Native American Boarding Schools

Lesson plan. By Karla Camacho and Helen Tamrat. In collaboration with Meredith Garvin, Jake Crutchfield and Pete Kazienko of New Haven Academy.

Ciricahua Apaches at the Carlisle Indian School, Penna., 1880s (Source: Library of Congress)

Through poetry, video, a gallery walkthrough and interactive activity, this one-hours lesson plan empowers educators and students to:

• Develop vocabulary to talk about Native American Boarding schools and related structural issues.

• Link histories of Indigenous Boarding Schools to broader institutions of white supremacy and colonization.

• Highlight Indigenous youth resistance against these oppressive institutions, as power is not totalizing. 

• Center Native experiences and knowledges that the Western world constantly invalidates