Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Anthropology

First Advisor

Christina Kreps

Second Advisor

Bonnie Clark

Third Advisor

Annette Stott

Keywords

Native Americans, Boarding schools, Museum, Exhibit

Abstract

Recent scholarship on Native American boarding schools has focused on drawing out the complexities of boarding school history and emphasizing the plurality of experiences of students. This thesis examines how Native American boarding school stories have been displayed using two current museum exhibits: “Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories” at the Heard Museum, and the Phoenix Indian School Visitors Center, a small gallery in one of the remaining school buildings. For this analysis I interviewed key players in both current exhibits and did close readings of the exhibits themselves, in conjunction with archival research about two model schoolhouse exhibits at world’s fairs. Each of these exhibits, old and new, was engaged with the anthropology and museum theory of the time. The two current exhibits offer updated scholarship and multivocal narratives but designed for and aimed at audiences of very different backgrounds.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Lydia Nancy Wood

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

185 pgs

Discipline

Native American studies, Museum studies

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