The legacy of the Phoenix Indian School is a long and diverse path of education, agriculture and government land use. The history of the area began with the purpose of educating and assimilating central Arizona’s Native American children.[i] Native American boarding schools all over the United States were established for the “Americanization”, assimilation efforts and to bring them into civilization.[ii] In 1891 the United States Industrial Indian School at Phoenix, later known as the Phoenix Indian School, was founded. The main building of the school, which was situated on a 160-acre property, was completed in June 1892.[iii] As quickly as the plans were finalized for the land’s use, students were selected for attendance. The school rapidly grew as students from Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada and Oregon were sent to the school and “by 1900, enrollment had grown from 42 to 698 students.”[iv] The school successfully operated and became the “nation’s largest off-reservation boarding school” after 1917 and the land area grew.[v] The campus of the school housed many buildings, animal housing units and agricultural plots; the land held schoolhouses, employee quarters, areas for vocational training and much more.[vi] There were also “240 acres of fields, where hay and garden crops were cultivated,” as well as housing for the many animals that were used for vocational training and self-sufficiency.[vii] Federal educators felt that by separating children from their families and native cultures, that they could strip them of their identity while providing them with education.[viii] However, for most Indian children, their tribal identity was already instilled upon arrival at the school.[ix] Thus the main goals of the original site that had intended to solve the “Indian Problem” were failing, leaving the ideals of assimilation and singular cultural identities to wane.
Figure 1 –Phoenix Indian School, 1916 Site Plan
Within the 1920s the policies towards Native Americans began to change. Due to the continuous neglect of these facilities, the government faced rising opposition to non-reservation boarding schools.[x] The Native American boarding schools now faced a new path of reform, due to new feelings toward force assimilation. The School continued to focus on education and vocational training despite changing ideals. Many issues arouse due to overcrowding, lack of finances and treatment of students and “examples of the same conditions could be found just about anywhere across the West.”[xi] After much criticism and investigation into the health and well-being of students changes came to the campus.[xii] These changes came in December of 1929; the school announced that in “keeping step with the constant growth of educational institutions in the valley, a new sixty-bed hospital would be erected on campus and a second unit added to the tuberculosis sanatorium.”[xiii] While the expansions to the school were added, the attendance was being reduced from 800 to 650 students, this reduction was happening in boarding schools across America as the government attempted to move towards converting these facilities into high schools.[xiv]
Figure 2 –Phoenix Indian School, 1934 Site Plan
After 1935 the School had changed completely from the assimilation institution it once was. Now under the name of Phoenix Indian High School, the school was operating as a vocational high school.[xv] The property changed as buildings were built to accommodate students and more traditional school functions. By 1950 almost all agriculture had disappeared and the site began to lose buildings to the reduction of students.
In 1947 the site of School once again underwent changes. Arizona Senator Carl Hayden approached President Harry Truman with a petition signed by “100,000 voters requesting to build a VA hospital in Phoenix.”[xvi] The meeting was a success and on May 21st, 1947, President Truman approved the project. He transferred twenty-seven acres of the Indian School reservation for the site and the hospital opened its doors in 1951.[xvii] Later more land was used for the site of Central High School which was founded in 1957.[xviii]
Figure 3 –Phoenix Indian School, 1965 Site Plan
The School finally closed its doors in 1990 after ninety-nine years of operation.[xix] Today, little of the assimilation boarding school remains; in 1996 the City of Phoenix obtained the land through “through an intricate three-way land exchange involving the Baron Collier Company and the federal government.”[xx] The Steele Indian School Park opened in 2001 with the objective to give urban green space and providing civic pride to the community; which is vastly different from the original premise of the site in 1891.[xxi] The current park site also pays homage to the historical aspects of the School; housing and maintaining the remaining original buildings.
Figure 4 –Phoenix Indian School, 1988 Site Plan
[i]Robert A. Trennert “And the Sword Will Give Way to the Spelling-book: Establishing the Phoenix Indian School.” The Journal of Arizona History 23, no. 1 (Spring 1982). 36.
[ii] April M. Beisaw, James G. Gibb, and Owen Lindauer. The Archaeology of Institutional Life. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2009. 90.
[iii] “Archaeology of the Phoenix Indian School – Archaeology Magazine Archive.” Archaeology of the Phoenix Indian School – Archaeology Magazine Archive. March 27, 1998. Accessed August 07, 2016. http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/phoenix/.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Robert A. Trennert “And the Sword Will Give Way to the Spelling-book: Establishing the Phoenix Indian School.” The Journal of Arizona History 23, no. 1 (Spring 1982). 55.
[vi] “Archaeology of the Phoenix Indian School – Archaeology Magazine Archive.” Archaeology of the Phoenix Indian School – Archaeology Magazine Archive. March 27, 1998. Accessed August 07, 2016. http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/phoenix/.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] April M. Beisaw, James G. Gibb, and Owen Lindauer. The Archaeology of Institutional Life. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2009.93.
[ix] Ibid.
[x] Robert A. Trennert Jr. The Phoenix Indian School: Forced Assimilation in Arizona, 1891-1935. University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. 166
[xi] Ibid, 173.
[xii] Ibid, 191.
[xiii] Ibid, 191.
[xiv]Robert A. Trennert Jr. The Phoenix Indian School: Forced Assimilation in Arizona, 1891-1935. University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. 199.
[xv] Ibid, 205.
[xvi] “Phoenix VA Health Care System.” Our History. Accessed August 07, 2016. http://www.phoenix.va.gov/about/history.asp.
[xvii] Ibid.
[xviii] Central High School / Homepage. Accessed August 07, 2016. http://www.phxhs.k12.az.us/central.
[xix] “Archaeology of the Phoenix Indian School – Archaeology Magazine Archive.” Archaeology of the Phoenix Indian School – Archaeology Magazine Archive. March 27, 1998. Accessed August 07, 2016. http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/phoenix/.
[xx] “Parks and Recreation Steele Indian School Park History.” Parks and Recreation Steele Indian School Park History. Accessed August 07, 2016. https://www.phoenix.gov/parks/parks/alphabetical/s-parks/steele-indian-school/park-history.
[xxi] Ibid.