The effects of my National History Day project
By Siella Steele
Current Contributor
This past year, while I was in eighth grade, my honors social studies class participated in National History Day, which is a nonprofit organization offering students in the United States the opportunity to investigate significant topics of history.
The main event each year is a competition, in which students in grades six through 12 develop presentations about historical issues that are of interest to them—competing first at the school level, then the regional level, then state, and nationally, if they advance that far. This year’s contest theme was revolution, reaction, and reform in history.
Since this is something that eighth graders at my school do every year, I had already started thinking about possible topics before the 2025-26 school year even began.
After watching Anne with an E, a show based on the Anne of Green Gables books that mentioned Native American boarding schools, I became curious about what they were. Once I began researching, I was honestly shocked—and even a little ashamed—that I had never learned about them before.
Right away, I knew this would be the topic that I would research for my history project.
My project, Erasing Identities: Indigenous Boarding Schools, focused on how the United States government created boarding schools to force children of the First Nations to give up their culture and become more “American.” (Notably, this also happened in Canada, where they were called Indian Residential Schools.)
Though the idea of using the U.S. government to assimilate Native American people into “civilized” society dates back to the late 1700s, early North American colonists created missionary schools as far back as the early 1600s.
In 1819, the Civilization Fund Act—also known as the Indian Civilization Act—began this education process formally. Ultimately, there were more than 500 government-funded and church-run Native American boarding schools in the United States, up until the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which shifted control of Indigenous education to tribes.
For more than 150 years, however, Native American boarding schools shaped the lives of hundreds of thousands of children.
These children were taken from their families and forced to live in schools where they were not allowed to speak their indigenous language, practice their traditions, or even keep their names. They were given new names, forced to follow a different religion, and expected to forget everything about who they were.
This caused a huge loss of culture and identity that still impacts Native communities today.
Learning about what these children went through was heartbreaking. Many experienced physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse. Even those who were not physically hurt were still being mentally abused every day. They were forced to forget their families and the only life they had ever known.
At times, working on this project felt overwhelming and difficult—but it also made me realize how important it is to tell these stories and make sure that they are not forgotten.
One of the most powerful parts of my project was interviewing people.
I interviewed a local boarding school survivor, from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, who shared that educating others is one of the most important ways to help with healing. She taught me that the best way to assist in healing is to educate people on these events that innocent children were forced to endure.
My interviewee shared that going to healing circles has helped her to share—and in doing so, she has begun to heal herself.
She explained how she had previously not been able to share her experiences and trauma, which led to spiraling and an inability to heal. It was only after she began to share her experiences that she began to have relief.
This exemplifies the fact that educating and sharing is the best way to heal these survivors. Healing this trauma is crucial to future generations, because the suffering is being passed down to the survivors’ children. This happens because the way they were raised in the boarding schools is the same way they were taught to raise their own children.
I also learned that trauma does not just affect emotions; it can also impact physical health and life expectancy. Many survivors struggle with stress, addiction, and illness, which can lead to shorter lives.
Another important lesson I learned is that trauma does not stop with one person. It can be passed down through generations.
I learned this when I also interviewed the son of a survivor, and he explained how his parents’ experiences affected the way they had raised him—because of the trauma they had experienced, they did not always have the tools to be emotionally healthy parents.
“Do you feel that trauma was passed down to your father?” I asked him.
“Absolutely. My grandpa struggled with alcoholism, and so did my dad,” he told me. “Hearing stories of their upbringing—physical abuse and a very mean environment—it’s clear. If you are a broken person because of what you experienced as a child, those things stay with you for a lifetime and affect how you parent.”
This helped me to understand how deeply these experiences continue to affect families, even today.
Even though so much was lost during and after the boarding school years, I also learned about resilience.
For example, even though many Native languages were taken away, they were never fully forgotten. Younger generations are now working to relearn their languages and reconnect with their culture. This shows that identity is strong, even after people tried to erase it.
Through this project, I learned how vital mental health resources and safe spaces are for both children and adults.
Many boarding school survivors did not have access to support or a safe environment to talk about what they went through.
The woman I interviewed shared that healing circles and having the opportunity to speak about her experiences have been crucial in helping her begin to heal. She is also actively involved in the Native American Healing Coalition, an organization dedicated to bringing truth, justice, and healing to survivors, their families, and deceased students.
Through gatherings and shared experiences, the coalition contributes to essential self-care for survivors and generations to come, while also working to influence the U.S. government to release critical information about these schools.
This made me realize that, when people are given support, resources, and a listening ear, it can make a huge difference. Offering mental health support is especially critical for those who have experienced profound trauma, as it allows them the opportunity to heal and move forward.
What surprised and disturbed me the most is that this topic is not widely taught in schools, especially where we live in Northern Michigan, despite that people from this area attended these boarding schools. (Official records vary, but there were five to eight schools that operated in Michigan.)
But these stories deserve to be shared, learned about, and remembered.
If people do not learn about this history, the impact will continue to cycle through generations.
This project completely changed the way that I think about history: it is not just a collection of facts and dates but a story of real people and real experiences that still profoundly affect others today.
After researching this topic, completing my project, and having the privilege to conduct these interviews, I believe the most important thing we can do is not forget.
I want to challenge people to educate themselves and experience these perspectives firsthand by actively reading and watching survivors’ stories. There are many digital resources and websites available to learn more.
By educating ourselves and keeping this history present in our schools and communities, we can ensure these stories are never ignored again. Teaching our future generations about this history is the absolute best way that we can contribute to systemic healing and make a small but deeply impactful difference.
Siella Steele is a student at Traverse City West. Her eighth grade social studies project, Erasing Identities: Indigenous Boarding Schools, earned third place in state competition, having won at the regional level and within her local school. This is her first report for The Betsie Current newspaper.
Featured Photo Caption: Siella Steele is a student at Traverse City West. Her eighth grade social studies project, “Erasing Identities: Indigenous Boarding Schools,” earned third place in state competition for National History Day; she also won at the regional level and within her local school. Image courtesy of the Steele family.
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