Researching My Heritage: The Old Leupp Boarding School Historic Site

Abstract

My research documents the early history of the Old Leupp Boarding School, a U.S. federal Indian boarding school in operation on the Navajo Reservation from 1909-1942. In keeping with Diné (Navajo) cultural teachings, I utilize non-destructive research methods, including a critical analysis of archival records, historic photographs, and oral history interviews with Navajo elders who attended school at Leupp, to demonstrate how Navajo students and their families resisted the U.S. federal government’s assimilationist educational policies during the early twentieth century. These accounts of Diné survivance and the continuance of k’e relationships demonstrate the importance and power of conducting oral history research in support of traditional archaeological work at historic Navajo sites.