Day School Research
Summaries of graduate research on Kahnawà:ke Indian Day Schools & FAQ at the bottom of the page.
Doctoral Dissertation
Title: Retracing our roots through story medicine: Re-storying Kahnawà:ke Indian Day Schools (2025, McGill University)
Summary
Dr. Wahéhshon Shiann Whitebean’s dissertation explores the history and lasting impacts of Indian Day Schools (1868–1988) in the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) community of Kahnawà:ke. Combining oral histories from twenty-two community members with extensive archival research, Dr. Whitebean investigates how colonial schooling disrupted language, culture, and identity, and how Kahnawa’kehró:non continue to reclaim and re-story their experiences through Indigenous knowledge systems.
Drawing on Rotinonhsión:ni worldview and Indigenist felt theory, Whitebean introduces two original frameworks: Child-Targeted Assimilation, describing how colonial education sought to eliminate Indigenous identities through the forced acculturation of children; and Story Medicine, an Indigenous research methodology and healing practice that treats storytelling as both analytical lens and pathway to wellness.
Five major themes emerged from the stories: trauma, language, culture, education, and healing/future generations. Together they reveal that Indian Day Schools inflicted deep harms while simultaneously cultivating resistance, community solidarity, and eventual educational self-determination. The work situates Kahnawà:ke’s long struggle for language and cultural revitalization within broader processes of survivance and resurgence.
Ultimately, Retracing our Roots through Story Medicine re-stories and reframes colonial education not solely as a history of victimization, but as a story of endurance, relational accountability, and renewal as Kahnawa’kehró:non “leaned into their paddles” to overcome impacts of colonialism. The dissertation models community-engaged Indigenous scholarship that “follows the current” and “retraces the roots” of ancestral teachings to heal generational wounds and clear a path for “the faces yet to come”.
Available through e-scholarship McGill.
This work aims to shift the paradigm on Indian Day School research and stands as a bridge between academic inquiry and community healing, grounded in the principle that our stories are medicine (Onónhkwa’ ne onkwakara’shón:’a).
Master’s Thesis
Title: Child-Targeted Assimilation: An Oral History of Indian Day School Education in Kahnawà:ke (2019, Concordia University)
Summary
Dr. Wahéhshon Shiann Whitebean’s thesis documents the largely overlooked history of Indian Day Schools in her home community of Kahnawà:ke, reframing them as instruments of “child-targeted assimilation.” Drawing on oral histories with Elders and her own family and community connections, she weaves story, memory, and self-reflexive analysis to illuminate how colonial education policies sought to erode Indigenous identity while students remained physically within their families and communities.
Grounded in Indigenous research methodologies and principles of relational accountability, her work positions research itself as a form of healing and cultural continuity, reclaiming stories as sources of resistance and renewal. By centering Day Schools within the broader narrative of Indigenous education, Whitebean challenges dominant histories and affirms that storytelling and community knowledge are vital to decolonizing research and education.
Day School FAQ
Clarifying and understanding concepts and terminology used in Indian Day School research.
What were Indian Day Schools?
Indian Day Schools were built within or near Indigenous communities or federal Indian reserves/reservations for the purpose of acculturating or assimilating Indigenous children. Indian Day Schools were created with the same objective and approach as Indian Residential Schools, the primary difference being that children went home each day. Both day/residential schools were usually funded and administered by the federal government and operated in partnership with religious orders. Note that there were provincial and territorial schools as well.
What is an Indian Day School Survivor (or student)?
An individual that attended an Indian Day School within their community or nearby, returned home each day. See also: Day Scholar.
What is a ‘mission school’?
Early day or seasonal schools operated by religious orders prior to the creation or shift to formal Indian Day Schools (funded and officially administered by the federal government).
What is a ‘Day Scholar’?
An individual who attended an Indian Residential School for the day and returned home each day.
What is an Indian Residential School Survivor?
An individual that attended an Indian Residential School (also referred to as a boarding or industrial school) for long periods of time, residing at the institution for months or years at a time.
What does Child-Targeted Assimilation mean?
Child-targeted assimilation (CTA) is a concept developed by Dr. Whitebean to describe state policies and institutional practices that specifically targeted Indigenous children as a means to achieve cultural assimilation and settler colonial control.
Rather than viewing assimilation as a broad or diffuse process, this framework highlights how children were intentionally positioned as the central site of colonial intervention, because they represented the future of Indigenous nations. Through systems such as the Indian Residential Schools, Indian Day Schools, and child welfare apprehensions, the Canadian state sought to sever children from their families, languages, and cultural teachings, disrupting intergenerational knowledge transmission and kinship systems.
Dr. Whitebean’s concept reframes this history by emphasizing that these were not incidental harms but purposeful, organized strategies of cultural elimination directed at Indigenous youth. By naming it “child-targeted,” she draws attention to the deliberate focus on shaping and controlling Indigenous identity formation from early childhood, exposing the systemic nature of these assimilationist efforts..