| Summary: | Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2022 As a whole, the residential school experience holds a complicated legacy for Native American and Alaska Native communities. The history of residential schools for Indigenous children includes acculturation, instances of abuse, and generational trauma. In many cases, Indigenous children throughout the United States and Canada were removed from their families and forced to attend Western schools that banned their Native cultures, traditions, and languages. However, some former residential school students also attest to the positive experience of attending some of these schools, noting the educational opportunities they received, as well as the community and friendships they established at those schools. Their experiences highlight the complicated legacy of residential schools. This project analyzes the experiences students had while attending Copper Valley School, a Catholic residential school located near Glennallen, Alaska. The school was in operation between 1956 and 1971 and was established to provide a college preparatory education for Alaska Native students. Based on archival material and interviews with alumni, this project examines the education and student experience at Copper Valley School. The project allowed space for all student experiences, positive and negative. The former Copper Valley students interviewed for this project attested to a largely positive experience at the school, while noting that the school did have several institutional shortcomings. This project argues that the quality of education, the participation of lay volunteers, the integration of the school, and the community at the school all contributed to positive experiences for the project participants. Copper Valley School Association Board
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