AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
And now to one of the many scenes from across the country that illustrate American life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's part of a series we're calling America in Pursuit, as we mark this year's 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Today, a story that starts but doesn't end in a dark chapter of American history. For more than a century, federal boarding schools worked to break tribal bonds by isolating Native American children from their families, forcing them to abandon their language and culture in environments that were often abusive. Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland described the system that was not officially overturned until 1969 as horrific.
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DEB HAALAND: Federal Indian boarding school policies have touched every single Indigenous person I know. Some are survivors. Some are descendants. But we all carry the trauma in our hearts.
RASCOE: NPR's Sequoia Carrillo takes us now to one of those schools in Santa Fe. It's still operational, but is on a very different path these days.
KYLE SHATIVA: Over here, we have our Native American section.
SEQUOIA CARRILLO, BYLINE: Kyle Shativa (ph), a junior at Santa Fe Indian School, shows us around the library.
KYLE: So this is art, so it'll say art 00 C-A-R.
CARRILLO: But he's looking for one book in particular.
KYLE: I'm trying to look for the book that my grandma is in, actually. Well, she's my great-grandma. Her pottery - it's, like, one of the most famous Acoma potteries there is.
CARRILLO: She's known for fine linework and traditional black-on-white ceramic designs. He walks us to a locked case of books.
KYLE: Yep. Right there - Lucy M. Lewis. That's my great-grandma.
CARRILLO: Feeling a connection to family is one reason Kyle left public school a few years ago and enrolled here.
KYLE: Back in my old school, I was, like, very whitewashed, if that makes sense. I felt out of touch with my Native American, like, heritage. But here - when I came here, it was like - I was surprised. I was like, there's so many kids wearing moccasins without feeling judgement.
CARRILLO: The campus, like many boarding schools of its kind, has a painful history. There are stories of forced assimilation and harsh punishment for students speaking their native languages from its earliest days. But this school developed differently. Located in the middle of Santa Fe, it wasn't quite as isolated as other Native boarding schools. It became known for training many Native artists as early as the 1930s after New Deal-era public works money flowed into the surrounding area. Famous artists like Georgia O'Keeffe took an interest in Native art, and the Institute of American Indian Art was founded nearby.
LISA LONGETEIG: This is all we have left of these murals, but many of these were very famous artists and many of the ancestors of our current students.
CARRILLO: That's Lisa Longeteig, the school's longtime librarian, who pointed out a mural of bison running alongside horses. For the last 50 years, this school has also been independent from the federal government, unlike other federal boarding schools that still exist.
LONGETEIG: When we became tribally controlled, that was the key.
CARRILLO: Now local tribes set the curriculum, a complete reversal from the school's founding purpose.
LONGETEIG: And since then, we've seen a dramatic increase even in my time here in language offerings. So more students are able to study their language here on campus.
CARRILLO: Many families have deep ties to the school going generations back.
OLIVIA ARMIJO: My mom went to school here.
CARRILLO: We met Olivia Armijo (ph) in the bustling courtyard between classes. She's a middle schooler in her first year at the school. She chose to come all the way from Ohio.
OLIVIA: 'Cause, like, it focuses on tradition and culture. In my other school, I was, like, the only Native kid there.
CARRILLO: Here, surrounded by other Native kids, she's excited about what she's learned, like...
OLIVIA: Buffalo dances. I didn't really know that was a thing until I got here. And then, like, I danced one here.
CARRILLO: Learning things like traditional dances, making pueblo art - it's all part of going to school here.
TASHA PINO: (Speaking Keres).
CARRILLO: Along with language classes.
PINO: This is San Felipe Keres, and right now the students are creating visuals.
CARRILLO: Tasha Pino leads a class of seventh-graders through a language exercise.
PINO: The major thing for the nonspeakers is having them see and connect to what the language is and what we're talking about.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #1: (Speaking Keres).
PINO: (Speaking Keres).
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: (Speaking Keres).
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #3: (Speaking Keres).
CARRILLO: It's not the easiest job. Some students are fluent, others complete beginners. But it's personal for her. She went to school here too, and she sees herself in the kids.
PINO: It's a huge passion for me, being able to give back to my community and to my students. And this is the way I can do that.
CARRILLO: Santa Fe Indian School offers around 11 languages - no easy feat with tribal communities scattered around the Southwestern United States. Mark Lee Moquino oversees the language program. He's a new hire with big dreams.
MARK LEE MOQUINO: I love to see language incorporated into every aspect of the school environment.
CARRILLO: He means everything - like math, for example.
MOQUINO: Everything that we do in our culture, in our tradition, what we would consider art is almost geometrical, right? So we will have math that is used in counting numbers of fibers when you're going to weave a belt or weave a blanket.
CARRILLO: Incorporating culture into the Western education system is just one way the school is hoping its students learn from the past to propel them into the future.
Sequoia Carrillo, NPR News, Santa Fe.
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