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SALT LAKE CITY — A new map gives more insight into over 650 Native American boarding schools in the United States and Canada — including a handful that operated in Utah.
The nonprofit National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition recently launched an interactive map that provides the locations and basic information of the schools. Hundreds of thousands of Native children — some as young as 4 — were sent to the schools between 1819 and the 1960s as part of a government policy to "Kill the Indian, save the man," as the founder of the first such school in the U.S. put it.
Students experienced "rampant physical, sexual and emotional abuse, disease, malnourishment, overcrowding and lack of health care," according to a 2022 Department of the Interior investigation into the schools. Some students never left the schools, including 12 whose graves were recently found near the former Panguitch Indian Boarding School. Many who did survive the schools left with a lifetime of trauma.
"It was the damnedest thing I ever did in my life," Diné survivor Mark Maryboy said during a panel discussion on the schools last fall in Salt Lake City. He often wonders how his life would have turned out without that trauma. "Going through that experience has a huge impact on you. It's a lifetime sickness that goes into your mind."
Children from tribes within Utah were also sent to schools outside the state, sometimes hundreds of miles from their families and homes. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition identifies eight schools that existed in Utah and when they were in operation.
- Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City from 1950 to 1984.
- Uintah Boarding and Day School in Whiterocks from 1880 to 1951.
- Ouray Indian School in Randlett 1885 to 1905.
- St. George Southern Utah Boarding School in St. George from 1901 to 1904.
- Panguitch Boarding School in Panguitch from 1904 to 1909.
- Aneth Boarding and Day School in Montezuma Creek from 1935 to present.
- Navajo Faith Mission in Aneth from 1899 to 1919.
- St. Christopher's Episcopal Mission Residential School in Bluff from 1943 to 1952.
Some operated for only a handful of years, while others housed students for decades. Many of the Utah schools closed in the early or mid-20th century with two exceptions: the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City and Aneth Boarding and Day School in Montezuma Creek. Intermountain closed in 1984, while Aneth is still open. Today the Aneth school, now called Aneth Community School, is operated by the Bureau of Indian Education and serves a mix of residential and day K-6 students.
The earliest Utah schools were established by the Episcopal Mission in the 1880s on or near the Uintah & Ouray Reservation in Northeastern Utah. There are at least dozens of Ute children who died from accidents, disease and other causes.
At one point, the Intermountain Indian School was the biggest Native American boarding school in the country and housed students from over two dozen tribes. Unlike their peers at other schools, graduates from the Intermountain Indian School have publicly spoken about their time at boarding school fondly. As part of an annual tradition, some graduates gather to repaint an "I" for the school on a nearby hill.
"It taught us how to become independent and become a part of society," Ute Bear Dance Chief Aldean Ketchum, who attended the school from 1979 to 1981, said during a panel. "We kept our language and our culture and they encouraged us to keep that up. That was the unique thing about attending boarding school at that time."
Learn more about Utah's Native American boarding schools through the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
