Ferdinand Brady Photographic Postcards, circa 1907-1920

The Tulalip Indian School

The Tulalip Indian Boarding School opened in 1905 in a large, newly built facility on the Tulalip Indian reservation near Marysville, along the shore of Tulalip Bay. The school was filled to its capacity of 200 students within two years of opening, some recruited from reservation day schools, and others from off-reservation communities. Though education at Tulalip ended at the eighth grade level, some students continued with advanced training at Chemawa near Salem, Oregon or at other Indian schools.

The Tulalip Indian School was part of a national system of Indian education whose underlying goal was the assimilation of Indians into white American culture. Schools both on and off the reservation sought to "civilize" children by removing them from the influences of traditional life and immersing them in white ways. Students were prohibited from speaking native languages, even among themselves; it was English or nothing. The school routine was strictly regimented and the method of instruction in direct contrast to that of traditional cultures, where learning was a result of observation and practice.

In addition to eliminating the influence of traditional cultures, the government also aimed to train students to be self-supporting within their new way of life. They were taught skills which, not coincidentally, were also necessary to maintain the school, such as sewing, laundry work, carpentry and farming. Critics complained that such skills were of debatable value to the Indians and that the low level of job training virtually guaranteed long-term inequality.

In the 1920s, criticism of the Indian Schools grew; they were expensive, overcrowded, encouraged dependency rather than self-sufficiency, required too much labor from students, and had substandard teachers. In the 1930s, federal Indian policy began to shift, and Indian education began to favor courses more appropriate to the diversity of cultures. More and more Indian children nationwide attended public school and the states assumed more control over Indian education. The Tulalip Indian Boarding School closed in 1932.