United States Indian Vocational Training School

The plaque's high-minded words about civilization mask what this place was. The Phoenix Indian School, open from 1891 to 1990, was a federal boarding school built to erase Native identity: children were taken from families across dozens of nations, their hair cut, their clothes burned, their languages forbidden and punished. At its 1891 founding an Indian commissioner called it cheaper to educate Native children than to kill them. Only three buildings survive, in what is now Steele Indian School Park, and the survivors' descendants still carry the harm.

What the plaque says

Established 1891. This fountain and building erected 1922. Charles H. Burke, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. "The Indian will become an asset or a liability as we cultivate or fail to cultivate his body, mind and soul with a view to fitting him for an honorable place in our social and economic structure." "The purpose of this school is to introduce Indian youth to the opportunities and responsibilities of civilization and to acquaint his Caucasian brother with the sterling qualities of the Native American."

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Museum — 1.8 mi
  The Native Southwest, told in the first person
• Phoenix — 3.4 mi
  The fifth-largest US city, built on the canals of a thousand-year-old one
• Taliesin West — 15 mi
  Frank Lloyd Wright's desert masterwork, grown from the ground it stands on

More markers nearby

• Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers — 1.2 mi
• F.Q. Story Addition — 2.7 mi
• Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. — 3.2 mi
• Saint Mary's Basilica — 3.2 mi