The Reclaiming the Narrative: Learning the Truth about Indian Boarding Schools in Arizona workshop will include five days of learning about the history and legacies of Indian boarding schools in Arizona and beyond. Throughout the week an emphasis will be placed on learning from Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, teacher educators, and local and national community and professional experts through experiential and place-based activities.
Arrival
The workshop will begin on Sunday evening with an optional meet and greet opportunity at the Heard Museum. Participants will have the opportunity to network and build relationships with other educators and project staff to establish a sense of community for the week ahead.
Day 1
The first full day of the workshop will provide an introduction and tour of the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center. To provide a balanced perspective, participants will hear about both positive and negative student experiences at Phoenix Indian School. Additionally, participants will learn about the contemporary efforts of the PISVC to ensure the preservation of this historic site. The day will also include a presentation on federal Indian policy and tribal sovereignty. Participants will travel to the Heard Museum to engage in a guided tour of the Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories exhibit with time to explore the exhibit independently. The day will close with a guided exploration of the Heard Museum’s archives.
Throughout the day participants will consider the following thematic questions:
Throughout the day participants will consider the following thematic questions:
- How were Indigenous families and nations affected by Indian boarding schools and how were Indian boarding schools affected by Indigenous students?
- How did place and land play a role in Indian Boarding Schools policies and practices?
- How were the Indian Boarding Schools part of Federal policy towards Tribal Nations?
Day 2
On day two, participants will dive deeper into the historical context and impacts of Indian boarding schools. The day will begin with lecture from Dr. Lomawaima on federal Indian policy, education, and tribal sovereignty. Dr. Casie Wise, will facilitate an experiential activity called the Blanket Exercise to deepen participant’s understanding of the impacts of federal Indian policy particularly Indian boarding schools. Dr. Wise will then provide an interactive presentation on recognizing and healing Indian boarding school era historical trauma drawing on NIEA’s free 40-lesson curriculum created in partnership with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition which will be available on-site for educators to take home courtesy of NIEA.
Throughout the day participants will consider the following thematic questions:
Throughout the day participants will consider the following thematic questions:
- How did the trust relationship develop between the Federal Government and Tribal Nations and what role did place and land play in that relationship?
- How do the legacies of Indian boarding schools continue to impact Tribal Nations today?
- How can we center healing when teaching about Indian boarding schools?
Day 3
On the third day, participants will travel to a local tribal nation and all learning will take place at the Huhugam Heritage Center (HCC) run by the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). Participants will receive a guided tour of the exhibits within HHC, including an exhibit about the former Japanese incarceration camp located on the GRIC reservation. Teachers will engage in a discussion about connections between Indian boarding schools and other instances of displacement drawing on the previous day’s learning about historical trauma and healing. The GRIC TED staff will provide a presentation on the local history of the GRIC touching on place-based instances of historical trauma. The GRIC TED staff will share examples of how GRIC has leveraged their tribal sovereignty to address the contemporary legacies of Indian boarding school policies and practices to support cultural revitalization efforts. Building on the examples shared by the GRIC TED staff, Dr. Angelina Castagno, will provide a guest lecture on culturally responsive Indigenous curriculum and instructional guidance that encourages educators to consider how they can leverage local and regional Indigenous knowledge to teach about the history and legacies of Indian boarding schools and reinforce the Native nation-building efforts of tribal nations. The third day of the workshop will end with an overview of the place-based curricular project. Participants will be encouraged to consider potential topics they would like to explore in conjunction with Indian boarding schools through their project.
Throughout the day participants will consider the following thematic questions:
Throughout the day participants will consider the following thematic questions:
- How do the historical and contemporary legacies of Indian Boarding School displacement mirror other displacements of peoples?
- How are Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples addressing the contemporary legacies of Indian boarding schools?
- How can all teachers affirm tribal sovereignty and native nation-building efforts in the classroom?
Day 4
Day four will continue to push educators to shift beyond trauma towards narratives of survivance and sovereignty and all learning will occur at the Labriola National American Indian Data Center located on Arizona State University’s campus in Tempe, Arizona. Following a welcome from Labriola’s Director Alexander Soto, participants will have the opportunity to hear examples of culturally responsive place-based lessons from a panel of educators who participated in either professional development institutes or Indigenous-focused teacher preparation programs within Arizona. The panel presentation and discussion will expose educators to real life examples that they can draw from in their own place-based curricular project. Time will be allocated for participants to collaborate on their projects and check-in with program staff on their topic selection. The fourth day will close with an interactive workshop on decolonizing and indigenizing how we consider archival materials. The workshop will focus on respecting cultural protocols around Indigenous knowledge and leveraging community-based archival resources to provide balanced narratives on Indian boarding schools in the classroom. That evening, participants will celebrate their learning journey at a closing celebration dinner hosted by the Heard Museum.
Throughout the day educators will consider the following thematic questions:
Throughout the day educators will consider the following thematic questions:
- How can we bring a balanced approach to teaching about Indian boarding schools?
- How can we reconsider the ways we think about archival materials and community-based knowledge?
- What does it look like to respect Indigenous cultural protocols in the K-12 context?
Day 5
The final day of the workshop will focus on collaboration between participants for the purpose of creating and planning place-based curricula about the history and ongoing legacies of Indian boarding schools. The day will begin with a morning seminar facilitated by the Academic Co-directors. Teachers will then have open planning and collaboration time to work on their curricular project proposal posters. Teachers will engage in two rounds of a gallery walk where they will present their project proposal posters including the topic of their project, the major themes and essential questions students will explore, the places of significance within their project, and the community partners they will engage with to incorporate local and regional Indigenous knowledge. The day will close with an overview of the follow up virtual communities of practice, expectations for submitting their final place-based curricular projects, and closing remarks from the core project team.
Session Dates
The workshop dates are Session 1: June 23-28, 2024 or Session 2: July 7-12, 2024. Both sessions will contain the same site visits, lectures, and content
Why Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center
As a historic landmark, the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center (PISVC) - operated by Native American Connections (NAC) – offers the opportunity for teachers to learn about both student experiences at a specific school site and the larger historical context of the relationship between the Federal Government and the Native Nations of North America. Teachers will visit and learn in buildings that have been preserved and tour the surrounding grounds. Additionally, PISVC includes ample learning space where visiting scholars and community experts can provide lecture style and interactive presentations. These modern learning spaces afford teachers a chance to experience the resilience of the Native community in Phoenix in turning the historic site into a purposeful and positive educational opportunity. Lastly, the surrounding Phoenix metropolitan area offers many opportunities to learn Indigenous ways of knowing and being that were targeted during the boarding school era and are now undergoing major revitalization.