Close Connection To The AIS Site

To Native Americans, the 19th and 20th-Century boarding schools to which they were sent were places of stress and loneliness, but they were also places where new skills were learned and new friendships made. It's interesting how close a connection they feel to the sites of the boarding schools - even the Albuquerque Indian School, which closed in 1982:

The 46 acres that were once the site of the Albuquerque Indian School (AIS), a boarding school for many Native Americans in the southwest since 1881, is now only a memory. The land where the school once stood is set for development and will now be known as The Pueblo Center Business Complex.

The complex will be built by The Indian Pueblo Federal Development Corporation (IPFDC) which is owned and operated by New Mexico's 19 Pueblos.

...The Presbyterian Church transferred control of the school to the federal government in 1884. The school remained under the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) until it was transferred in the 1980s to the All Indian Pueblo Council. The school eventually closed in 1982 with the land held in trust for the 19 Pueblos in 1983. Throughout the early 1980s the buildings fell victim to vandalism and fires and were eventually torn down in 1985.

...Alvino Sandoval came to the Albuquerque Indian School in 1947 when he was just 10 years old. Sandoval, a Navajo from Tohajiilee, N.M., said his mother woke him up one day and told him he was going somewhere where he would have food to eat and a warm place to sleep. He said she never mentioned anything about getting an education.

"I never went off the reservation and all of a sudden they shipped me out and I ended up here. There used to be a vineyard, orchards and we even had some dairy cows. Later the cows were moved to SIPI (the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute). We had our own bakery and Indian hospital."

Sandoval graduated in 1958 and while he has not kept in contact with his former classmates, he thinks of his years at the AIS often. "I feel sad when I go by here and see this empty spot. Those buildings we went to school in, slept in, those were really strong buildings. Those buildings were really made well...."

And this:

[A] U.S. Department of the Interior office complex was built at the site of the former Albuquerque Indian School. But a handful of earth from there was brought to the Forgiveness Journey gathering in Albuquerque so that the spirit of the former school could be present. Who brought it? A Jewish Rabbi who had been invited to take part in the day.

“He understands what the Native Americans are going through,” said Terri Clah, one of the organizers who helped make the gathering happen. “He brought a message to our gathering to relate to Native Americans. He went to the former Albuquerque Indian School location and brought back dirt with him. He spoke to us and he lifted it before the Creator and asked the Creator to heal the Native Americans that were mistreated on those grounds. It was powerful,” she said with awe in her voice.