The Arizona Republic
Angela Cara Pancrazio
Feb. 6, 2004
Wilbur Nez, Yazzie, Shyann and "Bird" Walker.
They carved their names decades ago into the massive brick walls of Phoenix Indian School's Memorial Hall.
A rare federal grant will ensure their names, along with hundreds of other Phoenix Indian School students who etched their names into the bricks, will not be forgotten.
The $100,000 Save America's Treasures grant is given nationally to significant, high-level historic sites, said Barbara Stocklin, the city's historic preservation officer. It is the first one of its kind to be awarded in Phoenix.
"Historically, Phoenix Indian School is one of the most important monuments we have," said Bill Jacobson, city preservation planner. "It was the second largest Indian school in the nation and it's very illustrative of how the federal government's policy toward Indians changed over the years."
Along with the federal grant, funds from local bonds and the Arizona Heritage Fund will enable to the city to begin the exterior restoration work of the 1922 Memorial Hall and the 1902 Dining Hall in March. The school is on Indian School Road, between Central Avenue and Third Street.
In the late 19th century, the Bureau of Indian Affairs embarked on a plan of forced assimilation by removing children from reservations and their families to send them to boarding schools like the Phoenix Indian School. Founded in 1891, the school was first named the United States Industrial Indian School in Phoenix.
Nearly 1,000 Native American students from dozens of tribes across the country attended the school at its peak in the early 1920s. As reservations built schools, enrollment dropped. By 1960, Phoenix Indian School became a high school.
Nineteen students, the last graduating class, walked up to the stage inside Memorial Hall and received their diplomas on May 24, 1990.
The exterior stabilization and restoration of Memorial Hall and the Dining Hall starts this spring to keep the wind and water out, said Jim Burke, deputy parks director.
The city has earmarked $2.5 million in cultural bonds for the interior stabilization and restoration of Memorial Hall in 2005.
"It sounds like a lot of money for one building, but 80-year-old buildings take a lot," Burke said.
Memorial Hall will be a venue available for concerts, plays, and meetings. The Native American Tourism Association hopes to use the Dining Hall as a museum and cultural center, a place to share their heritage and history.
"We want to bring them back to life," Burke said.
For now, the sheets of plywood nailed to the windows make Memorial Hall look and feel deserted.
On a recent weekday morning, only a jogger, a power walker and a man being led around by his dog passed by the 1922 building. The drinking fountain no longer works, but a plaque mounted on its cement base remains.
It reads, "In memory of the students of this school who enlisted in the Army and Navy during the World War."
"As far as we know, it's the only World War I memorial dedicated to American Indians," said Jacobson. "Back at a time when Native Americans were taken off reservations and sent to schools, they were fighting for their country."