Of Dimes and Domination: Analyzing Arithmetic Words Problems Used in Native American Boarding Schools

• In Event: Learning Otherwise: Indigenous Resistance, Critical Methods, and the Power of Counterstory

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, the United States government established numerous Native American boarding schools with the aim of forcibly assimilating children into Anglo-American culture and values. Previous research has demonstrated how various aspects of the boarding school system contributed to Native cultural alienation and land dispossession, including curricula and classroom activities such as writing composition (Miranda, 1998) and arts education (Lentis, 2017). In this paper, we expand on that research by examining arithmetic work used in boarding schools during this period. Specifically, we focus on word problems found in an unpublished archive of documents maintained by Estelle Reel, who served as the superintendent of Indian schools from 1898 to 1910. Utilizing settler colonial theory as our framework, we analyze a subset of the word problems used for students in Grades 1–8, based on their subject matter, and discuss how our findings can inform contemporary teaching practices.

Authors

• José Gutiérrez, University of Utah

• Mary J Smith, University of Utah