Introduction/Background

(This is the introduction to Rose Honeys curriculum, “Indian Boarding Schools Along the Trail.”)

In 1819, just 13 years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s Voyage of Discovery that crossed parts of the Louisiana Purchase and a vast swath of what would become the United States, the U.S. Congress passed the “Civilization Fund Act.” This led to policies of assimilation for Native Americans who lived on lands that the U.S. was determined to acquire, such as the development of Indian Boarding Schools (Tyler, 1973). Though the Lewis and Clark exploration itself did not bring missionaries to Tribes along their route, there were two Tribes from the Rocky Mountain area that sent a delegation to St. Louis, seeking out Capt. Clark after the expedition. Some accounts say that this delegation was seeking religion, while other opinions say that was not the goal. In any case, this Tribal visit to St. Louis resulted in a quick response from missionaries of many denominations to set up missions across the western United States (National Park Service, 2002). The first mission school on record for Native American children, called Willamette Methodist Mission School at Mission Bottom, was founded near Salem, Oregon, in 1834 (Oregon State Parks, 2020). Many western missions were provided with funding from the “Civilization Fund Act,” because the goals of “educating” and “civilizing” Tribal children were aligned with assimilation and Christianization, disregarding the facts that Tribes lived in civil society and had their own religious beliefs and practices. The first Indian boarding school funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs was opened in 1860, and it is located on the Yakama Indian Reservation in what is now the state of Washington (Partnership with Native Americans, 2020).

What followed includes over a century of abuses and loss of culture for Native American Tribes across the country (Partnership with Native Americans, 2020). Indian boarding schools came to occupy almost every state from the beginning to the end of what has become known geographically as the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. This includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Mission and boarding schools have also impacted Tribes in other parts of North America. Known statistics indicate that by 1926, almost 83% of Native American children were attending a boarding school. In addition to being removed from families and communities, Tribal children and their families experienced a loss of language and culture and were exposed to a number of other traumas (e.g. forced labor, disappearance and death of children) that have impacted families for generations (The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, 2018). Developing and maintaining resiliency and healing from this kind of trauma in the present day includes strengthening cultural identity, connecting with others, and having a cultural relationship with those around us (Work, 2014).  Explore the Boarding Schools section in the Primary Source area of the Honoring Tribal Legacies site for more information on assimilation and the historical context of this topic (Wood, 2019).

This Honoring Tribal Legacies curriculum, entitled “Indian Boarding Schools Along the Trail,” focuses on the size and scale of the Native American boarding school effort, the political and social climate around this effort, the impacts that boarding schools have had on Native American Tribal communities, and the journey of healing and resilience that Tribal communities are taking in the face of the historical and generational trauma that still exists today.