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American Indian Studies

This page is a starting point for all students researching American Indian issues. This guide is created by the Labriola National American Indian Data Center.

Article Databases

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.

Internet Sites

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

Miscellaneous

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.

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.

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

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.)

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.

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

Videos

Books

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. 

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

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.

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.

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.