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Ziibiwing Center's American Indian Boarding School Book List - United States

A Case Study of the American Indian Boarding School Movement: An Oral History of Saint Joseph’s Indian Industrial School
by Sarah Shillinger and Betsy Levonian Morgna
Edwin Mellen Press, 2008
ISBN-10: 0773450157                                                                     
Adult Level
This book discusses the success and failures of the American Indian Boarding Schools and provides an understanding of one of the greatest tragedies of federal policy towards Native Americans.  The Ultimate Failure of Saint Joseph’s Indian Industrial School and the affect it had upon the Menominee people. 

American Indian Children at School, 1850-1930
by Michael C. Coleman
University Press of Mississippi, 1993                                                                                      
ISBN-10: 0878056165                                                                            
Adult Level                                                                                                
This book contains autobiographical accounts from hundreds of former boarding school students who recall the attempts to eradicate their culture with Christian curriculum, military-style discipline, and the white staff that tried to alienate them from their culture.                                                     
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=80946387

American Indian Education: A History
by Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder
University of Oklahoma Press, 2004                     
ISBN-10: 0806137835
Adult Level  
The authors explore the broad spectrum of government, missionary, and Tribal boarding schools and discuss the policies to Christianize and civilize American Indian children.

Assimilation’s Agent: My Life as a Superintendent in the Indian Boarding School System
by Edwin L. Chalcraft and Cary Collins
University of Nebraska Press, 2004
ISBN-10: 9780803222441
Adult Level                                                                                              
This book reveals the life and opinions of a superintendent that worked at numerous boarding schools across the United States. He discusses different policies like the inspection system, allotment, treatment of TB, alcoholism, patronage, and corporal punishment.
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=113596703

Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences
by Brenda J. Child and K. Tsianina Lomawaima
Heard Museum, 2nd edition, November 2000   
ISBN-10: 9780934351621                                                                 
Adult Level                                                      
A collection of writings, poems, photographs, and paintings and illustrations that document American Indian boarding school experiences in the U. S. between 1879-2000 that shows both the positive and negative impacts of the Boarding School experience.  The shattering impact on family and ethnic identification of the boarding school student is not avoided.

 

Big and Little Sisters: A Story of an Indian Mission School
by Theodora Robinson Jenness
David C Cook Pub. Co, 1909
ASIN: B0008CWDSC
Youth Level: Ages 9-12
The book is about the experiences of two sisters that attend the Indian Mission School together in the Dakotas.
Available to read online at: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=10902

Boarding School Blues: Revisiting American Indian Educational Experiences (Indigenous Education)
by Clifford E. Trafzer, Jean A. Keller and Lorene Sisquoc
Bison Books, Sep 1, 2006     
ISBN-10: 9780803294639                                                                 
Adult Level                         
Like the figures in the ancient oral literature of Native Americans, children who lived through the American Indian boarding school experience became heroes, bravely facing a monster not of their own making. Sometimes the monster swallowed them up. More often, though, the children fought the monster and grew stronger. |
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=113823972

Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (North American Indian Prose Award)
by Brenda J. Child
University of Nebraska Press, Feb 1, 2000    
ISBN-10: 9780803264052                                                                 
Adult Level                                                                                    
Boarding School Seasons offers a revealing look at the strong emotional history of Indian boarding school experiences in the first half of the twentieth century. The hundreds of letters wrote by parents, children, and school officials at Haskell Institute in Kansas and the Flandreau School in South Dakota show how profoundly families are affected by these experiences.
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=91971856

Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the Forgotten Story of Football’s Greatest Battle
by Lars Anderson
Random House Trade Paperbacks, Reprint Edition, August 2008
ISBN-10: 9780812977318
Adult Level
One of college football’s greatest games was Carlisle vs. Army in 1912. This book tells the story of three men that became well-known. Jim Thorpe and Glenn “Pop” Warner played for Carlisle and Dwight Eisenhower played for the Cadets of the Army.

Chemawa Indian Boarding School: The First One Hundred Years 1880-1980
by Sonciray Bonnell
Dissertation.com, December 1997
ISBN-10: 1581120036
Adult Level
This study contains interviews from former students of Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Salem, Oregon between 1917 and 1985. Unlike most boarding schools, most of the student's interviews held Chemawa in high regard, overlooking the negative and promoting the positive.

Cheyenne Again
by Eve Bunting and Irving Toddy
Sandpiper, May 2002
ISBN-10: 9780618194650
Youth Level: Grades 1-4
A Cheyenne boy is forced to attend an off-reservation boarding school to learn the white way. He tries to run away, but is caught and returned to the school. He learns he can be “Cheyenne again” in his art and memories. The illustrations are by a Navajo artist who also had similar school experiences. 

Children Left Behind: The Dark Legacy of Indian Mission Boarding Schools
by Tim Giago and Denise Giago
Clear Light Pub, 1 Edition, August 2006
ISBN-10: 1574160869
Adult Level
Tim Giago spent his childhood at a boarding school that tried to destroy the culture and spirituality of Indian children. He reveals the untold tragedy of abuse to helpless children by people who were supposed to protect them.

Children of the Indian Boarding Schools (1879 to Present)
by Holly Littlefield
Carolrhoda Books, April 2001
ISBN-10: 1575054671
Youth Level: Ages 4-8
The book illustrates how the government forcefully placed Native American children into boarding schools to teach them English and the Christian religion, stripping them from their culture.

Children of the Orphan Trains (Picture the American Past)
by Holly Littlefield
Carolrhoda Books, December 2000
ISBN-10: 1575054663
Youth Level: Ages 4-8
Many Indian children were set to boarding schools, and sat stiffly in European clothing, hair cut short, and names changed.

Education Beyond the Mesas: Hopi Students at Sherman Institute, 1902-1929 (Indigenous Education)
by Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert
University of Nebraska Press, December 2010
ISBN-10: 0803216262
Adult Level
Hopi children from Arizona were sent to Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, which was one of the largest off-reservation boarding schools in the United States. They resisted this program and instead learned about another world to benefit their own communities, such as fluency in English and knowledge of politics and economics, when they returned home.

Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928
by David Wallace Adams
University Press of Kansas, December 1997                     
ISBN-10: 0700608389
Adult Level                                                                                                        
The last "Indian War" was fought against Native American children in the dormitories and classrooms of government boarding schools. This book vividly details the day-to-day life of children at federal boarding schools designed to reconstruct them psychologically and culturally by cutting braids off, changing names, drill routines, punishments, suppressed Native languages, and industrial trainings, just to name a few.

Empty Beds: Indian Student Health at Sherman Institute, 1902-1922
by Jean A. Keller
Michigan State University Press, 1 Edition, December 2002
ISBN-10: 087013650X
Adult Level
A growing recognition of good student health in Indian education began to emerge by the first of the century. Sherman Institute tried to detain the diseases, illnesses, and accidents that happened at other Indian boarding schools, and instead implemented school-specific health practices.

Essie’s Story: The Life and Legacy of a Shoshone Teacher
by Esther Burnett Horne and Sally McBeth
Bison Books, August 1999
ISBN-10: 9780803273245
Adult Level
Horne attended the Haskell Indian Institute and later taught at Wahpeton Indian School in North Dakota. Her experiences as a student and teacher gives a detailed look at Indian boarding schools. She shares her daily life at Haskell and talks about the challenges and rewards of teaching for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Wahpeton.
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102446651

Full Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School Basketball Champions of the World
by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith
University of Oklahoma Press, November 2008
ISBN-10: 9780806139739
Adult Level
A group of young women left their families and arrived at the Fort Shaw School in Fort Shaw, Montana. At different times, they came together to play basketball and were quite successful.

Haskell Institute: 19th Century Stories of Sacrifice and Survival which includes Walking Tour of the Haskell Cemetery
by Theresa Milk
Mammoth Publications, November 2007
ISBN-10: 0976177382
Adult Level
Presents stories from the students of the federal Indian boarding school, looking at the ordeals and successes they faced living in an assimilationist educational environment. This book contains obituaries, tribal affiliations, age, and registration information about students lost during the first years of the school.

Home to Medicine Mountain
by Chiori Santiago
Children’s Book Press, 2002
ISBN-10: 0892391766                                                  
Youth Level: Ages 6 and up                                                                   
The book uses paintings to tell the true story of two boys in California that found their way back home from a government-run boarding school.

Indian School Days
by Basil H. Johnston
University of Oklahoma Press, March 1995
ISBN-10: 0-8061-2226-9
Adult Level
This is an autobiography of a North American Ojibway who was taken from his home to attend a boarding school in 1939. It is humorous and bittersweet and tells how Basil and his classmates learned to cope and survive in this alien setting.

Indian School: Teaching the White Man’s Way
by Michael L. Cooper
Clarion Books, First Edition, 1999
ISBN-10: 0395920841
Youth Level: Ages 9-12
Government-supported boarding schools were created to assimilate Native American children and the author examines Carlisle Indian School with some positive experiences, but glosses over the painful realities these children went through.

Indians at Hampton Institute, 1877-1923
by Donal F. Lindsey
University of Illinois Press, December 1994
ISBN-10: 9780252021060
Adult Level
The author examines interactions among Indians, blacks, whites, and other minorities at industrial schools, and focuses on the Indian program and the impact in the US campaign for Indian education.

Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools
by Ward Churchill
City Lights Publisher, November 2004
ISBN-10: 0872864340
Adult Level
From 1880-1980, Native American children in the United States and Canada were forced to relocate to residential schools, and the goal of this program was to “kill the Indian to save the man.” Half the children did not survive the experience, and those that did are scarred permanently.

Learning to Write “Indian”: The Boarding School Experience and American Indian Literature
by Amelia V. Katanski
University of Oklahoma Press, January 2007                                                                                                                      
ISBN-10: 0806137193                                                                      
Adult Level
Looks at American Indian Authors and their literary works to explain how the American Indian Boarding School influenced their writing.    

Listening to Our Grandmother’s Stories: The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females, 1852-1949 (North American Prose Award)
by Amanda J. Cobb-Greetham
University of Nebraska Press, 2000
ISBN-10: 9780803264670
Adult Level
Unlike the federally-run boarding schools during this time, Bloomfield Academy in Oklahoma is a rare instance of Tribal control in education. The Chickasaw Nation founded Bloomfield Academy in conjunction with missionaries to offer the Chickasaw girls the finest education in the West. The author uses letters, reports, and interviews from students to recount the success story of the school.
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=116350830

My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania 1880
by Ann Rinaldi
Scholastic Inc, 1999                                                                                                                             
ISBN-10: 9780590149228 
Youth Level: Ages 9-12                                                                                  
Part of the Dear America Series.  Diary account of twelve year old Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux girl attending an American Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania.

Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement
by Dennis Banks and Richard Erdoes
University of Oklahoma Press, 2005
ISBN-10: 080613691X
Adult Level
Banks was removed from his home and placed in a government boarding school by the BIA and returned home later to realize he had forgotten his Native language and cultural traditions. He reconnected with his traditions before joining the service, then founded the American Indian Movement (AIM).

Oneida Lives: Long-lost Voices of the Wisconsin Oneidas (the Iroquoians and Their World)
by Herbert S. Lewis, Gerald L. Hill, L. Gordon McLester
Bison Books, November 2005
ISBN-10: 9780803280434
Adult Level
The Wisconsin Oneida men and women speak out about life, from work, growing up, economic struggles, family relations, religion practices, boarding school life, and other aspects of general life.
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=113595147

Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School
by Adam Fortunate Eagle and Laurence M. Hauptman
University of Oklahoma Press, March 2010   
ISBN-10: 080614114X                                              
Youth Level: Grades 9 and up                                                                                                     
Adam Fortunate Eagle attended Pipestone American Indian Boarding School in Minnesota. He leads you through his memories of life at the boarding school and dispels the myth that everyone’s experience was bleak and horrendous.

Shaping Survival: Essays by Four American Indian Tribal Women
by Lanniko Lee, Karen Lone Hill, Florestine Kiyukanpi Renville, and Lydia Whirlwind Soldier
The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2nd Edition, July 2006
ISBN-10: 0810857243
Adult Level
This book is about 4 American Indian women who attended Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools, missionary schools, and off-reservation public schools and their experiences.             

Sweetgrass Basket
by Marlene Carvell
Dutton Juvenile, September 2005
ISBN-10: 0-525-4754-8
Youth Level: Ages 9-12
Award-winning author tells the story of two Mohawk sisters who was sent off to an off-reservation school that was subject to intimidation and corporal punishment.

The Art of Americanization at the Carlisle Indian School
by Hayes Peter Mauro
University of New Mexico Press, June 2011
ISBN-10: 082634920X
Adult Level
The Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School was a paramilitary boarding school that would force assimilation and Americanization on Native American youth, with a major part being the “before and after” portraits that were taken.

The Birth of the American Indian Manual Labor Boarding School: Social Control Through Culture Destruction 1820-1850
by Jeffrey R. Mcdade and Lin Huff-Corzine
Edwin Mellen Press, May 2009
ISBN-10: 9780773448452
Adult Level
The book argues that the roots of the manual labor Indian boarding schools also gave birth to the penitentiary.

The Education of Ruby Loonfoot
by Paxton Riddle
Thorndike Press, 1 Edition, July 2003
ISBN-10: 0786254963
Ruby Loonfoot was a 13 year old Ojibwa girl who survived St. Nichols School. The author illuminates a world where Native girls are removed from their homes, undernourished, humiliated, and sometimes sexually molested, all a part of sacrificing their Indian identity for an education.

The Rapid City Indian School, 1898-1933
by Scott Riney
University of Oklahoma Press 1999
ISBN-10: 0806131624
Adult Level
From 1898 until the school closed in 1933, the “School of the Hills” housed Northern Plains Indian children to prepare them for assimilation into white society.

The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation
by Sally Jenkins
Doubleday, 1 Edition, May 2007
ISBN-10: 0385519877
The book opens with battles between Native Americans and US Army soldiers over territories and the treatment Native Americans received at the hands of the government. Jenkins tells how football was introduced to the Carlisle Indian Boarding School which defied tradition and did more to shape the game than its competitors.

They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (North American Indian Prose Award)
by K. Tsianina Lomawaima 
University of Nebraska Press, 1995                                                             
ISBN-10: 9780803279575
Adult Level
Chilocco School in Oklahoma was an off-reservation boarding school intended to assimilate Indian children and destroy Indian communities and culture. The students from the 1920s and 1930s speak about the loneliness and demoralization, but take pride in the love and mutual support that bond them together.
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=21031034
 
To Change Them Forever: Indian Education at Rainy Mountain Boarding School, 1893-1920
by Clyde Ellis
University of Oklahoma Press, April 1996
ISBN-10: 0806128259
Adult Level
Reservation Boarding Schools was an important component for the US Government to “civilize” Native Americans. This school located in southwestern Oklahoma revealed much about the Indian policy and the consequences of the Kiowa children who attended the school.

To Remain an Indian: Lessons in Democracy from a Century of Native American Education
by K. Tsianina Lomawaima and Teresa L. McCarty
Teachers College Press, July 2006
ISBN-10: 0807747165
Adult Level
The book evaluates US education policy and practices from early 20th century colonial education to the contemporary standards movement.

To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sports at Native American Boarding Schools
by John Bloom
University of Minnesota Press, 1 Edition, March 2005
ISBN-10: 0-8166-3651-6
Adult Level
Between 1899-1917, Carlisle Indian Boarding School’s football team rose to national prominence with Coach Glenn “Pop” Warner and other known athletes. They helped change the attitudes towards Native Americans in the US. Carlisle was one of many boarding schools operated by the federal government, removing children from familiar surroundings. This book explores the history of sports at these institutions and describes the importance of competitiveness.
Available to read online at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=114241577

Voices from Haskell: Indian Students Between Two Worlds, 1884-1928
by Myraim Vuckovic
University Press of Kansas, October 2008
ISBN-10: 9780700616176
Adult Level
The author reveals what the students thought about the boarding school experience. The author focuses on issues that directly affected the students, such as curriculum, health, poor diet, overcrowding, inadequate health care, and forced to work.

White Man’s Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of Indian Acculturation (Indigenous Education)
by Jacqueline Fear-Segal
University of Nebraska Press, November 2007
ISBN-10: 0803220243
Adult Level
Tens of thousands of Native children attended government schools to be trained as US citizens and this book analyzes numerous schools and argues that the schools failed to Americanize Native children and instead racialized American Indians progressively.