FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What materials are provided?

VIDEOS:

There are 5 videos that make up the “Boarding School & Cushman Project” series. They include:

1. The Education of the First People of this Land (Duration: 14:24)
2. European Contact in Washington State (Duration: 21:51)
3. St. George’s Indian Boarding School, Cushman Indian Boarding School & Cushman Indian Hospital and Sanatorium – Puyallup Reservation (Duration: 20:03)
4. Stories from Students, Patients & Staff: St. George’s Indian Boarding School, Cushman Indian Boarding School & Cushman Indian Hospital and Sanatorium (Duration: 36:30)
5. Interview with Rhoda Ducharme Hayward, Salish Tribe: The Minimization of Language and Culture through Boarding Schools (Duration: 32:35)
6. The Boarding School & Cushman Project – Full Series (Duration 1:21:59)
7. The Boarding School & Cushman Project – Full Series w/Discussion (Duration 2:00:11)

The first portion of each video is a full txʷəlšucid immersion presentation of historical content from the perspective of the First Peoples of this land. You will find txʷəlšucid and English text on each slide. Some sections of the videos include historic photographs.

The second portion of each video unpacks the information that was shared in the video, adds additional information and asks questions for personal reflection.

To gain a better understanding and context, we strongly encourage you to watch, “We are Puyallup: A Brief History of the Puyallup Tribe,” before you watch the full series, “The Boarding School & Cushman Project – Puyallup Reservation.” (Duration 14:17) Watch Video Here

DOCUMENTS:

These documents have been put together to assist you in processing and personally reflecting on the video series. These documents include:

1. Questions from the video and personal reflection questions – with answers
2. Questions from the video and personal reflection questions – with answers removed
3. Video script of unpacking section and personal reflection section of video
4. Teaching materials
   • Concept Map
   • Know, Wonder, Learned (KWL)
   • Writing Prompts

The first set of questions are taken directly from the video presentation. The second set of questions are personal reflection questions designed to help expand your understanding of what our people went through. We’ve also supplied you with a document that has the answers removed.

We’ve provided a video script of the unpacking section and personal reflection section of the presentation. For our school teachers, we’re providing you with activities to use with your students in a more digestible package.

Who can use these materials?

These materials were created for Tribal communities, teachers, educators, facilitators, company leadership, equity and diversity leaders and any person wishing to learn more about what happened on our ancestral lands. This content is appropriate to use for Middle School grade levels to adult learners.

Why should we use these materials?

These materials were created to assist in facilitating conversations around these videos and content. Because this entire project was created by the First People of this land, the questions are shaped to help our community grow in knowledge and understanding – with a Native perspective at the forefront. Using these materials takes pressure off the non-Native community in trying to facilitate these types of discussions.

What can we do with these materials?

WATCH:

We created these materials with the intent of sharing stories and knowledge with our community – written from our perspective. We would like you to watch the videos, answer the questions and hopefully expand your understanding for our people.

SHARE:

We hope that you share these materials far and wide with others who want to learn about what happened on our reservation.

IMPLEMENT:

We would like leadership in local cities, government, companies, businesses, and schools to watch and use these materials personally. Then we would like the leadership to share these materials with their staff. This work should not fall on staff that are classified as diversity, equity, or Indian Education. You should know about the people whose land you live and work on. This is a great starting point.

SUGGESTIONS:

We are asking that educators using these materials follow a few simple guidelines to ensure our history is taught in our own voices and with truth, respect, and kindness. These materials have been carefully put together and we would like to keep the integrity of the content intact. Please refrain from the following:

1. Erasing the Twulshootseed language provided on any materials

   • These materials have been provided by the Puyallup Tribal Language Program – our ultimate goal is to revitalize the Twulshootseed language, and these materials are a part of that effort. We appreciate your assistance in keep this language visible, acknowledged and alive within your classroom.

2. Copy and pasting the language out of context for distribution/signage

   • Taking words or phrases out of context can often change the meaning, in order to avoid misuse of the Twulshootseed language please avoid this – if your district is looking for language assistance please follow the appropriate protocol (www.puyalluptriballanguage.org)

3. Removing any “sensitive” subjects

   • The subject of Indian Boarding schools is a hard issue to teach about – this is often due to the continual misteaching or ignoring of the subject. These historic events are not for us to like or dislike, they are here for us to learn from. Teachers were not often taught this and that can lead to making us feel uncomfortable with teaching it. We ask that you use as much of the material as possible and that you do not “Whitewash” this history. We trust you as the educator to best introduce and teach these materials, often slowly introducing the topic and being open with students and families about the upcoming lesson can often mitigate most issues.

4. Offer your personal opinion or alternative perspective

   • We ask that you let the materials, resources, and people speak for themselves. There are multiple opportunities for you and your students to reflect, debrief, and contemplate the information. We ask that you allow them and yourself to do that without offering outside or alternative narratives.

5. Single out Native/Indigenous students and families to act as the educator or expert

   • While we acknowledge that this is new information for many people, we must also acknowledge this is the traumatic history many of our Native families have lived through, and have been effected by (in both direct and indirect ways). With this in mind we insist that educators do not single out, call attention to, or seek insight from the Native students or their families that are in your class. This would be equivalent to asking a Black student to speak on American Slavery –how it has affected their family, what trauma they experienced, and to speak to the class about it. Both of these scenarios are highly inappropriate.
   • There may be some students/families who offer this support and we encourage you to continue to build relationships as appropriate and allow this conversation to continue in an authentic way; but outside of these circumstances any questions, feedback, or guidance should be directed at the Puyallup Tribal Outreach Specialist in the Historic Preservation Department.