"The White Man's Way": Navigating Race and Memory in "Federal Indian Boarding Schools"

Abstract

I firstly propose new terminology for these "Forced Indigenous Labor Schools"; whereas they are called FIBS by the Federal Investigative Report, I suggest "FILS" as "Forced Indigenous Labor Schools." I argue that these methods of cultural dispersion (and the "civilizing mission" as a whole) are rooted in values of whiteness, which include English literacy, Christianity, nationalism, racism, and "individualization" (or hard work). I also categorize numerous "memory relationships," which are the ways that the United States government, Indigenous tribes, FILS students, and their families think of one another, and indicate changes and continuities about these perceptions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I use newspapers from the Carlisle Industrial Training School and the Genoa Indian School to determine this information. I ultimately argue for further reconciliation efforts between the United States government and the Indigenous tribes and their affected family members.