‘You can’t take away people’s culture’: A closer look at the ‘Indian Schools’ of Utah

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — In recent history, more than 500 “Indian Schools” were located throughout the United States — with one located in Whiterocks, Utah.

ABC4’s Craig Wirth has been working on a documentary about the Uintah Boarding School in Whiterocks, Utah, for the past eight months. The documentary — titled “Tuniyay” — was scheduled to debut at the Salt Lake City Public Library Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16.

Wirth said the Indian Schools of Utah “stripped the culture” of Indigenous peoples, in addition taking away their language and spiritual practices.

Indigenous children from the Ute tribe in Utah faced severe punishments, sickness, and psychological effects at the school in Whiterocks. Death was also common, but many deaths went unreported.

Forrest Cuch, a Ute Elder living in the Whiterocks area, told Wirth that kids at the school suffered from depression and trauma during that time, and were “lonely for their families.”

At the schools, children were punished if they were caught speaking the Ute language.

“That was what most of the Christian schools were designed to do, is to eliminate the Indian, but save the man — and so, destroy the culture, the language and keep the people alive,” Cuch said.

Ute Elder Adelbert Tvashutz was only five years old when he attended the school with his cousin — and when the teacher heard them whispering in Ute, they were ordered to sit close together before the teacher punished them.

“She took the yardstick and whacked us over the head, and it broke,” Tvashutz said.

The teacher then told Tvashutz and his cousin to hold out their hands, which got whipped with the yardstick after it had been broken.

“That’s something you can’t really do,” Ute Elder Madeline Duncan Martinez said. “You can’t take away people’s culture. You can’t take away their language.”

The school — which was operated by religious and government organizations — was made up of a couple dozen buildings, but very little of the school remains today.

In addition to facing punishments for speaking their language, the schools cut the kids’ hair and dressed them up in pioneer clothing. Police got $5 for every Indigenous child they brought to the schools.

The Reverend Michael Carney, an Episcopal priest, has been living in Whiterocks among the Ute population for about a decade.

“It was devastating to native communities and nations, and it breaks my heart to know that the communities and the institution of the church that I’m part of played major roles in that,” Carney said.

Now, the story is one of reconciliation, and the children are learning the history.

“Young people want to know the truth, they know when we are not telling the truth,” Cuch said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.