Decolonizing the Fort Vancouver School

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Heritage Sites at the Intersection of Landscape, Memory, and Place: Archaeology, Heritage Commemoration, and Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Fort Vancouver School formed part of the colonial project of the Hudson’s Bay Company to “civilize” and assimilate Native Americans and the multiethnic families of fur traders. By 1836, a kitchen behind the Chaplain’s/Priest’s House was used as the schoolhouse. By 1844, the schoolhouse also hosted the “Owyhee Church” to monitor and assimilate Native Hawaiian workers. The site was first excavated by Louis Caywood between 1948 and 1952. A 2022 public archaeology field school returned to this site to relocate the test excavations and to collect a sample of belongings from the intact floor. Slate pencil and tablet fragments were recovered with other objects that spoke to the mixed function of the building and the various ways in which students were socialized to the British hierarchical system. The site is keenly tied to the colonial mission to indoctrinate its students in “civilizing” pursuits including the dominance of the English language, Christianity, and Western-style agriculture. The school also provided necessary information to adapt to the rapidly changing social and political conditions of the Pacific Northwest in the 1830s through 1850s. The presence of Indigenous items hint at the complexity and persistence of native traditions in the face of colonialism.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Heritage Sites at the Intersection of Landscape, Memory, and Place: Archaeology, Heritage Commemoration, and Practice   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36269.0