This virtual presentation, by Dr. Majel Boxer (Associate Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Fort Lewis College), focused on locating and "hearing" the voices of Indigenous students attending Fort Lewis Indian School during the two decades of operation, and how the federal Indian policy of assimilation was manifested in the daily life of children attending the boarding school. This event was organized in partnership with the Southwest Colorado Humanities Roundtable with the generous support of Colorado Humanities.
Any Step Back Into the Old Ways Is Naturally A Hindrance: Fort Lewis Indian School, 1892-1911
About the presenter
Dr. Majel Boxer (Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota) is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Montana. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses broadly on tribal cultural preservation and continuance. Specifically, she examines cultural centers and community programs that aim to preserve the cultural traditions and languages of communities. In the fall of 2017, she served as a Resident Research Fellow at the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Cody Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. Her research focused on change and continuity in cultural art forms of Dakota women and men in pre- and post-reservation eras. Dr. Boxer served as the 2018-2019 president of the American Indian Studies Association, serves as a contributing editor to Wicazo Sa Review and is currently an associate professor of Native American & Indigenous Studies at Fort Lewis College.