The Materiality of Survivance at Indian Boarding Schools, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana

FAIN: RFW-299380-24

Arizona Board of Regents (Tucson, AZ 85721-0073)
Francois Lanoe (Project Director: September 2023 to present)

Archaeological research at two former boarding school sites on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana. (12 months)

This project focuses on the archaeology of “Indian” boarding schools at the turn of the 20th century. Boarding schools form a legacy of the US philosophy of cultural assimilation of Native Americans, a legacy with major relevance today. We propose to document this system through archaeological fieldwork in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana and at the request of the tribe. We aim to assess, through material culture, how Blackfeet children may have asserted their identity and outlived the boarding school system. We will conduct fieldwork at one federal and one religious school and employ a combination of geophysical and pedestrian survey, as well as excavation, to document the living spaces of children and its associated material remains.