Finding the Balance

Student Voices and Cultural Loss at Sherman Institute

Bibliographic Data

ID3757137
AuthorsKevin Whalen (University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume58
Issue1
Pages124-144
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764213495026
OpenAlexW2080583722
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited20

Since mid-1990s, scholars of Indian education have placed increasing emphasis on indigenous approaches to federal Indian boarding schools during the early 20th century. Where earlier studies emphasized the design and operation of boarding schools, more recent literature often examines how Native students, families, and communities sometimes used the schools to access employment, offset financial hardship, and gain new skills and perspectives. To some, scholarly emphasis on "the brighter side of boarding schools" covers over the hardship and loss brought about by institutions created to eradicate Native American cultures and identities. In this article, I address a central question: How can scholars of Indian education illuminate Native approaches to boarding schools without underplaying the tremendous cultural loss they inflicted on indigenous communities? Drawing on the expansive secondary literature on federal Indian education and primary source documents from Sherman Institute, a federal Indian boarding school in Riverside, California, I argue that studies of Indian education can benefit from deeper consideration of the concept of "cultural genocide" and careful attention to Native voices of the past and present

Boarding school · Economic growth · Expansive · Genocide · Indigenous · Native American studies · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · History · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law

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