Why I Trespassed in the Intermountain Indian School - CJ Guadarrama - Ignite USU
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- When a person enters an area, or crosses a line that has been drawn for the sole purpose of segregation, they are presented with the best opportunity for learning naturally. Knowing when to trespass and cross these lines then becomes just as important as knowing what to research. My talk is about how my trespassing on the Intermountain Indian Schools in Brigham City, Utah led to my research at Utah State.
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Similar to TEDxUSU, student researchers share their passion, experiences and stories behind their research. The twist is that each speaker has only five-minutes and twenty automatically-advancing slides.
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Hey CJ, my name is Barb. My dad was in the Air Force for 22 years and when I was 8 years old he retired at Hill Air Force Base in utah. His first job when he got out of the Air Force was at intermountain Indian School as a ROTC instructor. So we moved from Layton to Brigham City. My parents were both born and raised in Arkansas where I currently live and I was raised in a Southern Baptist church and we went every time the doors were open! Needless to say we had a constant flow of Mormon missionaries coming to our home to try to convert us! LOL
Anyway, I know that I was only 8 years old and we only lived in Brigham for 2 years before we moved elsewhere, but I have no bad memories of the school or the students. Actually is it is quite to the contrary. There was a small mission across from the school and there were two Southern Baptist missionaries with the last name of Conrad that worked at the mission full time. My parents volunteered to help them and we went every Sunday morning and every Sunday night and we always went to the activities at the chapel. There were many many students from intermountain that came to the chapel and were very involved. Every Sunday after church my parents would pick two navaho students to go home with us for lunch and they would spend the day with our family and then we would bring them back to church with us that evening. My parents always made sure that it was different students every Sunday because they knew how good my mom's cooking was and they would get into arguments on who was going to come! Lol. They seemed to love our family and they showered us with gifts. They were homemade gifts. My dad has been gone for over 20 years now and my mom passed away 2 years ago. I have two siblings that are still living and each of us have at least something from that time in our lives. We were given many art pieces that were hand-drawn and beautiful. We were given pottery including a wedding vase for my parents. We were given jewelry that they made. In fact my dad had a western style bolo tie that had turquoise on it and he wore it until he passed away. He got many compliments on that and it was a beautiful tie which he was proud of and I still have it. We were also given Indian rugs that were made on the reservation. A lot of the students would go home for the summer and they would ask their mother or grandmother to make a rug for us as a gift. I have one that has a Thunderbird at each end and even though I was young I still remember hearing the story about the piece of thread that was a different color than the border that went out to the side of the rug. I remember them telling us that that thread looked like it was in the wrong place but it wasn't, it was to allow the spirit of the Thunderbirds to escape. I remember having get togethers at the chapel which had a full kitchen and oh my gosh what I wouldn't give for some of that fry bread! LOL. My parents made a huge difference in many people's lives in their time on this Earth. I know they made a difference in those students' lives and I am very thankful that I had an opportunity to be exposed to a culture that I truly enjoyed being a part of for a short period of time.
We lived over by the B on the mountain! On the weekends if we were bored we would climb to the B on the mountain. We thought we were so cool when we did that! I do remember going to the school a few times for different events that my dad was a part of with rotc. I don't remember which year it was but it was in the late seventies when there was an astronaut that came to the school and visited with the students and the ROTC. My dad was his chaperone for the day on the campus so my mom took us out there. They had been to the Moon not long before that but I don't remember which astronaut it was. My sister was 2 years younger than me and my parents always raised us to be polite. The man reached out his hand and was shaking everybody's hands and I stuck mine out and he shook my hand and I told my sister to put her hand out. My sister replied "No, he has cooties. He's been to the Moon!" My mom was mortified but the astronaut thought it was hilarious!
I'm sorry this turned into a novel but I could talk for hours about our experiences in Brigham and with the chapel and the students. I just wanted you to know that there are a lot of us I believe that have very positive memories concerning the school and the students and many of us that are very thankful that we got to experience the Navajo culture.
Thank you for caring about this amazing place. As a hospital and as a boarding school, Intermountain brought jobs and pride to Brigham City-pride to those who were closely involved with the school. The school was, and still is, a mystery to outsiders. Keep on researching!
Thank you for all your hard work to preserve the great heritage of Intermountain Indian School. I just want to say that I have very fond memories of the school. (And I disagree with many of the negative comments and false information in some of the other comments.
Thank you. I’m so glad you did this instead of letting the horrible rumors and legends about this place take the place of a real and important history. I grew up there and snuck in a couple times myself as a child.
I grew up on the property and my dad worked in the recreation dept. for so many years and was actually one of the last employees, as security, after closure. we had an amazing family of natives that created a bond that can't be broken.
GREAT VIDEO LOVED IT;; you CAN STILL SEE THE I on the mountain,, my mom Margeen Hunsaker worked there, there was a furniture factory there the Navaho kids made furniture for glen Mechem, of Ogden I have 2 OF THEM LIKE BRAND NEW, the eagle painting on the BUILDING was done by THE GREAT Navaho artist, they tore it down WORTH MILLIONS, a sad commentary OH THOSE KIDS COULD RUN, I ran the TRACK,, against them, in the 70s kevin d. blanch Ph.D. blanchblanch2@gmail.com
I remember trespassing there as a teenager. It was a popular dare and, as someone not from Brigham City (or Utah, even), it seemed like an important right of passage to acceptance in this area. The three buildings that remain belong to the Room Loft, right? My husband worked there from 2001-2014. The warehouse workers in particular have a lot of stories about the things they found in those buildings.
I have spent hours upon hours exploring corridors and hall ways as a kid and a teenager. It seems like you have missed a lot not even scratching the surface kind of sad since you say you research so much but there in no proof of nothing. What you said is no insignificance because there is no details i know more details than you and i have done zero research in this area other than explore.
You could have asked for permission to enter there. Respect private property.
Tresspass is a crime. You are a criminal. If you really wanted to learn about the school you had two options.
First, go to the reservations and talk to former students.
Second, look up info on it at the Library of Congress. The hospital/ school has been in all its forms a federal government project and the fed keeps great records.
I knew a kid who was around at the time. He said that people would take spices and call it pot and sell it to the sudents. The students also shoplifted a lot from local stores.
In the end, the school was an unrealistic welfare Utopia that was obsolete. The reservations got better schools and the kids were sent home to be with their familes year round as they enjoyed the new schools.
Hi Hu to Trespass or Trespassing is what you meant. The real crime is your illiteracy. You have two options. Go back to school or keep being dumb.