My Speech "Wrangell Institution"

Can you imagine 5 year olds being taken away to get the education they need, and their parents do not have any authority to overcome it? In the early 1900’s boarding schools were built in Alaska that were operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA. Many Alaska Natives were sent away to these boarding schools. Students who attended boarding schools have unforgettable memories of negative and positive outcomes.
Boarding schools caused trauma among many Alaska Native people. In the National Resources Center for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Elders, it states: boarding schools are the second leading cause of trauma to Alaska Natives. The distress is still felt today by many former boarding school students. The suffering caused by boarding schools began when students got taken away from their parents and communities. Those who were orphans were especially affected, because of the previous trauma they went through during the epidemics like the Great Death. For those of you who do not know what the Great Death is, it is a tragic event that occurred when deadly diseases and illnesses killed many family and communities in Alaska.
Boarding schools were created by some of the orphanages and the schools that were run by the government to be controlled by BIA. This was when they started building boarding schools around Alaska in the early 1900’s. At this time the Alaska Native people’s lives were extremely affected.
I would like to tell you about a boarding school that was built in 1932. This boarding school was known as the Wrangell Institute. It was located about five miles out of Wrangell in southeast Alaska. Wrangell Institute was a boarding school for elementary students from grades one through eight. There were boys and girls as young as five years old attending that institute. BIA first separated the children from their parents and authorities told their parents they had to receive proper education. If their parents disagreed to release their children, they were threatened with being sent to jail. Many of the children did not understand why they were being taken away. Some communities were left with no school age children because they were taken away to boarding school.
Alaska Native students who went to Wrangell Institute had to go through several steps before they were settled into the boarding school. The first step was to place the children in dorms. They were separated into boys and girls groups. All the students had to be stripped down and get their haircut. All the boys got their head shaved and cropped “G.I.” style. All the girls’ haircuts were shortened slightly above their shoulders. After they go their haircuts, the children had to bathe. Some of the employees scrubbed the students cruelly to where the children wailed with pain. The children who witnessed the violent scrubbing did their best to wash themselves. Then, they dressed them, with identical shirts, pants, socks, and shoes. Students with poor eyesight were given eyeglasses. Lastly, they were issued a number like prisoners are today. The children had to memorize their numbers, and if they forgot their numbers, they were strictly disciplined. The children were referred to by their numbers, instead of their names, by some of the employees and their teachers.
For many years the students had experienced or witnessed emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse. They had suffered from the punishment and abuse that occurred every day. An Inupiaq man tells his story about the punishment he had when a Yup’ik boy and him got caught wrestling. Their punishment was to go into the shower, undressed, while and employee sprayed them with a fire hose. The water was cold, just barely above freezing level. Their skin peeled off from the full force of the water. While they screamed with pain, the employees laughed to see them yell with grief. He also talked about the sexual abuse that occurred at the Institute. After lights went out, the teachers, administrators, or employees would pick out a student and molest them. There were many other abuses and punishment Alaskan students suffered through in boarding school.
After many years of attending Wrangell Institute, Alaska Natives were ashamed to be associated with their language and culture. They had problems integrating back into their families and communities. Those were the main negative outcomes of attending boarding school.
On the other hand, the positive outcomes include: having life-long relationships with people from other Alaskan communities, opportunities to learn about the outside world, and gaining independence and discipline for productive adult lives. For instance, student who continued their education went to Mt. Edgecumbe High School after their eight- grade year.
Today, many Alaska Natives won’t tell their stories of attending Wrangell Institute. Those who have shared their stories took many years to tell what occurred at boarding school. It took much courage to voice their stories, especially the horrifying days of violence and abuse. Sadly, the painful visions they experience are as clear as if it had happened yesterday. The experience of going boarding schools taught them the western world of living. Which meant, they were able to live in either worlds, the Western and Native, and still be successful in life.


I hope none of you don't think wrong about what I was writing about in my paper.