Hawaiʻi's Native Boarding School Experience: Waiale‘e Industrial School, 1903–1916

• In Event: New Histories of Indigenous Education

Abstract

In 1910, Native Hawaiians constituted about one-fifth of the Territory of Hawaiʻi’s population and yet Native boys represented three-quarters of the total admissions to the territory’s industrial schools between 1908 and 1912. Officially, “inmates” at these institutions were “orphans, vagrants, truants, [and those] living an idle or dissolute life” who needed structure, order, and discipline (if needed) to help them become productive citizens. In reality, however, many students – often Indigenous youths – were treated as adult prisoners and often experienced starvation, beatings, and solitary confinement, sometimes for minor offenses. Unsurprisingly, many students resisted. This paper examines this poorly known history by examining one such institution, Waialeʻe Industrial School, and its adult treatment of Indigenous boys between 1900 and 1916.

Author

• Derek Taira, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa