Event: Virtual Pizza Talk: Shimásání Dóó Shicheii Bi’ólta’ - My Grandmother’s and Grandfather’s School: The Old Leupp Boarding School, a Historic Archaeological Site on the Navajo Reservation

Davina Two Bears' research documents the history of the Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS), a Federal Indian boarding school on the Navajo Reservation, from 1909 to 1942, as it explores Diné (Navajo) survivance within the context of this school. Two Bears employs decolonizing research methods framed by postcolonial theory to investigate the OLBS, which currently exists as a historic archaeological site. She explores how Diné children forced to attend the OLBS utilized their cultural foundations to meet the challenges imposed upon them by a settler society and relates the positive stories of Native survivance and resistance to assimilation achieved within the OLBS. Utilizing oral history interviews she conducted with Navajo elders and a critical review of archival records and historic photographs, Two Bears explores the history of the OLBS and the memories of Navajo students who attended the OLBS. Her research contributes to postcolonial anthropology as a study of culture change, decolonizing research, and Native American and Indigenous studies.

Davina R. Two Bears is Navajo from northern Arizona. She recently graduated from Indiana University (2019) with a PhD in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology, and a PhD minor in Native American Indigenous Studies.

Register for this Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will receive instructions on viewing the talk after registering.

Photo courtesy of the Old Trails Museum/Winslow Historical Society. The photo is of the front entrance of the OLBS, which later became the girls and boys dormitory. This picture was taken around 1915.