Survival and Loss – Indigenous Boarding Schools

Program Description

“Kill the Indian, save the man.”

In Captain Richard Henry Pratt’s speech, he used the now well-known phrase, “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” thus, illuminating  his philosophy of assimilation. The speech was delivered in 1892 during the National Conference of Charities and Correction, held in Denver, Colorado. For five consecutive generations, from roughly 1880 to 1980, Native American children in the United States and Canada were forcibly taken from their families and relocated to residential schools. This movement was called The Boarding School Solution.

In “Survival and Loss – Indigenous Boarding Schools,” participants examine the events leading up to this action and the goals of the US government program. Examining primary document photos in their historical context help participants to make sense of this genocide and the effects that Native American Boarding Schools have on Indigenous peoples today. Memoirs of program survivors provide insight to their journey as well as a connection to our journey in our lives.

Join Kim Quigley in uncovering our own life topics as we relive the boarding school survivors’ stories through photographs, their poetry, and their memoirs.

Presenter Bio

Kim Quigley has been a Montana educator since 1981 and has always incorporated historical and contemporary Native Peoples’ lives into her curriculum.  She has taught students from age two to college age in the past 44 years as a speech therapist, classroom teacher, librarian, speech and drama teacher, principal and as an educational coach. Since 2015 she has written and presented curriculum for Indian Education for All and incorporated it into Montana’s adopted common core.