Dr. Sarah Whitt speaking by Zoom on “Native American Boarding Schools and Their Enduring Legacy.”
In this talk, Dr. Whitt (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) discusses the history, from 1879 to 1934, of Native American boarding schools and how they have been used as tools of settler colonialism in the United States. The U.S. pursued a campaign to “assimilate” Indian people by forced confinement and indoctrination, and today, Native people are one of the most policed and surveilled populations in the country. Centering the experiences of Indian people at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the U.S.’s most notorious Indian boarding institution, Dr. Whitt’s talk examines a punitive history of racialized discipline—and the relevance of old settler violence for tribal nations today.
Dr. Whitt received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. She is currently an Assistant Professor at UC Irvine where she researches, writes, and teaches about Indigenous experiences in settler institutions.
