Deepen your knowledge of American Indian Boarding School history. Here you will find a carefully curated list of materials available in the Heard Museum’s Billie Jane Bagulely Library and Archives, an educational film list and partner organizations to visit.
Heard Museum Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives Resources
Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories
Bibliography compiled by Janet Cantley, Curator and Betty Murphy, Librarian
Adams, David Wallace
Education for extinction : American Indians and the boarding school experience, 1875-1928
Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, c1995
Heard call number E97.5.A35 1995
Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child & K. Tsianina Lomawaima, eds,
Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000
Phoenix, AZ: Heard Museum, 2000
Child, Brenda J.
Boarding School Seasons : American Indian Families, 1900-1940
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c1998
Heard call number E99.C6 C45 1998
Fortunate Eagle, Adam
Pipestone : my life in an Indian boarding school
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, ©2010
Heard call number E97.6.P65 E23 2010
Gilbert, Matthew Sakiestewa
Education Beyond the Mesas : Hopi Students at Sherman Institute, 1902 -1929
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, ©2010
Heard call number E99.H7 G55 2010
Gilbert, Matthew Sakiestewa
“A Second Wave of Hopi Migration” in History of Education Quarterly, 2014, vol. 54, no.3
Journal of American Indian Education, special issues, vol. 35(3) & 57(1), 1996 & 2019
La Flesche, Francis
The Middle Five : Indian schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe
Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, c1963
Heard call number E99.O4 L165 1963
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina
They called it prairie light : the story of the Chilocco Indian School
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c1994
Heard call number E97.6.C4 L65 1994
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, and Teresa McCarty (editors)
“Native American boarding school stories” [Special issue of the Journal of American
Indian education; issued as volume 57, number 1, spring 2018]
Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press, 2018
Heard call number E97.N318 2018
Parker, Dorothy R.
Phoenix Indian School : the second half-century
Tucson : University of Arizona Press, c1996
Heard call number E97.6.P4 P3 1996
Qoyawayma, Polingaysi (Elizabeth Q. White)
No turning back : a true account of a Hopi woman’s struggle to live in two worlds
Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 1964
Heard call number E99.H7 Q6 1964
Reyhner, Jon and Jeanne Eder
American Indian education: a history
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, c2004
Heard call number E97.R49 2004
Standing Bear, Luther
My Indian boyhood
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [1988], c1931
Heard call number E99.T34 S72 1988
Standing Bear, Luther
Land of the spotted eagle
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1978, c1933
Heard call number E99.T34 S7 1978
Trennert, Robert A., Jr.
Phoenix Indian School: Forced Assimilation in Arizona, 1891-1935
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, c. 1988
Heard call number E97.6.P4 T74 1988
Away From Home bibliography | Billie Jane Bagulely Library and Archives
Other Resources
Films on American Indian Boarding Schools
The Lost Ones; The Long Journey Home. Documents the story of two Lipan Apache children captured along the Texas-Mexican border in 1877 and taken to Carlisle Indian School. The story reconnects Lipan community with their lost ones. Carlisle, PA: Dickinson College Community Studies Center, DVD, 2017
Indian School: Stories of Survival. New York: Films Media Group, Films for the Humanities and Sciences, DVD, 41 min., 2011.
Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School. Dallas, TX: Rich-Heape Films, Inc., DVD, 80 min., 2008
The Thick Dark Fog. The story of Walter Littlemoon and how he had to confront his past after attending an Indian boarding school in South Dakota so he could renew himself and his community. High Valley Films, DVD, 56 min., 2012.
Films on Canadian Residential Schools
A Century of Genocide in the Americas: The Residential School Experience. A documentary about how Indian residential schools became a haven for institutionalized sexual abuse. Native Voices Production, DVD, 19 min., 2003.
Healing the Hurts. A healing process of cultural recovery from the traumatic experience of Indian boarding schools of the past. Surrey, BC: Four Directions International, DVD. 59 min., 2004
The Residential Schools: The other side of the residential school story. First Nations Films, DVD, 120 minutes, 2006
The Fallen Feather. Indian Industrial Residential Schools Canadian Confederation. Directed by Randy Bezeau, DVD, 94 min. December 2007.
We Were Children. We Were Children is a Canadian documentary film about the experiences of First Nations children in the Canadian Indian residential school system. Director: Tim Wolochatiuk, DVD, 60 min., 2012
Films on Australian residential schools
Rabbit-Proof Fence. Three mixed-race girls are torn brutally from their Aboriginal mother and sent over a thousand miles away to a training camp for domestic workers as part of a government policy to integrate them into white society. Linking the camp and their distant home territory is a vast rabbit-proof fence, which stretches from one coast to another and just might help the girls find their way back. Director: Phillip Noyce, DVD, 1 hr. 34 min., 2002
Partner Organizations
NEH On the Road
NEH on the Road: Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories
The NEH is touring a special adapted version of the exhibition from April 2020 through April 2025. Please visit the link for a complete list of locations and dates.
Laws and legal rights of American Indians
NCAI (National Congress of American Indians)
NARF (Native American Rights Fund), especially in regards to tribal education
NILL (National Indian Law Library)
Healing and Reconciliation
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
Canada’s National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
In Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center
Other Indian School sites and museums
Carlisle Indian School
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
Genoa Indian School Interpretive Center
Haskell Cultural Center and Museum
Sherman Indian Museum
Stewart Indian School
American Indian childhood development and education
National Indian Education Association
National Indian Child Welfare Association
American Indian Higher Education Consortium