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  • Residential Indian Schools

Residential Indian Schools

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Find a document in the Arizona State Library catalog that would be a good addition to this topic? Have a suggestion for another Arizona Research Topic? Contact us.

Decade: 
1890s, 1920s, 1930s, 1990s
Subject: 
Education, Native Americans

At the end of the 19th century, the United States established Indian Residential Schools with an objective of the forced assimilation of Native American children into Anglo-American Christian culture. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, built in 1879 in Pennsylvania, was the model for future Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. US Army Officer Richard Henry Pratt created the program based on his belief that “All the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him and save the man.”

Opened in 1891, the Phoenix Indian School was the only non-reservation Bureau of Indian Affairs-run school in Arizona. Students were brought from across Arizona, as well as from surrounding states, to receive an industrial or domestic education and to assimilate into mainstream culture. In other parts of Arizona, privately run religious schools were opened. The Tucson Indian Training School was a contract school run by Presbyterians. Students came primarily from Pima and Papago tribes. St. John’s Indian School in Laveen was established by Catholic priests.  The schools emphasized religious education.

By the 1920s, attitudes towards American Indian education were changing. In 1926 the Meriam Report recommended that schools abandon the teaching of European-American cultural values and instead teach students skills they would need to be successful within and outside of the tribal communities. Schools started to discard the program of assimilation. In the 1930s, Phoenix Indian School discontinued the lower grades, which moved to on-reservation schools, and began to serve only students in grades 9-12. As attitudes about American Indian education changed and with the Johnson-O’Malley Act of 1934, more tribes started building schools and taking control of the educational needs of their students. This shift lead to a decline in enrollment and the Phoenix Indian School closed in 1990.

Related Search Terms:

Indians of North America -- Cultural assimilation -- Arizona.

Indians of North America -- Education -- Arizona.

Resources

Research Documents
newspaper
A newspaper article (Educating Poor Lo, col. 2) describing the intent of Indian schools to eliminate Indian tribes and reservations by assimilating Native American students through forced attendance , 1899
newspaper
photo
A photograph of the buildings of the Presbyterian-run Tucson Indian Boarding School, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of young boys and girls wearing conventional Anglo-American clothing and hairstyles with their teachers at Tucson Indian Boarding School, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of older students wearing conventional Anglo-American clothing/uniforms and hairstyles and their teacher at Tucson Indian Boarding School, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of two young girls wearing matching dresses, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of two young men in military-style school uniforms with short hair cuts, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of students in organized lines for group exercise as teachers look on from a balcony, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph 9 young men wearing baseball uniforms, posing with bats and glove, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of a children’s kitchen detail, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of girls doing laundry in a large room, 1925
photo
photo
A photograph of 8 young women working at sewing machines under the supervision of 2 Anglo teachers, 1925
photo
document
A manual for day and residential Indian schools to guide menu planning and food preparation for students, 1936
Document
newspaper
A newspaper article announcing the opening of a new government school on the San Carlos reservation, 1899
newspaper
book
A book that “explores how American Indian schools taught children to abandon their cultural heritage and produce artificially “native” crafts that were exhibited at local and international fairs.”
book
Additional Resources

Ready for more information on this topic? You can find more resources, in addition to the ones listed below, in the State of Arizona Research Library located at the Polly Rosenbaum Archives and History Building, 1901 W. Madison St., Phoenix, AZ 85009. Phone: 602-926-3870 Hours: Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. If the collection has a second copy of a listed book, it may be available via interlibrary loan at your local library. Contact Us

vertical file
Vertical File Subject: Phoenix Indian School, Truxton Canyon Indian School
vertical file
biography
AZ Biographical Database
biography
archive
Arizona State Archives Collections: Residential Indian Schools in Arizona span a long time period, beginning with the Secretary of the Territory. Relevant information may be found in that collection within the records of Military and Indian Affairs. Please contact Archives for more information.
archive
book
The Phoenix Indian School: forced assimilation in Arizona, 1891-1935
book
document
Superintendents’ annual narrative and statistical reports; Phoenix sanatorium, Phoenix Indian School, 1907-1938 (microfilm reel 1011-102, 1011-103 located in archives) [This is a physical resource]
Document
book
Phoenix Indian School: the second half-century
book
book
Rattlesnake Mesa: stories from a native American childhood
book
book
The New Trail-Phoenix Indian School yearbook, 1932 & 1945
book
book
The Phoenix Redskin-Phoenix Indian School yearbook, 1955
book
book
Crusader-St. John’s Indian School yearbook, 1964
book
vertical file
Vertical File: Truxton Canyon Indian school. Neal Davis. Route 66 Magazine, Summer 2013, 26-29
vertical file
book
Away from home: American Indian boarding school experiences, 1879-2000
book
document
Indian child welfare act of 1978: questions and answers.
Document
document
Not for school, but for life* : lessons from the historical archaeology of the Phoenix Indian School.
Document
Related Topics

Japanese American Relocation and internment image
Japanese-American Relocation and Internment during World War II
image of Jameson O Malley Act
Johnson-O'Malley Act
image of navajo Hopie Relocation
Navajo-Hopi Relocation


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