Arizona Boarding Schools: Labriola National American Indian Data Center Archives

American Indian Boarding School History 

The American Indian Boarding School is a dark, detrimental history against Native American children and communities to eradicate Native American’s livelihood, culture, and language in an attempt to assimilate Native American people to Anglo American society.  According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, a total of 526 American Indian Boarding Schools, both federally and church run, were operating across the United States between 1819 to 1978.  The Civilization Fund Act of 1819 led to the development of providing education to Native American children with the intent to assimilate and indoctrinate Native American children into Anglo society and culture. The first American Indian Boarding school began with church and missionaries, later establishing the Bureau of Indian Affairs to develop off-reservation boarding schools with Carlisle Indian School being the first. Carlisle’s militarized, industrial, and vocational schools became a model for all American Indian Boarding Schools being developed in the early 19th and mid 20th century across the US. Boarding schools began to make slight improvements after the release of the 1926 Meriam, which reported horrific conditions and negative findings of the health, economy, and education from the American Indian Boarding School systems for Native American communities. 

Native American Children’s Boarding School Experience

The daily life of Native American children experienced physical, sexual, and verbal abuse in both federal and church operated Indian Boarding Schools.  The harmful tactics inflicted upon Native American children began by forcibly removing thousands of Native American children from their homes and families. Families that resisted sending their children to boarding schools were threatened to not receive aid from the Federal government.  Upon arrival at these boarding schools, children were lined up in military fashion to have their hair cut and given military-like uniforms. Native American children would be forbidden to speak their language and engage with cultural song and prayer, in doing so, children were physically punished. Native American children were also used as labor for local farmers surrounding the school and assisted as supply laborers for local businesses.  The removal from family and the abuse inflicted within the Indian Boarding Schools have caused significant trauma among Native American communities as these harmful and abusive tactics became intergenerational trauma impacting their family structures.

Arizona Indian Boarding Schools

The Phoenix Indian School (PIS) was among those boarding schools that exemplified a militarized, industrial school system to provide children labor to local Phoenix businesses and farmers. Arizona had nearly 50 American Indian Boardings Schools operating across the state with the majority of the schools operating in Navajo Country. The Robert Trennert Collection housed in Labriola National American Indian Data Center contains correspondence detailing its goal to make the Phoenix Indian School the second Carlisle in the Southwest, including mentions of students complaining about the Superintendent's behavior. Further, the PIS superintendent was competing against surrounding schools, such as Sherman Indian School and Albuquerque Indian School, for Native American student recruitment and enrollment. You can read more about the Phoenix Indian School by reading this blog post by Janine Nelson. The Charles Newton Collection in Labriola provides some context of his interaction with some of the students attending the Western Navajo Training School later to be changed to Blue Canyon School. The Dorothy Parker Papers contains her research on the Phoenix Indian School for her published book, Phoenix Indian School: The Second Half-Century. 

-Written by Vina Begay (Diné), Archivist and Assistant Librarian at the Labriola National American Indian Data Center

 

 

Arizona Boarding Schools: The Charles Newton Collection 1901-1903

Collection Identification Number: MSS-140

This collection was purchased from Charles Apfelbaum Rare Manuscripts and Archives on September 18, 1996 (ACC# 1996-01772).

The Charles Newton Collection consists of 35 handwritten letters that Newton wrote to his friends and family while stationed at the Western Navajo Training School at Algert, Arizona. These letters range from 1902 to 1903 and capture a portion of his life before his passing in 1904. Charles Newton was a staff member of the school, providing health care to students and faculty. Prior to working at the school, he was an Assistant Surgeon in the 10th Ohio Infantry Regiment during the Spanish-American War. Shortly after the war, he would find out about the position available at the school and pursue it as a means to support himself and his family. As per one of the letters in the collection, he would arrive at the school in December 1902 and later die of tuberculosis on February 2, 1904.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States government began a series of efforts to assimilate American Indians into mainstream European American culture. After failed attempts at Indian removal, the government refocused their efforts into assimilating tribes. This assimilation era took place from 1887 to 1943. During this time the Office of Indian Affairs was created and established under the United States Department of War and was later transferred to the Department of the Interior. This agency was later renamed to the Bureau of Indian affairs by 1947 and adopted policies to educate American Indians in boarding schools.

Western Navajo Training School (a.k.a. Blue Canyon School) was one of the 47 boarding schools that were created here in Arizona. The Western Navajo Training School was located in Algert, a small town approximately 25 miles southeast of Tuba City that was founded by C.H. Algert. The town became abandoned after the BIA moved all operations, including the school, to Tuba City. Once relocated, the school repurposed to become a Mormon trading post and renamed the school Tuba City Boarding School. Portions of the Charles Newton Collection directly refer to this transition and provide more historical context behind the decision and process.

The Charles Newton collection details some of the transition include alleviating physical congestion as the school was assimilating hundreds of Navajo and Hopi students. On January 24, 1903, the administration began moving the school intermittently. However, most of the students and faculty would remain at the Blue Canyon location until further construction was done in Tuba. Through his correspondence, Charles Newton also mentioned the school’s intent is to  become a premier boarding school to contend against Carlisle. 

The Charles Newton collection details the  relationship between the Tribes in the area and the white settlers operating these schools and other businesses in the area. Letters in the collection frequently referred to the American Indian peoples as being troublemakers and some being worth saving. One of Newton’s letters mentioned naming  one of the students after him in his honor., Newton mentioned many of the Navajos would refer to himself and other settlers as Chindi’s, a Navajo word for devil or demon.

While at the Blue Canyon school, Newton established a relationship with the kids and often played games with them, even taking note of their physical prowess in some of his letters. He even began to become more familiar with the local tribal members to the point they stopped referring to him as a Chindi and instead referred to him as Shinaai, Navajo for older brother. Many of the children request to play or show them their dolls and toys. Later, he was invited to one of the students coming of age ceremony and provided his thoughts on it, referring to the prayers sung as gibberish. During a conversation with the head of the school, Sgt. Needleham  mentioned only the children were allowed to practice their traditions because “you [can] lead better than drive." 

Several letters refer to multiple confrontations between the settlers and the tribal members, including a dispute between a Navajo man and a Mormon trader who sold a pawned concho belt. At the time it was a common practice for traders to hold pawned items from sale so tribal members could buy their items back. Navajo families were often forced to pawn their family heirlooms and jewelry to afford to live as they were just recovering from removal in the 1860’s. One letter in particular in this collection alludes to this time being a rough economic period for Navajos in particular as they had massive flocks that led to overgrazing, foreshadowing the livestock reduction policies that would decimate the tribe's economy 30 years later.

Charles's letters  describe his experiences of providing medical support to the children, noting upon his arrival there were only 3-5 kids that were out due to an illness. Newton mentioned cases of eye issues were frequent due to environmental conditions. Newton identified some of the Navajo boys who died and was placed in  an army tent and burned as per Navajo customs.  In fear of withdrawing students from the school, the student’s death was not addressed and remained a secret. 

Mr. Newton went to work for Western Navajo Training School to build a foundation for himself and his family during his time. The Charles Newton Collection provided a look into a critical period of Arizona Tribes of Northern Arizona during the 1900s providing details, interaction and personal accounts of those managing and  attending the Blue Western Navajo Training School.  During the establishment of the Western Navajo Training School, locals collected rugs and jewelry, which the school later transcended into a Trading Post before its closure. 

I highly recommend checking out the Charles Newton Collection to learn about the Western Navajo Training School, including a first hand account into the life of a man that worked with Indigenous children at a pivotal time in history.  More information and photos of the school, its faculty, and some of the students can be found in the Walter Runke Collection located online at azmemory.azlibrary.gov or the Western Navajo Boarding school article at voanews.com. American Indian Data CenterTo learn more about the Charles Newton’s collection or his story, the collection is available at the  Labriola National American Indian Data Center. An appointment is required, please go to Ask-An-Archivist on the ASU Library website . Please note, all Labriola archive requests require 2-4 weeks in advance notice. 

 

-Written by Nataani Hanley-Moraga (Diné/Húŋkpapȟa Lakota/Chicano)

Newton, Charles (Charles William), 1867-1904. Charles Newton Collection 1901-1903.[http://azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/newton.xml]

 

Arizona Boarding Schools: Phoenix Indian School Collection, 1889-1935

Collection Identification Number: MS FM MSS-40

What is the Historical Background of the Phoenix Indian School?

The Phoenix Indian Industrial School came into existence after the Superintendent of Indian Schools, Daniel Dorchester, had proposed in a letter to the commissioner of Indian Affairs, Thomas Morgan or T. J. Morgan, for a boarding school to be built in Fort McDowell. He goes on to explain that it was a more ideal location for Indian children in surrounding communities to be sent there rather than to other areas that were not too agreeable to their environmental upbringing. He commented that “many pupils from southern Arizona have either died at Albuquerque or been carried home to die.” After further planning and discussions were held between the superintendents and commissioner to secure an area for the school, it was finally established and opened to accept pupils in 1891 at Phoenix, Arizona. Indian Commissioner, Thomas Morgan, commented during the opening that "it's cheaper to educate Indians than to kill them." The schools' mission was to "civilize" and assimilate the Indians to American society through a process of education that sought to obliterate their native cultures. The Phoenix Indian School was one of some 150 institutions for Indian wards of the U.S. Government and was at times regarded as the “Carlisle of the West” because of how successful it had been.

Who Managed the Phoenix Indian School?

Primarily, the Phoenix Indian Industrial School originally operated as a boarding school for American Indian children by the Bureau of Indian Affairs up until 1990. Daniel Dorchester, a reverend and appointed Superintendent of Indian Schools, introduced the idea to establish a school in the southwest area. Thomas J. Morgan, the commissioner of Indian Affairs, was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889 to promote education for Native Americans until 1893. Wellington Rich, first Superintendent of Phoenix Boarding School, had helped get the school up and running by gathering pupils and pushing for buildings to be better maintained from 1890 until 1893. Harwood Hall, second Superintendent of Phoenix Boarding School from 1893 to 1897, started the “outing system” for students to be employed by local families building their skills and earnings while having the school’s pupils’ best interests in mind. Samual M. McCowan, third Superintendent of Phoenix Boarding School from 1897 to 1901, gathered more pupils from other tribes outside from the local tribes and was not deemed very favorable among the Native people and students. There are more people who had managed the school after McCowan although I was only able to get up to the third superintendent with the amount of time I was given to look through Robert Trennert’s collection.

How Many Years Did the Phoenix Indian School Operate?

PIS was active from 1891 until 1990, so the school had operated for a total of 99 years. Originally an industrial school that had later converted into a boarding school because of the many attendees that later became a regular school with Native Americans as a majority of the student body.

How Many Tribal Nations Were Enrolled in the Phoenix Indian School?

Initially the school prioritized local Tribal communities to attend the Phoenix Indian School for the sake of the student’s natural environmental upbringing. As time went on and the Superintendent’s ambitions to become the greatest Indian school grew, other children from different Tribal Nations outside of Arizona were obtained. Based on the research I had seen, there were at least 8 different Tribal Nations that were attending.

What Was the Experience of the Native American Students at PIS?

The experiences of the Native American students who had to attend the Phoenix Indian School varied and I was only able to see a few mentions of their experiences while I looked through the documents of the early years of the school. The few experiences that were mentioned were conveyed through other people who had enough empathy for them to mention it in a letter. Overall, “the model of organization and discipline was military. Student life was highly regimented, with little free time, uniforms and marching drills.” The Superintendents believed that a military type of management was the best method in handling the young students who attended. Such a lifestyle proved to be strenuous, difficult, and oppressive for them, but a few students who had attended later came out of that turmoil successful and went on to make an impact either in society or within their own tribes.

When Researching PIS, Why is it Important to Look at Archival Collections Rather than Utilizing Books? 

Archival collections are more personal and give almost a first-person view on an event compared to books which are told through the author’s point of view. Books are sometimes biased when retelling events and go through a process that edits the content contained in the book. Archival collections portray the original person’s thoughts, feelings, or expressions without having to go through edits or becoming biased.

What Archival Collections Had the Most Impact On You While Researching PIS?

The archival collection I interacted with most that also had a huge impact on me would be Robert Trennert’s collection. His collection had letters and documents that showed the development of one of the boarding schools that had affected local tribal communities. All stemming from a proposal to build a school for Natives that would eventually become a historical site.

What Archive Collection Do You Recommend for Researchers to Learn More About PIS?

Personally, I would say that Robert Trennert’s collection is a good first step to learn about PIS and later including Dorothy Parker’s collection gives a visual idea of what is told within the letters.

-Written by Janine Nelson (Diné)

Phoenix Indian School Collection, Robert Trennert MS FM MSS-40, Arizona State University Libraries

To view collection, please submit a request at Ask An Archivist with the provided citation above. Make sure to give 2-4 weeks advance notice when requesting archive material.

Arizona Boarding Schools: The Dorothy Parker Papers

Collection Identification Number: MSS-141

Dorothy Parker donated this collection in 1997 (ACC# 1997-01900). She obtained some of the material from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office in Phoenix and at the National Archives at Laguna Nigel, California, and in Washington, D.C. The National Park Service provided funding for her work.

Who is Dorothy Parker?

Dr. Dorothy Parker is an academic scholar and historian. In 1979, Parker moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and worked as a tour guide until enrolling in a PhD program at the University of New Mexico in 1983. She received her doctorate in 1988. Her dissertation, Singing an Indian Song: A Biography of D'Arcy McNickle was published in 1992. She taught United States and New Mexico History at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico until retiring at the rank of associate professor in 1996. Dr. Parker donated these papers to Arizona State University Library in 1997. As quoted from the Dorothy Parker Papers on Arizona Archives Online, "Parker's research on the Phoenix Indian School was funded by the National Park Service and came about through her acquaintance with Professor Robert Trennert at Arizona State University. Dr. Trennert previously published his research narrating the first fifty years of the school's history and was contacted by the National Park Service to write about the later period of the school's existence. At that time, Trennert was involved with other research, so he asked if Parker was interested in taking on this project. The National Park Service was involved in the final disposition of the Phoenix Indian School property in a rather complicated real estate exchange." 

What is Within the Collection?

The Dorothy Parker Papers is a research collection for Parker's book on the Phoenix Indian School's second half history. The collection consists of one box with 12 folders that contain publications, transcripts of an oral history, documents, a student-published yearbook called The Redskin, and 28 black and white photographs of Phoenix Indian School students. 

The first folder consists of Phoenix Indian School (PIS) history, with the bulk of the dates gathered from 1990. 1990 is the year of the school's closure. A timeline of the Phoenix Indian School principles is included, as well as major events that took place at the school such as building a sanatorium due to cramped quarters and student death toll from tuberculosis. A newspaper clipping documents an archeological study from the National Park Service on a dump site at the Phoenix Indian School. The Department of the Interior, the Barron Collier Co., and the City of Phoenix agreed to a "Florida Land Swamp," where the Barron Collier Co. would exchange 108,000 acres of environmentally sensitive everglade land in Florida for the Phoenix Indian School. The Phoenix Indian School would be converted into a theme park, accompanied by a Veterans' retirement community dedicated to leisurely living.

The second folder contains a copy of Phoenix Indian School's 1990 yearbook, called The Redskin. This yearbook captures the authentic voice of Native students at that time, including photo collages of staff, clubs, and students accompanied by captions written by the students. The Phoenix Indian School's print shop is referenced in the photos and the interview transcript. This print shop was popular amongst the students and was used to create intertribal communication methods such as the development of Navajo language newspapers.

The Dorothy Parker Papers contains U.S. Army Documents that chronicle "The Story of the Bushmasters" which covers the 158th Infantry Regiment's involvement in the Cold War. The 158th Regiment was also heavily involved in World War II. Students from the Phoenix Indian School took part in this infantry, including Ira Hayes, a member of the Mojave tribe, who was infamously photographed by Joe Rosenthal in the flag-raising on Iwo Jima during World War II.

The final folders contain black and white photographs of students ranging from 1940 to 1960. One series contains images of students performing the birth of Jesus Christ. Another series of photos portrays students learning trade school skills, such as agriculture, welding, auto mechanics, homemaking, and typing. Several photographs at the end show snapshots of students dressed in traditional regalia.

At the back of the archive box are transcripts of an oral history. During Parker's early research of the Phoenix Indian Boarding School, she interviewed Glenn C. Lundeen, who was principal in 1947 and appointed superintendent of Phoenix Indian School until 1965. His interview is transcribed from audio tape, and contains valuable insights on student life at Phoenix Indian School as well as educational policy after the passing of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934.

The Dorothy Parker Papers provides context on the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Arizona during the 1950's, especially from the thoughts of policy and administration from the interviews with Glenn Lundeen. The history of the school can be further explored in the Jean Chaudhuri Papers, where researchers can find details on social justice movements that Chaudhuri led to prevent the closure of Phoenix Indian School. 

 

-Written by Yitazba Largo-Anderson

 

 

Citation:

Dorothy Parker Papers, MSS-141, Arizona State University Library.