2019 Genealogy Fair session 5 Discovering and Researching Bureau of Indian Affairs School Records

Session Description: Federally run schools for American Indian children first emerged in the mid-19th century and became a potent tool of cultural assimilation for decades, before slowly evolving alongside the general changes and improvements in Native American relations. This presentation will discuss the records of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding and day schools, looking at both individual student case files as well as general administrative records, what was and was not saved, what can be found within them, and what privacy restrictions exist. Located at National Archives facilities across the country and often hidden within other BIA series, these records not only chronicle a student's academic career but often health, family, and life after school. General school records paint a portrait of school life and can further flesh out an individual's history at a particular school at a particular time.

Presenter: Cody White has been an archivist with the National Archives at Denver since 2012 and was recently named Subject Matter Expert for Native American Related Records for the National Archives. He holds a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of California Los Angeles and a BA in History from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

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