Building Protocols for Sharing Native American Boarding School Archival Materials

FAIN: PW-285014-22

College of St. Benedict (St. Joseph, MN 56374-2099)
Theodor Gordon (Project Director: July 2021 to present)

A Foundations project to assess archival materials, including 3,000 pages and 200 photos, held by the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict, documenting the Native American boarding school experience at the White Earth Mission School from the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Activities include creating an index of archival materials and developing a digitization plan and intellectual property protocols. 

The College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University (CSBSJU), in collaboration with White Earth Nation (WEN) and the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict (SOSB), will assess archival materials from SOSB’s White Earth Mission School and develop plans and protocols for digitizing and sharing the materials in consultation with technical and community advisors. The project will make this largely hidden collection of Native American boarding school archival material available to the public, scholars, and Native families, providing greater access to information on the role of government-supported religious institutions in forcing assimilation and repatriating school records to affected Native communities. The project is part of a sustained collaboration between WEN’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office, CSBSJU, and SOSB that seeks to redress historical injustices over the long-term and acknowledges that the work of reconciliation is never finished.