President Joe Biden’s historic apology Friday for the abuses at Indian boarding schools is turning national attention to schools such as Phoenix Indian School.
Indigenous communities today are still dealing with the trauma of boarding schools, which attempted to eradicate Native American cultures.
That includes the Phoenix Indian Industrial School, which was established in 1891. It aimed to force Indigenous people to assimilate.
"You can't speak your language. You can't wear your traditional clothing,” said Patty Talahongva, a Hopi journalist. “You certainly can't practice your traditional religion or your culture. None of that.”
Thomas Morgan, commissioner of Indian Affairs when the school was founded, said,” It’s cheaper to educate Indians than to kill them.”
Phoenix Indian School was one of 47 boarding schools in Arizona. Only Oklahoma had more.
“I identify as being a boarding school survivor, because I recognize it's not just me and my experience, it's my grandmother's experience,” said Talahongva, who graduated from Phoenix Indian School. “It’s all of my great-uncles and their experience. It’s my grandfather’s experience.”
The effect of these schools is still being felt today. Indian boarding schools aimed to teach Native children to be laborers, not go to college.
“Some did – some excelled – but not nearly as many that would have if the teachings, the education had been truly a commitment to higher education,” Talahongva said. “And because of that, we have lost out in years and years of building generational wealth.”
Talahongva also noted that boarding schools changed the diets of Native Americans, and that’s reflected in health disparities today.
“You're going to see outrageous numbers when it comes to heart disease, when it comes to diabetes, when it comes to obesity and also substance abuse,” she said.
Phoenix Indian School closed in 1990, after the Hopi and Tohono O’odham nations began building schools on their tribal lands.
The federal Bureau of Indian Education today manages more than 184 federally funding schools. But two-thirds of them are tribally controlled, said Wendy Greyeyes, an associate professor of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico.
“I think in terms of doing that, they've instilled and implemented curriculum, Native curriculum, culture, history, government, into their systems so that they're able to recover and reclaim much of their historical experience through this process,” she said.
Gila Crossing Community School, where Biden spoke, is one such school.
Greyeyes, who is Navajo, said Indian boarding schools are a key part of the country’s story.
“When we talk about boarding schools, we have to honor the legacy of that as part of our history – not Indigenous history, but American history, as Arizona history,” she said.
Talahongva said she hopes more Americans will learn about boarding schools after Biden’s apology.
“What needs to happen is for Congress to fully uphold its trust responsibility to Indian Country,” she said. “And that means living up to all of the treaties, living up to its trust obligations to cover fully housing, health care and education for American Indians.”
