The PHS conducted an extensive review of their operation of the Tucson Indian School which is accessible online here. The review report is well worth reading in its entirety because of its completeness and candor in addressing the subject. A descriptive paragraph from the report follows:
"In winter of 2023, when we at the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) Reparative Description Committee were auditing archival collection guides for harmful and oppressive language, the records of the Tucson Indian Training School (Record Group 103) caught our attention. As we wrote in our first blog post on the topic, reparative description is the practice of critically examining and ultimately adjusting the way we as an institution describe or characterize marginalized groups, paying particular attention to instances where our description inflicts harm, spreads false narratives, or minimizes past and ongoing injustices. In reading the original collection guide, we immediately recognized outdated terms were used to refer to the Akimel O'odham (Pima) and Tohono O’odham (Papago) people, but, upon further reflection, noted that the lived experiences of these Indigenous groups were erased and misrepresented through omission and under-description rather than through outdated language alone. The use of a neutral voice glossed over government and church policies of assimilation and cultural destruction and left out students’ points of view."
An image of the Escuela News, the school newspaper, gives the reader of the school's function in 1960. The reader may also notice a condescending tone in describing the students. Other images include student photos and documents related to student enrollment and their work on a well replacement project.
Much of the latter part of the review will be of more interest to a researcher than to someone interested in the students or school life. There are links to other materials that may be of interest. Images related to Tucson can be seen here.
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