20,000 Pages of Historic Documents Relating to Indian Schools to be Made Available Next Spring
- by Michael Stillman
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition's logo.
It was recently announced that some 20,000 records dealing with Indian boarding schools run by the Quakers will be made available through the recently created National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive. That archive is a project of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, with support from various benefactors, the federal government, and institutions holding historic records. The Indian boarding schools were run by the government or various religious groups, including, in addition to the Quakers, the Catholic church, Episcopalians, and Methodists. Many who ran these schools undoubtedly thought they were doing good, but the schools were terribly damaging to the children and their communities, were often unkind to the children and contemptuous of their parents, and displayed an arrogance of cultural superiority commonly held toward America's natives during the schools' day.
The dates of these records range from 1852-1945, when most of the schools were opened. At the time, the West was being “won,” that is, taken from its native inhabitants who were being shunted off to reservations. That part is well-known. Not as much a part of the common knowledge is that many of their children were forcibly removed from their homes and families to be taken to the Indian boarding schools. There, they were taught the ways of the white man, and the religion of the white man. They were, in effect, being turned into white boys and girls, as this was seen as a path to assimilating them into the general population. It was a way to effectively eradicate the Indians without physically harming them (though there were significant numbers of deaths in some schools).
According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, they have identified 523 Indian Boarding Schools. This was no small issue for the Native Americans. It was a massive stealing of their children.
In recent years, Native Americans, some of whom attended these schools, have called for the release of the schools' records. They want to find out more about what and why these actions were taken to their people. Some of those who operated these schools or hold their records, to their credit, have agreed to make the records available to the tribes, and apologized for the wrongs they did. The Quakers, who operated nine Indian schools, are one of them. The records have been housed at Swarthmore and Haverford colleges, which are now scanning the documents so that they will be available.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
