Allotments and Arithmetic: Land Dispossession in Indian Boarding School Mathematics Curricula, 1879–1932

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: Contested Spaces: Political and Curricular Implications for Indigenous Education (Table 11)

Abstract

This paper uses Holm’s (2005) framework of the three phases of colonialism to analyze mathematical word problems in the Estelle Reel Papers. Our main findings reveal that the mathematics instruction in Indian boarding schools reflected the tactics used across the three phases. Analysis of the social and political content embedded in these word problems also indicates a connection to the idea that teaching private property ownership would force Indigenous people to abandon their cultural heritage, develop a sense of individualism, and empower a sense of freedom in the owner. This idea of private property ownership is antithetical to the views of indigenous people, who draw a deeper connection to life through land and the environment (Authors, 2018).

Authors

• Mary Smith, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Luke Kim, Kenyon College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cynthia Benally, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kehaulani Natsuko Vaughn, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charles Sepulveda, The University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• José Francisco Gutiérrez, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author