Not long ago, the U.S. government tried to undermine Native American culture and take away tribal land by forcing children into Indian boarding schools across the country, including 47 in Arizona.
Just a few decades removed from the federal Indian boarding school system, an effort has emerged from the Department of Interior to rebuild and strengthen bonds within Native communities that 20th century-era policies set out to break.
Locally, the realities stemming from federal Indian boarding schools have a bigger impact than in most states. Of the roughly 400 Indian boarding schools around the country, Arizona had the second-highest amount, with 47 schools. Only present-day Oklahoma had more campuses within state boundaries.
For about 150 years, Native American children were forcibly removed from their families and communities for one purpose: to transform the youth. Gila River Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said the government did this by taking their language, culture, hair and sense of belonging.
By 1926, nearly 83% of Indian school-age children were attending boarding schools, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. It is estimated that in 1900, 20,000 children were in boarding schools, followed by 60,889 children in boarding schools in 1925.
Our neighbors, co-workers, friends, family and community members throughout Arizona are living with memories and intergenerational trauma stemming from those local schools that is rarely talked about, much less cared about by the general public. However, it should be pointed out, not every student’s experience was negative.
Traumas against children
From 1819 through the 1970s, U.S. policies supported Indian boarding schools, where the purpose was to culturally assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children. History shows children were forcibly removed from families and tribes, and once on campus, many endured physical and emotional abuse. In some cases, students died.
Now, Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to hold the position, is pushing the history of Indian schools to the forefront.
In late January, Haaland’s office held an event on the Gila River Indian Community for tribal members across Arizona to tell her and her office their own experiences in boarding schools. Dubbed “The Road to Healing,” the effort is a year-long national tour that seeks to provide survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system and descendants an opportunity to share their experiences.
“Those children were forever, forever changed by their experiences. And many who were fortunate enough to make it home still bear the scars from that period. Those children were our great-grandparents, our grandparents, our parents and our elders here today,” Lewis said during the Road to Healing event.
Dozens of people attended, along with Gov. Katie Hobbs, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and tribal leaders, to publicly share their experience.
A common theme among speakers was the lasting impact the schools had on families. Those who attended the schools cited a loss of tradition, family ties and closeness, and addiction issues — all tied to those who went through forced American assimilation at some point.
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition CEO Deborah Parker said every survivor’s experience around the country is unique.
“Some experiences were more devastating than others from the physical, verbal, cultural and sexual abuse they lived,” she said. “People talked about the hitting and slapping they endured and the humiliation staff made them feel. Others shared how their mouths were washed out with soap for speaking their language, and their constant hunger. Others expressed their pain from being sexually assaulted. And others from being robbed of fully forming family connections. We have seen people share these same experiences across the different Road to Healing events. It’s important to remember that these are traumas against children that continue to impact them and their families then and now.”
Lived experiences
The Road to Healing is part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the legacy of these school policies with a goal of addressing the intergenerational impact and traumas of the past.
“My ancestors, many of yours, endured the horrors of Indian boarding schools’ assimilation policies carried out by the same department that I now lead. This is the first time in history that a United States Cabinet secretary comes to the table with a shared trauma — that is not lost on me,” Haaland said. “I am determined to use my position for the good of the people.”
Haaland’s initiative goes beyond giving people an opportunity to share their trauma. She said its goal is to connect communities with trauma-informed support and create a permanent oral history.
Members of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition have attended tour stops. Parker says the bravery and resilience of school survivors stuck with her.
“They made a difficult decision to share their boarding school experiences, some for the first time,” Parker said. “It’s truly important to know that if we’re going to heal from the traumas caused by Indian boarding schools, our lived experiences need to be told.”
Nora Cherry told of her mother's experience going through two Indian boarding schools, including Phoenix Indian Boarding School in the 1930s. (Independent Newsmedia/Melissa Rosequist)
Effects on a family
Nora Cherry was among the speakers who told of her family history related to boarding schools. Her mother, Ena Dodd, attended Phoenix Indian School from 1930 to 1935 after first going to Sherman Indian School in Riverside, California, as a young girl.
Cherry says she was “fortunate” to get her mother’s school records.
“I see that part of that ground as sacred ground, I return to it on a regular basis because she was one of the ones who survived,” Cherry said, explaining her mother later made a successful life for herself as an educator.
Cherry brought forward one main concern for the day: Why her family is so disjointed and so weird?
“We just didn’t have the relationships that I saw in other families. Why we’re so spread out and so disconnected?” Cherry asked. “Through my research it’s really come down to that separation as a child of families being torn apart and not learning from their elders, from their maternal side about how to parent. My male relatives, about how to be the man in a household, the alcoholism and drug abuse that permeated so many of my relatives.”
Cherry, now a mother herself, said she sees holes in her own parenting she attributes to her mother’s lack of parenting.
“She didn’t have a mother. It was boarding school,” Cherry said. “It’s really impressed upon me and many of my Native colleagues how our lives have been continually effected.”
She closed by asking to know where the cemetery was at the Phoenix Indian School, pointing out that it was among the largest Indian schools in the system. Cherry explained that when looking for her mother’s school records, she went through ledgers seeing thousands of children’s names, ages and tribes.
“There had to be a cemetery,” she said. “That’s a huge concern to me, what happened to all those children that didn’t go home that were never heard from again?”
53 burial sites identified
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland flanked Haaland during the January event.
Under Newland’s leadership, the Department of Interior initiated an investigation into the history and impact of federal Indian boarding schools.
Through the investigation, the first official list of federal Indian boarding school sites and identified marked and unmarked burial sites was created.
According to Newland’s report, released May 2022, burial sites were identified at approximately 53 different schools. However, those locations have not been disclosed publicly to protect against grave-robbing, vandalism and other disturbances, Newland’s report states.
The boarding school investigation found 19 locations accounted for more than 500 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian youth deaths.
Newland’s investigation shows through federal records that the United States established the boarding school system as part of a broader objective to dispose of tribal territories to support U.S. expansion.
Within the school system, school curricula included manual labor including livestock and poultry raising, dairying, fertilizing, lumbering, cooking and garment-making.
Rules were often enforced through punishment, the investigation revealed, including corporal punishment such as flogging, withholding food, whipping, slapping and cuffing. At times, older children were made to punish younger children.
Of the 408 federal schools identified, approximately 90 schools still operate as educational facilities; however not all of these schools still board children or are federally supported.
Melissa Rosequist Managing Editor | East Valley @mrosequist_
I first started my journalism portfolio at the age of 15 while in high school before going on to study at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Being in the journalism field is the only professional avenue I was ever interested in, and have worked hard covering topics from school boards to hard news while working for the Independent, where I have been awarded for my reporting.
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Nora Cherry told of her mother's experience going through two Indian boarding schools, including Phoenix Indian Boarding School in the 1930s. (Independent Newsmedia/Melissa Rosequist) 
