USU Participates in Project to Preserve Native American Boarding School History in the West

LOGAN, Utah — Utah State University has joined in a collaborative effort with University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and Northeastern State University to preserve Native American histories with an emphasis in oral history, art and archaeology.

The project, titled “Indigenous Truthtelling of Boarding Schools,” was awarded The National Historical Publications and Records Commission Mellon Planning Grant last month.

The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA) and the USU Libraries have organized, archived and preserved digital and physical collections of the Intermountain Intertribal Indian School, a federal boarding school that closed in the late 20th century.

NEHMA will contribute to the conservation and exhibition of 12 murals painted by Intermountain alumni and develop lesson plans for Utah K-12 students throughout Utah that highlight Intermountain art.

“NEHMA is very committed to this project, working with alumni and scholars, such as Dr. Farina King, to bring to light the powerful artwork created at Intermountain,” said NEHMA Executive Director and Chief Curator Katie Lee-Koven. “Collaborations like this, with Dr. King’s vision and leadership, give voice to our Indigenous community and ensure their stories are heard, elevated and accessible to a broader audience.”

To ensure the materials are accurate and culturally appropriate, NEHMA will work closely in collaboration with Native American educators and Intermountain alumni. This digital collection will help schools across the nation and globe connect to lesson plans and materials about American Indian boarding schools that are authentic and factual.

“I am excited to work on this project because it will allow us to centralize access to resources alongside our peers,” Government Information Librarian Jen Kirk said. “This collaborative project will allow us to learn from Indigenous communities, our colleagues and from the records themselves. This grant seeks to make records available for use in a variety of educational settings. I look forward to creating a space where the records can be studied, used and understood.”

The $120,000 grant will be managed by King, who is the University of Oklahoma’s Horizon Endowed Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture. King will oversee the administration of the grant dedicated to fostering collaborative digital editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American and Native American History and Ethnic Studies.

“This collaboration bridges academia and community through connections to Indigenous boarding school survivors and alumni and their respective Native Nations to focus on experiences and perspectives that those most affected by boarding school policies want to emphasize,” King said.

King co-wrote Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School, which features works from students of the largest federal Indian boarding school between 1950 and 1984. Intermountain Indian School was located in Brigham City.

“[King] has worked with USU a number of times and I am so thankful for her leadership on this project,” Kirk said.

Along with King, the project team includes Native American Studies scholars, historians, archivists, librarians, art historians, museum specialists, curriculum designers, archeologists, geographers, educators, Indigenous boarding school survivors/alumni, and their descendants.

“This project gives us the opportunity to nurture and maintain trust with stakeholders, particularly those who are most affected by the emotional and cultural significance of the materials in our care,” Digital Archivist Sarah Berry said. “Collaboration with Indigenous communities is vital to ensure that historical materials are contextualized properly, and to amplify the diverse voices of those who lived and experienced history first-hand. Making archival materials more available to the public will eliminate barriers that prevent Indigenous communities from accessing their own history.”

With the grant, the team hopes that the digital edition will become a hub for linking classroom adoption plans and materials about Native American boarding schools for use at local, national, and international levels by educators and learners from a wide spectrum of ages and backgrounds. They seek to present a gateway to historical sources that show the constellation of diverse Native American boarding schools, their contexts, time periods, and people involved with and affected by them.

“I would like to see students use these materials to learn about individual’s experiences and the broader history of Indigenous people in the West,” Kirk said. “I am honored to be a part of this project and I look forward to working with my colleagues from so many different institutions.”

Berry, who has spent the past year collaborating with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation on a similar project, hopes this grant will lead to greater protection of vital Indigenous histories in the future.

“Resource sharing and centralized access to a wide variety of perspectives will promote greater understanding of the societal and cultural impact of Native American boarding schools,” Berry said. “Greater communication and collaboration between institutions, scholars, Indigenous groups, and families will lead to improved collecting, handling, and preservation practices for Indigenous and other archival materials.”

While the “Indigenous Truthtelling of Boarding Schools'' project spans many different locations and time periods, the main goal is to highlight different kinds of American Indian boarding schools and the lives of those involved. In doing so, the project demonstrates how Native American experiences and impacts of Indian boarding schools, including those funded by the federal government, denominations, and Native Nations themselves, matter to understanding the present and directions for the future.

Learn more at www.archives.gov/nhprc/.

As a land-grant institution, Utah State University campuses and centers reside and operate on the territories of the eight tribes of Utah, who have been living, working, and residing on this land from time immemorial. These tribes are the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Indians, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe, Northwestern Band of Shoshone, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, San Juan Southern Paiute, Skull Valley Band of Goshute, and White Mesa Band of the Ute Mountain Ute. We acknowledge these lands carry the stories of these Nations and their struggles for survival and identity. We recognize Elders past and present as peoples who have cared for, and continue to care for, the land. In offering this land acknowledgment, we affirm Indigenous self-governance history, experiences, and resiliency of the Native people who are still here today.