Concho Indian School

History of Native American Boarding Schools

Many are unaware of the true horrors that occurred at the more than 526 Native boarding schools across the United States. Organizations like the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) and Tribal communities near and far are aiming to shed light on the terrors and the intergenerational trauma that has followed.

Beginning with the Indian Civilization Act Fund of March 3, 1819 and the Peace Policy of 1869 the United States, in concert with and at the urging of several denominations of the Christian Church, adopted an Indian Boarding School Policy expressly intended to implement cultural genocide through the removal and reprogramming of American Indian and Alaska Native children to accomplish the systematic destruction of Native cultures and communities. The stated purpose of this policy was to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”

While the Federal Government established these boarding schools, they enlisted religious organizations like the Catholic, Methodist, Quaker, Episcopal and Presbyterian churches to run them. The institutions had Native children voluntarily or forcibly removed from their homes, families, and communities. Many were taken to schools states away without being able to contact their family.

The boarding schools were used to assimilate rather than “educate” hundreds of thousands of Native children. They were punished for speaking their Native language, banned from practicing their tradition or culture, stripped of traditional clothing, hair and personal belongings. They often suffered physical, sexual, cultural and spiritual abuse and neglect. In many cases and in the present defined law, many of the actions taken against these children would constitute torture. By 1926, more than 80% of Indigenous school-age children were attending boarding schools.

A Federal report released in 2024 discovered that at least 973 Indigenous children died in schools operated or supported by the federal government. But in a separate investigation and report released by the Washington Post in December 2024, they revealed at least 3,104 students had died in boarding schools across the U.S. A number three times that reported by the Federal government.

While the history of Native American boarding schools is overwhelmingly marked by trauma and cultural destruction, it’s important to acknowledge that some students did find positive aspects within their experiences. Many were able to learn vocational training in fields like carpentry, farming, and domestic skills. Students formed strong bonds with each other, creating lifelong friendships and their own communities, which is apparent in the annual reunions for many of these schools.

Native communities continue to face challenges stemming from the intergenerational trauma caused by the boarding school and systemic neglect. The lasting scar that the schools have left on individuals, families, communities, and tribal nations shows. The fight to save Tribal identity, language, traditions, and governance structures is an everlasting mission. These schools disrupted healthy development, fractured family systems, and weakened the cultural fabric of Tribal Nations.

Today, Native youth still experience severe disparities in health, education, and mental well-being. Suicide rates are alarmingly high, poverty is widespread, and graduation rates remain the lowest among all demographic groups—especially in Bureau of Indian Education schools. Despite legislative progress toward tribal self-determination, significant opportunity gaps persist. Without major increases in investment and support, these long-standing inequities will continue to threaten the future of Native youth and their communities.

“Sugarcane” is a 2024 documentary film that explores the history and impact of Canadian Indian residential schools, specifically focusing on the Sugarcane Reserve. The film follows a First Nations investigation into the abuse and deaths that occurred at a residential school, igniting a reckoning among survivors and their descendants. It highlights the resilience of Native communities and their struggle to break cycles of intergenerational trauma while bearing witness to painful truths. Watching this film was life-changing; it is one thing to read about these tragedies, another to watch them firsthand.

History of Concho Indian Boarding School

In 1867, the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes were forced to move to reservation land in the Indian Territory near Fort El Reno, Oklahoma. The Dawes Act broke up the reservation land stating that any land not owned by a Native American individual would be open to settlement during the Land Run of 1892. Then came the Curtis Act of 1898 which resulted in the tribal governments’ fallout as an attempt to assimilate the tribes. They would need to lose their traditional ways of thinking, living, and culture to become what the government considered “Americans”.

After the close of The Darlington Agency, it was relocated to Concho, Oklahoma and renamed Concho Indian Boarding School. Built in 1909, it was run with a military routine and a government assimilation curriculum. Students woke up at sunrise, did military exercises and went to class at 6 am. Their days were split into two parts with the first half of the day being in classes. Classes consisted of teaching the students to read, write, and speak in the English language. Speaking in their native tongues or practicing their culture resulted in the punishment of one hour of labor work.

They were forced to change the way they presented themselves in society such as cutting their hair and changing the style of clothing they wore, things sacred to their culture and stripped from them. For the second half of their day, they participated in labor. Boys were taught farming methods such as planting techniques and caring and raising livestock. While girls were taught domestic labor such as cooking, cleaning, sewing and nursing.

In addition to their studies, they were taught Christianity. Although most of the Indians and the children reluctantly accepted most of the assimilation methods most refused to accept Christianity as their religion. In the 1920’s they formed sports teams, music and art classes and educational subjects and curriculum just like other public schools in the area.

Concho served grades 1-8th and on May 14, 1982, had its last graduating class of 142 students. It was closed due to federal budget cuts shortly after. Parents of the students and tribe members fought to keep their school open but due to lack of funding was permanently closed by the end of the 1983 school year. The buildings were turned over to the tribes in 1985 where they still sit abandoned to this day although a recent revisit has shown signs of some restoration to a few buildings with the future of the others unknown.

Murals of Concho

The murals of Concho Indian School were started in 2014 by 38-year-old artist Steven Grounds to pay tribute to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians that once attended the decaying assimilation boarding school. Amongst the murals is Chief Black Kettle an important tribal figure of the Northern Cheyenne. Chief Black Kettle was known for being a peacemaker with the US government by accepting treaties and while still protecting his people.

His murals depict people from photographs found in tribal archives as well as Native American advocate Suzan Shown Harjo who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. What he thought would be just one big mural at the beginning turned into an artistic journey of multiple murals throughout the abandoned Concho buildings. Steven doesn’t have plans to stop and has even been in talks with Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe leaders to help restore the buildings and turn them into a mural gallery.

Gallery Below of Concho Indian School

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