In October 2023, History Colorado released a review of historic Native American boarding schools in the state.
The report outlined the systematic abuse, negligence, and criminal behavior of top administrators at federal Indian boarding schools in the state. It offered detailed histories of the Fort Lewis Boarding School near Durango, and the Teller Institute in Grand Junction.
Through archival research and geophysical examination of boarding school grounds, the authors concluded there are an estimated 46 children buried at the Old Fort Lewis cemetery. At least 36 students died at the boarding school in Grand Junction. It does not indicate how many students may have been buried there.
As research into the Teller Institute at Grand Junction continues, Phillip Gover III has joined History Colorado as the Senior Director of Tribal and Indigenous Engagement.
Gover lives in the Denver area with his family. He’s bringing nearly two decades of experience in Indigenous advocacy to his new position at History Colorado.
The position was created by House Bill 24-1444, which also ordered History Colorado to investigate the history of the boarding schools in Colorado.
“As a native person who lives in Colorado, I am really happy that they've created this position to think long term and in a cohesive fashion of how to work with the tribes,” said Gover.
He'll work with the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes, along with Indigenous people living in the state and other tribes nationwide who were once in what is now Colorado. He’ll meet directly with tribal councils and tribal cultural departments.
“You don't have Colorado history that doesn't include tribes,” said Gover. "Our tribes predate and lived within this area prior to Colorado becoming a state. You always have that story to discuss and rectify. And the best route includes not just the general historical look at documentation, but also to go and talk to those voices directly.”
Gover added that that federal Indian boarding school history is deeply personal to him, so it’s important that healing is central to his process as the Senior Director of Tribal and Indigenous Engagement.
“My mother was a boarding school attendee at Wheelock Academy in Oklahoma, and all my Choctaw aunts also, my grandfather, Philip Gover, who I'm named after, actually worked at Chinle boarding school,” he said.
“Federal boarding schools themselves are one of the most disruptive periods in tribal cultural practice. Some of them initially started to destroy the culture of Native people, and they clearly were about pulling children out of the tradition and the love of those traditions, putting something else into place which was still which could never fill that,” said Gover.
Gover emphasized the importance of healing as a result of research into boarding schools research and oral history recording.
“This needs to be a healing form at its core because we are asking people to relive or tell us about trauma often. Ultimately, all of that caused damage in our communities,” said Gover.
According to Gover, he is part of continued research into the Teller Institute in Grand Junction, which operated from 1886 to 1911.
