Poets of Resistance: Restoring Life to the Student Writings of the Intermountain Indian School

Authors

Terence Wride, Brigham Young University
Michael Taylor, Brigham Young University

Keywords

poets of resistance, student writings, Intermountain Indian School

College

Humanities

Department

English

Abstract

In hopes of permanently removing them from their Indigenous cultures and communities, from 1950 to 1984, thousands of Navajo and other American Indian children were sent to Brigham City, Utah to attend the Intermountain Indian School, the largest of nineteen postwar federal Indian boarding schools that remained in operation. Despite the deplorable tactics of a final institutionalized attempt to “kill the Indian and save the man” through the federal boarding school system, this project has celebrated the creative achievements of IIS students and their ability to actively resist assimilation and preserve their Indian identities through the production of sophisticated literary work from within the hostile boarding school environment.

Recommended Citation

Wride, Terence and Taylor, Michael (2018) "Poets of Resistance: Restoring Life to the Student Writings of the Intermountain Indian School," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2018: Iss. 1, Article 123.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2018/iss1/123