Reflecting on the Past and the Shaping of the Present at the Theodore Roosevelt School

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boarding And Residential Schools: Healing, Survivance And Indigenous Persistence", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Theodore Roosevelt Boarding School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation was an active part of a federal policy aimed at divorcing Indigenous youth from their culture and identity. The school removed children from their families, physically disciplined them for use of the Ndee language, and separated them from many aspects of Ndee culture. In spite of these hardships, many Ndee elders relate their experiences at the school as a positive part of their life. Elders described the valuable education they received at the school and how their schooling helped propel the success of future generations of White Mountain Ndee. In this paper, we present some of the diverse and often paradoxical experiences and feelings shared by Ndee elders about their time at the Theodore Roosevelt Boarding School and consider how to understand the positive framing of the difficult boarding school life known to many elders.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Boarding And Residential Schools: Healing, Survivance And Indigenous Persistence   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow