Chilocco History Project

Native American Boarding School Curriculum: Chilocco Indian Agricultural School 6th to 8th grade and 9th to 12th grade

Item

Title

Native American Boarding School Curriculum:
Chilocco Indian Agricultural School
6th to 8th grade and 9th to 12th grade

Description

This curriculum unit contains a series lessons targeted at 6th- 8th and 9th -12th grade students in Oklahoma and beyond. The curriculum units are devised to elicit critical thinking, like that promoted by the Stanford History Education Group, teach appropriate skills based on national standards, and promote an Indigenous perspective of history. This work also relies on essential questions as a framework to guide the student through the inquiry unit.
The purpose of this curriculum is to meet the needs of the OOHRP and the Chilocco Indian Agriculture School in promoting the history and experiences documented in archival and oral history research. This proposed curriculum engages students, through inquiry, with the evolving history and experiences at Chilocco. Through a historical lens, this curriculum balances its focus on assimilative practices of the federal government, including militarization of the boarding school space with an evolving perspective of how Chilocco, in later years, became a space reclaimed by students and tribes to further their educational values and contribute to the growth of their tribes and the state.

Creator

Lisa Lynn, Ph.D.

Publisher

Oklahoma State University Library

Duration

Each of the three section of the unit will take from three to five days to complete based on time spent in class each day. The information is largely chronological, but the units could be taught in isolation depending on the needs of the teacher. The unit, in its entirety, would most easily fit into a four week period.

Standards

C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards

Objectives

Curriculum Objectives
• To examine how Indian education legacies exist in multiple and conflicting ways.
• To portray a complicated history; how positive and negative experiences can exist simultaneously and complicate our view of history.
• To explore the assimilation practices of the federal government in Indian Boarding schools.
• To analyze the use of military practices of Chilocco and the role of the National Guard in the school’s later years.
• To explore the nature of youth resistance to assimilation forces while reinforcing tribal culture.
• To analyze the change in policies and practices in Chilocco before and after the Meriam and Kennedy reports.
• To identify through a historical look at Chilocco, a connection to modern Native identity.

Media

6-12 CBS Curriculum Combined.pdf