Exterior of Fort Lewis Boarding School with a view of a one story building with small windows and a porch.

American Indian Boarding School Research

Beginning in 1819 with the federal “Indian Civilization Act,” the United States Government embarked on a systematic campaign of cultural genocide that included forcibly removing children from their families. Sent far away from their communities to boarding schools, these Native children were severed from their culture, language, traditions, and religion. The Federal Boarding School Program was legal, systemic, and its stated purpose was to “kill the Indian; save the man.” Students in Indian Boarding Schools were abused, beaten, raped, and starved by faculty and staff who were often employed by the U.S. government. This violence, combined with theft of culture, has caused generational trauma for Native Americans that continues to reverberate into the present.

Current research has uncovered more than 523 Indian Boarding schools across the U.S. that were funded by the federal government, and often church-run, in the 19th and 20th centuries, according to the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. In Colorado, there were at least seven federal Indian boarding schools, including: the Teller Indian school in Grand Junction, the Southern Ute boarding school in Ignacio, a boarding school in Towaoc operated by the Bureau of Indian affairs, and the original Fort Lewis Indian school in Hesperus, Colorado.

Colorado General Assembly passed the following bills to research and confront the history of American Indian Boarding Schools in Colorado:

HB22-1327 - Native American Boarding Schools

HB24-1444 - Federal Indian Boarding School Research Program

The work related to these legislative initiatives is ongoing.

Sign Up for a Community Listening Sessions

Participate in an Oral History

American Indian Steering Committee

History Colorado works closely with the American Indian Steering Committee created by HB14-1444. This committee meets quarterly to provide valuable guidance and direction on how the research, oral histories, and community work will be conducted. The American Indian Steering Committee will also contribute to the recommendations shared with the Governor of Colorado and General Assembly. 

The American Indian Steering Committee is composed of:

• Representatives of both the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes
• Individuals who are citizens of Tribal Nations that had identified students enrolled at boarding schools in Colorado; 
• Survivors of Indian Boarding Schools in Colorado; 
• Descendants of Colorado Indian Boarding Schools Survivors; 
• A current Tribal Historic Preservation Officer;
• An American Indian employee of History Colorado;
• Experts in the fields of cultural resource management, researching Indian Boarding Schools, and trauma-informed mental health care.

American Indian Steering Committee Meetings
All meetings are virtual  https://meet.google.com/nbf-heuo-opy

  • Tues Sept 9  (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Tues Sept 23 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Tues Oct 14 (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Tues Nov 11 (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm
  • Tues Dec 9 (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Tues Jan 13 (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Tues Feb 10 (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Tues March 10 (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Tues April 14 (2nd Tuesday) 4:30 - 6:00 pm 
  • Following this, all meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of the month through December 2026

American Indian Steering Committee Meeting Agendas

Tribal Consultation

Tribal Consultation is essential to the research and development of the American Indian Boarding School Research Initiative. History Colorado values its relationships with Tribal Partners and works closely with them through official government to government consultations. This process – which is carefully laid out by the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs – is defined as a “open and mutual exchange of information integral to effective collaboration, participation, and informed decision making, with the ultimate goal of reaching consensus on issues.”

Through meaningful consultation History Colorado fosters positive relationships with federally recognized Tribes through their designated representatives who provide feedback and insight on our research efforts.

Consultations for Colorado’s American Indian Boarding School Research Initiative are scheduled in advance and ensure Tribes are actively informing the research methods used and recommendations crafted as a result of History Colorado’s efforts.

 

Investigative Reports

The Colorado State Legislature has directed several investigations into the lived experiences of students in Native American Boarding Schools in Colorado. In 2023, “Federal Indian Boarding Schools in Colorado: 1880-1920” was released in compliance with HB22-1327, which directed History Colorado, through the State Archaeology Office, to investigate the one-time federal Native American Boarding School in Hesperus, Colorado, also referred to as the Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School; as well as to identify potential burial places of students who perished while attending the school.

Recommendations resulting from Tribal consultation and feedback from the American Indian and Alaskan Native communities asked for expansion of this investigation to include research beyond 1920, oral histories of living survivors, additional Tribal consultation, and expanded engagement of the Native diaspora. 

The investigations seek to identify the following:

• the number and details of institutions; numbers and Tribal affiliations of students; numbers of student deaths;
• Investigations may use a variety of methodologies including: archival, geophysical and archaeological.
• details and locations of burial sites;
• participation of religious institutions and organizations;
• participation of community groups and residents;
• federal dollars spent to operate these locations. 
• Investigations may use a variety of methodologies including: archival, geophysical and archaeological.

 

Community Listening Sessions

Facilitated Community Listening Sessions will be hosted throughout the state for families that have a direct relationship with Federal Indian Boarding Schools. There will be at least 3 sessions at each location that will cover different aspects of the Federal Indian Boarding Schools connection to families in partnerships with local community organizations and traditional leaders.

Session 1: Legislation Information Presentation with community project input
Presentation of HB24-1444 and context to previous work with small table discussions to listen to process or concerns from the Community members to further the research of Federal Indian Boarding Schools.

Session 2: Family Relationship to Boarding School 
Intergenerational Trauma presentation with small table discussions to get Community  relationship to federal Indian Boarding Schools and ongoing family effects

Session 3: Community Recommendations
Return in the spring of 2026 to present on findings from throughout the state Community Listening Sessions and small table discussions to determine and prioritize recommendations

 

These sessions will also serve to connect survivors and descendants with mental health services and support. Click below for locations, dates, and details.

Sign Up for a Community Listening Sessions

 

Oral Histories

The Oral Histories Project will serve to document oral histories of survivors of boarding schools in Colorado, Colorado residents who are survivors of boarding schools, as well as their descendants. 

Oral Histories, with consent, will inform the investigative reports, recommendations and eventually State policy; and may also become part of the State’s official historic record, stewarded by History Colorado. Decisions on sharing and project accessibility will be determined in collaboration with the American Indian Steering Committee and through Tribal consultation.

Participate in an Oral History

 

Recommendations, Memorial and Future

Legislation requires that preliminary recommendations be made to the Colorado State Legislature, Colorado Department of Education, and the Colorado Department of Higher Education in November 2025 with a final draft in May 2027 for policy and actions moving forward.

The initiative should also formulate long-term methods of memorial and/or monument to acknowledge the lives lost and reverberations of generational harm from boarding schools.

The initiative should also establish methods, and identify funding, to foster educational reclamation and language justice as a direct response to the generational losses of forced assimilation.

Click here for additional information and summary of the 2023 research.

Click here to learn more about the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs.

Click here to learn more about The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS)

Sign Up for a Community Listening Sessions

Participate in an Oral History