UCLA

California Indians histories are interwoven from oral accounts of our ancestors’ hardships and triumphs, intertwining experiences of lost and concealed culture, traditions, and perspectives on our past, bound together by generations that have overcome adversity through endless resiliency, directly tying Indian people to our ancestors’ experiences, Indigenous knowledge systems, cultural connections and familial bonds. One overlooked narrative in California history is that of the Mission boarding school experience. California Indian boarding school literature continues be dominated by the Sherman Institute, and there remains an absence of perspectives of California Indian students attending Saint Boniface Indian Industrial School. Cross referencing archival documents, oral histories, and family photographs, this thesis provides a narrative of California Indian Mission school history by exploring how descendants of former students are (re)writing and (re)righting histories. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how descendants of one family from Sahatapah, California have overcome the loss of familial bonds and cultural connections to reclaim their California Indian heritage.