Diné College receives National Endowment for the Humanities grant for boarding school project
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Last week, the National Endowment for the Humanities, also known as NEH, awarded more than $400,000 to 14 tribal communities to fund projects that recognize the traumatic legacies of federally run boarding schools.
They’re meant to expand the reach of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, an effort initiated by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to acknowledge the troubled past and impacts of federal boarding school policies upon Indian Country.
And one recipient is from Arizona.
Students at Diné College are planning to use up to $30,000 in grant funding as part of a new course to photograph and curate a portrait exhibition of community members who attended boarding schools at its museum.
“When I was growing up, it was not a part of the conversation. It was not a part of our curriculum. It’s not something that we learned,” said NEH chair Shelly Lowe. “It was fairly traumatizing for some individuals, they didn’t want to bring that kind of negativity forward.”
She’s Navajo and grew up on the reservation in Ganado, not too far from Tsaile, where one of only two tribal colleges are located in Arizona, better known as the 1994 Land-Grant Institutions.
“I’m very excited that Diné College is taking on this project. When we did our call for proposals, it was very wide open, and we needed communities to really think about what was most appropriate for them,” added Lowe. “It’s going to be part of a course that gets developed. They’re going to take these photos, learn how to create, really plan and implement those museum exhibits.”
The National Endowment for the Humanities, under Lowe’s leadership, has sought to help with sharing these painful and intergenerational stories, including financially supporting the “Away from Home” installation at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
“It’s the work that we do, its preservation, its access, its research, its public programs, its education,” said Lowe. “It was important to be able to say this is an American story, and all Americans should know this story.”
An investigative report released by the U.S. Department of the Interior identified 408 federal boarding schools spanning 37 states between 1819 and 1969.
Arizona was home to more than a tenth of them nationwide. These institutions were sites of forced assimilation. They tried to cut their hair and take away their languages. Some children even died.
But now, Indigenous communities, including Diné College, have another chance to critically examine and process this dark past.
“It’s really based on what the tribal community’s needs are and how they’re kind of grappling with this history,” added Lowe, “and having opportunities to help them create avenues to share those stories is, you know, why we’re doing this work.”
More stories from KJZZ
- Today marks dark history of boarding schools for Native kids. Arizona had 2nd most in the U.S.
- New oral history project will teach about atrocities of America's Indian boarding schools
