The Phoenix Indian School Legacy Project exhibit opened Friday in Heritage Square to showcase 99 years of one of the 12 original Indian federal schools’ history.
“This is not just history of native people, this is history of everybody in Phoenix and everybody in the state of Arizona,” said Jose Rivera, an interpreter for the exhibit. “It’s part of our mutual history, part of our cultural heritage, and it should be preserved because, after all, this is a very multicultural city and multicultural state.”
The exhibit, which is in the Stevens-Haustgen House in Heritage Square, at Sixth and Monroe streets, features memorabilia from the Phoenix Indian School, including items from a graduating class’ time capsule, personal awards and high school mementos from former students, yearbooks and photographs.
The exhibit also features a tribute to Phoenix Indian School graduate Ira Hayes. Hayes was one of the six iconic Marines photographed raising the American flag at Iwo Jima.
A partnership between the Heard Museum, Heritage Square, Native American Connections, Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Phoenix and the Phoenix Indian Center made the exhibit possible.
All the nonprofits working within the partnership have similar ideas about recognizing and sharing Indian culture, so they came together and collaborated for a common goal, Heard Museum curator Janet Cantley said.
“I was looking for an organization that wanted to share their story but didn’t have space,” said Heritage Square director Michelle Reid. “It was a huge part of the development of Phoenix and why it looks like it does today.”
Students had both positive and negative experiences at the boarding school, Rivera said. Some found the living amenities far greater than those on the reservations, but others fell behind in tribal milestones and achievements during their absence.
“The Phoenix Indian School’s purpose was to train American Indians in industrial and manual labor,” said Mark Scarp, communications manager at the Heard Museum. “Federal officials forced students from their homes to attend them, isolating them from their families and tribes. Over the decades, attendance ultimately became voluntary and the course of instruction broadened to include a variety of academic subjects.”
The school closed in 1990 after many local reservation high schools emerged. Attendance at the boarding school continued to fall because the new high schools allowed students to stay at home and within their tribe, Rivera said.
Since 2000, the Heard Museum has displayed their exhibit “Remembering Our Indian School Days: The Boarding School Experience.”
Reid explained that while the Heard Museum’s exhibit features Indian schools, its focus is on the national level of all Indian schools throughout the United States, whereas the Phoenix Indian School Legacy Project exhibit features items and photographs specifically from the Phoenix Indian School.
“It’s a teaser for what’s going on at Heard,” Reid said.
The exhibit is part of the larger legacy project within the partnership and the City of Phoenix. Dede Yazzie Devine, president and CEO of Native American Connections, and Patti Hibbeler, president and executive director of the Phoenix Indian Center, are in the process of turning the Phoenix Indian School music building into a multi-purpose community center. The building is currently owned by the City of Phoenix in Steele Indian School Park on Central Avenue and Indian School Road.
The Phoenix Indian School Legacy Project exhibit is free to the public and is open through December on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Contact the reporter at sloane.mcgowan@asu.edu
