.  This volume contains papers submitted for the Second Annual Learn in Beauty Conference held at Northern Arizona University.


“Making an Indian Place in Urban Schools: Native Americans and Education in Phoenix, 1941-1984,” Stephen Amerman.  Ph.D. Dissertation, Arizona State University, 2002.  This dissertation adds to our understanding of an important aspect of Native American history that historians have been slow to write about: urbanization. Although many estimate that, for decades now, the number of Native Americans living in urban areas has actually exceeded the number living on reservations, historians are still only just beginning to listen to the important stories that urban Indians have to tell. The stories that most scholars have told have tended to focus on urban migration as a process that has forced Natives to undergo complete cultural assimilation, relegating those who fail to do so to lives of despair and poverty. Urban Indians themselves, however, tell a different, more complex, and more positive story. Phoenix, Arizona, with one of the largest Native populations of any city in the U.S., has been an excellent place to learn about these stories, and Phoenix's public schools serve as an illuminating place to learn about urban Indians' efforts to maintain their identities in city settings.

Native American Studies in Higher Education: Models for Collaboration Between Universities and Indigenous Nations, Duane Champage and Jay Stauss, eds. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002.  In this collection, Champagne and Stauss examine the decades-long struggle in higher education to build Native Studies from the ground up and to develop key working models for indigenous studies in American university settings. The individual contributors provide rich, contextual histories of the last four decades of these programs, describing and analyzing their evolution, administrative and financial relationships, philosophies, course development, and in general their successes and failures.

Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education, Karen Swisher and John Tippeconnic III, eds. Chareston, West Virginia: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, 1999.  What is "Indian education" today? What will it look like in the future? The editors and 12 other Native scholars respond with 13 chapters that help readers explore two important themes: (1) education for tribal self-determination and (2) the need to turn away from discredited deficit theories of education to an approach that builds on the strengths of Native languages and culture and the basic resilience of indigenous peoples.

A Place to be Navajo: Rough Rock and the Struggle for Self Determination in Indigenous Schooling, T.L. McCarty.  Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.  This is an ethnographic account of a revolutionary indigenous self-determination movement that began in 1966 with the Rough Rock Demonstration School. Called Dine Bi'olta, The People's School, in recognition of its status as the first American Indian community-controlled school, Rough Rock was the first to teach in the Native language and to produce a body of quality children's literature by and about Navajo people.

Shaping Survival: Essays by Four American Indian Tribal Women, Lanniko Lee, et al. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2002. This book covers the educational experiences of four American Indian women who were educated in schools such as the Bureau of Indian Affiars boarding schools, off-reservation public schools, and Indian mission schools.

To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sports at Native American Boarding Schools, John Bloom. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. (On the same subject, see American Indian Sports Heritage, chapters 8, 9, and 10, by Joseph B. Oxendine.)




 


In addition, these books focus on particular schools:


To Change Them Forever; Indian Education at the Rainy Mountain Boarding School, 1893-1920, Clyde Ellis. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996 (also available on-line).

Indians at Hampton Institute 1877-1923, Donal F. Lindsey. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
They Called it Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School, K. Tsianina Lomawaima. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

The Rapid City Indian School, 1989-1933, Scott D. Riney. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
The Phoenix Indian School, Forced Assimilation in Arizona, 1891-1935, Robert Trennert. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988 (also available on-line).

"The History of Saint John's Indian Mission at Komatke, Wisconsin," Sister M. Bernaleen Bothe, O.S.F. (Thesis) Washington DC: Catholic University of America, 1953.


These two books focus on women's boarding schools started by the tribes themselves, in the 1850s:
Listening to our Grandmothers' Stories; The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females, 1852-1949, Amanda J. Cobb. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000
Cultivating the Rosebuds: The Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851-1909, Devon A. Mihesuah. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.


Reference Books with Articles on Boarding Schools


Many of the reference books in the Labriola Center have information on boarding schools. Most of the encyclopedias have articles under such topics as Education, Churches and Education, BIA Schools, Boarding Schoos, etc. Other books, such as Statistical Record of Native North Americans, will have information that can add to your research.


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Journal Articles


There are several ways to find articles on-line. Here are a few suggestions.

  • From the Hayden Library's home page, click on Research Databases. Under Specific Subject, drag to or type in American Indians, and click on Go. You'll have access to 12 data bases-most of these have encyclopedia-type entries on boarding schools.
  • From the Hayden Library's home page, click on Resources, then on E-Journals, then on E-Journals by collection. You'll get a list of many collections; some will be helpful. Annual Reviews-Social Sciences, Cambridge On-line Journals, and JStor, for example, all have articles on boarding schools.

  • From the Hayden Library's home page, click on Research Databases, and click on ERIC. ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) has many articles about boarding schools and all aspects of Indian education.


Oral Histories


The American Indian Oral History Collection contains microfilm transcripts of some 700 interviews with members of the Navajo Nation, and from members of the Pueblo Tribes, some of which deal with boarding schools. Ask for guide E77.6 .G854 2000.

The Oral History Tapes of Ralph Cameron (Pima-Maricopa) contain information on the daily student schedule at Phoneix Indian School from 1926-1931(Tape 2) and his education at the Sherman Institute in Riverside, CA in 1931 (Tape 3.)




Periodicals


The Labriola Center has a collection of magazines and newsletters from the early twentieth century that were produced by Indian boarding schools, or were about the schools. These periodicals were collected by the Princeton University Library, the Smithsonian Institution, and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. These are on microfilm or microfiche. Some examples are:

  • Indian School Journal, 1905-1977, published by the Chilocco Indian School
  • The Native American, Devoted to Indian Education 1900-1931, precursor to The Phoenix Redskin
  • The Phoenix Redskin, 1930s and 1940s
  • The Red Man: An Illustrated Magazine Printed by Indians, 1909-1917
  • Journal of American Indian Education, produced by the Center for Indian Education at Arizona State University

Internet Sites


Caution: Before using the information from any web pages in your paper, be certain that your source is legitimate and accurate.



Photographs

A search of the Hayden Library's American Indian Index and the Arizona and Southwest Index will bring up many of our photographic resources: color postcards of the Carlisle Indiustrial School, the papers and photographs of Fr. Augustine Schwarz from the 1920s, and slide collections of the Phoenix Indian School, the Ganado Boarding School, the Gila River Indian Community, the Casa Blanca and Blackwater Community Schools, and the Sherman Indian School in Riverside, CA.

students at work

Dorothy Parker Collection MSS-141:1/11.24


Manuscript Collections


There are finding guides for several collections of personal papers and manuscripts that deal directly with Indian boarding schools. The Dorothy L. Parker Papers, for example, document the closing of the Phoenix Indian School, and the Wayne T. Pratt Papers cover the BIA schools. We also have collections that pertain to different aspects of Indian education.


Videos

  • In the White Man's Image (American Experience): Covers Capt. Richard Pratt's experiment on assimilation of American Indians in boarding schools
  • Children of Wind River: Uses interviews and archival photos to describe traditional child rearing methods, and the impact of boarding schools on Shoshone and Arapahoe people.
  • Spirit of the Dawn: Documentary about Indian education in the US, using the experience of the Montana Crow Indians. Archival footage included.
  • White Man's Way: Uses interviews with former students and archival photos, to describe the Indian School in Genoa, Nebraska and gives a history of the boarding schools.

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Ephemera

A search of the Hayden Library's American Indian Index will bring up some interesting miscellaneous items. We have an 1885 article from Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly called "Educating the Indians," about the Carlisle School. More recent articles include testimony from the Shoshone/Bannock Tribes Tribal Education Committee, and a July 1989 report titled "From the Boarding Schools to Self-Determination," by Washington's Indian Education Office. We also have the following:

  • Statistics of Tribes, Agencies, and Schools, published by the BIA.  This is a reprint of a 1903 book that listed all tribes, agencies, and Indian schools, showing their population or enrollment, land holdings, buildings, amenities (such as plumbing), etc.
  • Carlisle Indian School Yearbook, 1917
  • Carlisle Indian School Annual Reports, 1909-1912

Government Documents

The Labriola Center has a number of collections from the National Archives and Records Administration.  One set of records is the Superintendents’ Annual Narrative & Statistical Reports from the Field Jurisdictions of the BIA, 1907-1938(174 reels documenting the accomplishments of agencies, schools, and hospitals—including maps, photos, and newsletters.)  The Bureau of Indian Affairs Records Created by the Santa Fe Indian School, 1890-1918 includes 38 reels of film.  The Santa Fe School provided industrial training for children from Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

Newspapers

The Ganado News Bulletin was produced by the Ganado Mission from 1929-1969 and contains information about Navajo Boarding Schools.


Vickey Kalambakal, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Labriola National American Indian Data Center
University Libraries, Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona 85287          Fall 2001
 Revised 2/06


Page last modified: July 03, 2008