SHI lecture to examine history, legacy of Alaska boarding schools

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a presentation Monday as part of its spring lecture series featuring prominent voices in Native knowledge, history, art, culture and language.

Emma Eden and Julia Samuel, students at South Anchorage High School, will present their talk, “The Boarding School Era in Alaska,” on July 21.

Eden and Samuel developed the presentation through their award-winning project for National History Day, where they earned first place in Alaska and an Outstanding Entry Award at the national competition held at the University of Maryland. Their research placed in the top 20 for their category out of 3,000 students nationwide.

The lecture will trace the roots of Alaska’s boarding school system beginning with missionary Sheldon Jackson and the implementation of the Comity Plan. The presenters will focus on the history of the Wrangell Institute and the lengths to which missionaries went to suppress Indigenous languages and cultures. The presentation will also explore the generational trauma caused by the boarding school system and its enduring effects on Alaska Native families and communities today.

The lecture is scheduled for noon Monday, July 21, in Shuká Hít within the Walter Soboleff Building, 105 Heritage Way. The event will be livestreamed and posted on SHI’s YouTube channel.