Indigenous Research

Our indigenous ancestors and elders that had attended boardings schools as youths have experienced negative impacts that had long term effects from generation to generation. These boarding schools were originally created to assimilate and create genocide of the Native American Indians by removing children from families, culture, and traditions. Within these boarding schools, the children were then forced to cut ties with their families, cut their hair and forced to stop speaking their language. While being forced to change their ways, they were now considered “colonized” or “westernized”. The negative impacts of being “colonized” were loss of language, culture, heritage, and connection to family. Losing those connections, it led to decreased mental stability and mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, health issues and prone to substance abuse disorders or alcoholism.
My name is Julia Brown, and I am a Muckleshoot (Auburn, WA) tribal member and a Nez Perce (Lapwai, ID) descendant. I was not born or raised on my reservation, I was raised by my grandparents off the reservation in Tacoma, WA and I only occasionally visited as a child. But since I became an adult, I have had the opportunity to strengthen my connection to my culture and now have been working with my tribe (Muckleshoot) going on 15 years. I feel like I missed out on a lot of my culture while being raised off the reservation, but I don’t put anyone at fault for it and work hard on my own personal healing.
I do feel like I have a personal connection with the topic my group chose because my grandmother who raised me was in a boarding school as a youth. My grandmother around the age 8-9 years old was removed from her parents care as well as her siblings and forced to move into the boarding school. My role as a researcher in this project is to bring awareness to my grandmother’s point of view and the trauma she experienced. She had an experience in her life that she did not want to carry onto her children or her grandchildren’s lives, and I feel like it’s my responsibility to help her heal and to break the generational traumas that have been intentionally passed down.
This topic is not only important to me because of just my grandmother but it’s important to me because I had a loss of my culture and identity. These boarding schools were created to colonize and “kill the Indian” and in some perspectives, I can see they succeeded because I didn’t have the opportunity to be raised in my culture. I didn’t have the connection or knowledge to my language, culture, history or heritage. When I became more involved in my culture, I felt so blind to it all. My grandmother tried her best to associate me with my culture but the trauma she endured she isolated herself from the community. The community didn’t hurt her, but she was dealing with her own mental issues from the trauma, she didn’t want to be involved on the reservation.
My name is Candace Racehorse. I am a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes from the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho. I grew up on the reservation my whole life but attended school off the reservation. My mother and grandmother always told me we live in two different worlds and that I needed to know the white way to survive in society today.
As researcher for this project, I have some knowledge from my grandmother who was sent to Stewert Indian Boarding School in Nevada when she was 6 years old. My grandmother always babysat my cousins and I while our parents went to work so we got to hear her stories of her past, but she also made sure to teach us our culture and traditions. Sadly, she passed away last year at the age of 93 so I am thankful to have spent the time with her.
This topic of being sent to these Indian boarding schools is very important to me because I have seen the negative impacts not only from my grandmothers past of alcohol abuse but the community that I work with. I work with the Vocational Rehabilitation Program that deals a lot with clients that have a history of alcohol and drug abuse. This is usually a learned behavior from their parents and grandparents, so I feel we need to let the community know of the negative impacts of this trauma that our ancestors had to endure and hopefully give a better understanding of the effects that this has had our people.

My name is Selena Romero, I’m a descendant of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and a enrolled tribal member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Tucson Arizona . I was born and raised off my reservation in Southern California. Like many Yaquis, My grandfather was a nomadic man who also left Arizona and relocated to California in hopes to provide his family with a better quality of life. Growing up my grandfather spoke his native language fluently but never wanted to teach, or speak it in front of our family. The only exposure I had when it came to learning my Native American culture is when my grandfather would take us to our reservation to visit our family during the holidays , and for summer break, Although I didn’t grow up on my reservation, I cherish the visits, and memories I have today.

 As a researcher of this topic I can definitely say this topic is  sentimental to me, because of the knowledge that was passed down to me from my great aunt who is a Apache Native, and boarding school victim. She often told our family stories about our history,  culture , and of her unfortunate experience attending a Native American Boarding School as a young girl, which is something I always will treasure because now that I'm older I  understand the significance of her experience and now know it wasn't  a easy topic for her to speak upon.

 This topic is imporant to me ,due to my family history of being forced to attend a boarding school , and due to the historical trauma it caused among not only my family but other Native Americans across the United States, and Canada. Many of these Native American children who were removed  from their families and forced to live in these boarding schools were stripped from their Native American Identity and were often punished or killed for speaking their Native language. Although my grandfather didn't attend a boarding school, I now realize he also experienced historical trauma , which is why he didn't want to teach us our Native American language and would often get angry when we questioned him about it. It was a crime to be a Indian. I feel the impact of the boarding school era is still present today . Today many Natives American communities suffer from the trauma and poverty the boarding school era caused. survivors of the system like my great aunt are more prone to serious health conditions, and struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues. I feel it's extremely important to educate the youth about this topic because they're our future and need to become aware of the trauma our ancestors endured to better understand why our people struggle with the issues we have today.

As the group develops an introduction to your topic area. This submission should include a purpose of study statement or guiding research questions. Are all the impacts of boarding schools/homes negative? Negative impacts the boarding schools for the indigenous youth

Loss of language, culture, heritage, and connection to family

Decreased mental stability

Anxiety

Depression

Health issues

Cancer

Diabetes

Tuberculosis

Substance abuse disorders

This section of your paper should be 2-3 pages and follow APA 6th edition formatting with the inclusion of in-text citations as needed. You can use the following considerations as a guideline to shape your topic paper: Each of us find at least one citation (create a reference page)

Introduce self – do at least 1 paragraph each

Identify your role and your groups as a researcher in the project – coming from indigenous background, our role as a researcher is to bring awareness to our indigenous youth

Describe why this topic is important to community/family/self – to promote better healing for our people and youth. Breaking generational traumas.

Identify issues, concerns, and observations that make this topic an urgent issue.

Loss of language, culture, heritage, and connection to family

Decreased mental stability

Anxiety

Depression

Health issues

Cancer

Diabetes

Tuberculosis

Substance abuse disorders

Identify your personal connection to the topic as the researchers – family who had attended boarding schools. close relatives who have attended the boarding schools