Researching Native American Boarding Schools – A Beginners Guide
I started researching the history of the Stewart Indian School in 2015, and have spent years traveling to archives across the country while writing my dissertation and working as a researcher for the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum (SISCCM). It took me a long time and many trips to various locations to figure out how exactly to find the information I was looking for, and what I might never find in traditional archives, especially those controlled by the federal government. This post is a “how to” with regard to federal archives, and a way for me to share some lessons I learned in working with these institutions. This post is adapted from a presentation I gave in 2019 at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition conference in Tulalip, Washington.
Getting Started with Federal Archives
Getting started can be tricky – it’s hard to know where to look and archives are not always intuitive. But if you’re looking for information in federal archives, the first thing you’ll need to do is visit the National Archives and Records Administration (or NARA) website. All of the records at NARA are organized into group numbers, and the group number for records related to the BIA is 75. This is where you’ll find boarding school records.
With few exceptions, boarding school records are NOT digitized or accessible online through the National Archives. Some organizations are working on independent projects – the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, for example, and the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. But not the federal government.
For boarding schools, there are a number of different types of information included in these records, which vary depending on the school and the time period you are looking for. Some NARA branches have robust collections of student files, but the bulk of the material I have found focuses on the correspondence of boarding school officials. Sometimes you do get lucky though: I’ve also found copies of Navajo Program newspapers, student recordings, and letters from both parents and students among Stewart Indian School files.
Boarding school records are also divided up among different regional NARA branches, and they are, in some cases, far from the school’s original location. This makes it a challenge to travel to these locations or to spend significant amounts of time conducting research.
Working with NARA
Once you find the archives you’re looking for, the next step is for you to make contact with a facility. This can be a time consuming process that varies tremendously by archive. I recommend using email (versus calling) when you first contact an archive because your email will likely be sent directly a subject matter expert. In your email, request all finding aids related to the school and note the timeframe of your planned visit. Within a few days, an archival technician will email you back, hopefully with the finding aids (see example below) you need for your research. These finding aids will list all records accessible to the public for the boarding school you are researching.
Once you have an actual human contact, do not be afraid to ask them lots of questions. Develop a relationship and talk to them on the phone, if you can. If you have a personal connection with a school, tell them and ask for help. These folks know a lot about the collections they manage, and they can be a great source of information and assistance. Once you have an idea what items you want to examine, make your appointment (if applicable) and you are ready to go.
In terms of using a finding aid, below is an example from the Stewart School student records collection that tells you what you can expect to find. You have the years covered in the records and their organization. Notably, not all records are organized the same: Subseries 1 is arranged by student surname and by gender; subseries two contains just four folders (no idea why); and subseries 3 contains the bulk of the student records – with over 80 boxes the size of those the cart in the photo.
SAMPLE FINDING AID:
Record Group 75
Records of the Stewart Indian School, November 14, 2011
STUDENT CASE FILES, 1919-1980 [ARC Identifier 5962185]
Some records may be restricted due to privacy concerns. The case files must be screened for Freedom of Information Act exemptions before they can be served to researchers.
84 linear feet, 10 linear inches.
Subseries (1) Boxes 1-5 Location: 2168A
ca. 1919-1949. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by surname of student, with some letters of the alphabet divided by gender. The records primarily consist of pre-printed forms containing basic biographical information, test scores, and ratings in various subjects. One form may cover several years of school.
Subseries (2) Box 20 Location: 2163F
ca1924-1946. This subseries is arranged by name of student, consisting of the following four folders only: Robert Aguilar, Sarah Sirecch, Bruce E. Tupper, and Mildred & Ruby Willder.
Subseries (3):
Boxes 3-5 Location: 2168A Girls, Abbey-Avelar
Boxes 3‑43 Location: 2168A-D Girls, Bacoch-Zuniga
Boxes 44-86 Location: 2168D-G Boys, Abbie-Zuniga
Other important information included in this finding aid: first, the underlined note about not all records being available due to privacy concerns. Unless you or a family member is personally connected to these records, anything dating from 75 years forward is inaccessible.
The other important information here is the size: 84 linear feet, ten inches. This is the amount of shelf space this series take up. It’s huge, so if you plan to go through these materials, know that it will take a lot of time.
When you request items from a collection via email, include the overall name of the collection – in this case, “Student Case Files, 1919-1980,” along with each of the subseries and locations you wish to view. You’ll have to do this for each collection you wish to examine.
National Archives in San Bruno, California (Wikimedia Commons), American Indian Records Repository (AIRR website), and National Archives, St. Louis (author photograph).
Which NARA Facility Should You Visit?
For student files, it is best to start with the NARA facility that holds the records for the boarding school you are interested in. For the Stewart Indian School, this is the NARA branch in San Bruno, California. There are a couple of important things to note about student files. First, many of them are very small and contain only a couple of papers. Some are missing and some are not accessible to the general public because of the privacy concerns I mentioned earlier. But again, if you are looking for your file or that of a family member, contact the regional archive and tell them who you are and what you are looking for so they can help you.
If you are looking for the file of someone who worked at a boarding school, you need to contact the NARA facility in St. Louis that handles federal personnel records. They prefer requests via postal mail, and ask that you include details such as the individual’s full name, place of birth, agency affiliation, and their dates of employment. If you do not have access to this information, ancestry.com can be a helpful resource. You can also conduct research at this facility, though at least 30 days’ notice is required to schedule a visit.
And finally, if you are looking for student transcripts, you most likely have to work with the Bureau of Indian Education and the American Indian Records Repository, or AIRR, which is located in Kansas. AIRR is connected with the National Archives and was established to improve the management of records related to Native nations. It is open for research as well, but it is difficult to speak to anyone connected with the facility unless you personally know someone who works there. You cannot contact them by email, and they have just one phone number open to the public. This is a challenging institution to work with and I am honestly still trying to figure out how to interact with it.
At the Archives
So, once you’ve made your research appointment and requested items from an archival collection, what happens when you arrive?
At the National Archives, the first thing you’ll do is check in, show your ID, and sit down for a brief orientation that explains facility rules and how to work with the records. You will be issued a researcher card (and every federal facility gives you a separate card), shown a locker in which to store your stuff, and directed to an archival technician who will help you access the records you need. Depending on the facility, these might be waiting for you when you arrive, or they might require onsite requests and take close to an hour to arrive – this is what happens in D.C. where you cannot make research appointments.
There are a lot of rules in these facilities and they are enforced to varying degrees depending on the facility and who is working at the time. You will never be permitted to bring ink pens, your own paper, or binders or notebooks into a research room. They will give you pencils and paper, which they will check before you leave for the day. You can bring a laptop, a phone, chargers, and cameras. Most facilities have access to photo copiers and scanners. And you will be watched by employees who patrol the room, have video cameras near their desks, or by armed officers if you are in Washington, D.C.
Another important thing to consider before you head out are some of the hidden economic costs of your research. You’ve already purchased plane tickets, booked a hotel room, and factored meal costs into your budget. But there are other costs you can expect as well. Some archives do not charge you for reproductions, but most NARA facilities will. Expect to pay for photocopies, scanning microfilm on to a personal flash drive (yes, this is real), or printing. At NARA facilities you will not be charged for taking photographs with a camera or your phone. But this is not always the case: one facility I frequented charges you for each picture you take with your own equipment. These charges add up, so be prepared for them.
Reviewing Archival Materials
Once you have your items from an archive, you’ll want to approach them in a strategic and orderly manner. Make a plan about what you want to try and get through during a day, and reassess whether your goals are realistic or not as you wade through your materials.
Carefully record what you are looking at from day to day – if you can, take notes on items of special interest. Write down files names or numbers associated with archival papers and what is in them. Record your general observations about the items you look at, and makes notes about your discoveries (or lack of) at the end of the day.
I also recommend photographing anything you think might be of interest, even if you’re not totally sure. It is definitely better to have an item than to try and go back and find it at a later date. At the end of the day, organize your photographs so you can easily find and sort through them later.
You can also expect some disarray among the items you examine. Sometimes documents are in regular, rather than protected archival boxes, or basically just heaped in without being organized. This makes it hard for a researcher to keep their notes organized, and perhaps reflects the lack of attention paid to properly preserving and protecting archival documents.
And take time to examine non-textual items, too. Some archives have photographs, sound recordings, etc. Cast a wide net and see what you find.
What Will You Find (Or Not Find)?
A few photographs are posted below to reflect the range of items in NARA archives. This includes reports about boarding school grounds and epidemics and illnesses at the school, along with accounts of students’ daily activities. And these are useful, because they give us an idea of what students’ experiences might have been like. They can also tell us how students might have adapted to school policies and resisted school officials, or uncover the types of assimilation and abuse students were forced to endure.
There are also records created by former students and parents. There are quite a few items like this – students talking about their days, parents trying to find out about a child’s health, and former students checking in with Stewart administrators.
You should also be prepared for the fact that you might not find the specific records you are looking for. A lot of boarding school records are missing and some have, at least according to stories I have been told, been destroyed or misplaced. I’ve especially noticed that accounts of abuse are largely – though not completely – missing from federal archives.
Why is this? My general conclusion, after spending time with the records for Stewart, other schools, and in talking to other historians, is that school and federal officials often neglected to properly organize or preserve these records. When Stewart closed in 1980, for example, students and community members recall boxes and reams of paper being tossed into dumpsters. Some of these records were recovered and are now in the possession of the Nevada Indian Commission, but we have no idea what may have been lost in this process.
At the National Archives in Washington, DC, I was told that the lack of administrative BIA boarding school records available from the mid-1950s on is probably because the agency has not yet turned them over to be archived. With few exceptions, even routine documents from this period are unavailable. But archivists are not completely sure about this , and do not have a clear answer about why nothing from this period is available.
Looking Outside of Federal Archives
So, how else can you find the information you’re looking for? For me, expanding my search meant traveling to the Nevada Historical Society, looking through the archives of the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, and visiting the University of Nevada, Reno’s Special Collections and University Archives. It also meant reaching out to the Nevada State Library and Archives to see whether they might have items connected with the school. In working with these institutions, I was able to find an assortment of artifacts, including articles from local and Indigenous newspapers, old school schedules, and some reports about events at the school. Cast a wide net in your search for boarding school records and reach out to as many institutions as you can.
You can also look for more general records online, for example the University of Wisconsin-Madison library hosts a website with all of the Indian Affairs Commissioner Reports from 1826-1932. These reports have information about the general boarding school system, and, depending on the year, information about specific boarding schools.
I also recommend newspaper archives. The Library of Congress has a site called Chronicling America that has hundreds of newspapers you can search online for free. These articles are from the dates 1789-1963. Newspapers.com is a similar site, though you have to pay for a membership, and Ancestry.com is similarly helpful in finding information about individuals who attended or worked at boarding schools.
Nevada Indian Commission, right, and Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum, left. (Author photograph)
Working with Native Organizations and Tribal Nations
But, some of the best information I collected came as a result of the relationship I built with the staff of the Nevada Indian Commission and the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum. Initially, I reached out to museum staff to share the research materials I had collected and to offer to provide them with any additional information I gathered as I continued my research. For non-Native researchers, this is an important step, given the long and ugly history of academics and others exploiting Native communities, histories, and cultures for their own gain. Building trust is an important precursor to working with these types of organizations.
Everyone at the Nevada Indian Commission and the SISCCM is incredibly committed to preserving the legacy of the school and commemorating the experiences of its alumni. The SISCCM also serves as an archival repository for the history of the school so that former students and their families can have access to the school’s federal records.
Importantly, the SISCCM also maintains a collection of student newspapers, speeches, photographs, art, and oral histories. These items changed my understanding of the history of the school and students’ varying experiences there, especially in the latter decades it was open.
I also suggest exploring tribal archives, if granted permission, and reviewing student writings from school newspapers, commencement programs, and yearbooks. And oral history projects that focus on the experiences of alumni are some of the most valuable records I have encountered, because they contain information from students that would probably be omitted from federal archival records.
This is a lot of information – hopefully it will help in your research efforts! Feel free to leave any comments or questions below.