Tuba City Boarding School

Ivy "Bee" O. Hendricks, 1894-1986, began teaching at the Albuquerque Indian School ca. 1920. Bee was displaying Jr. Red Cross paintings when a representative from the Jr. Red Cross saw the display and offered her a job. The point of the Jr. Red Cross was to create communication among children throughout the world. Bee traveled for the Jr. Red Cross and was responsible for all of the Indian Schools west of the Mississippi. When the Jr. Red Cross disbanded, Bee began working for the American Red Cross. Bee Hendricks was one of the first Anglo women to go into the Grand Canyon. She bagan teaching at the Tuba City Indian Boarding School (n.d.). There were no text books at the school at that time, so Bee used the Sears-Roebuck catalog to teach the students. Because students were not allowed to use Native languages in the schools, Bee took the students outside and taught by having them say the Navajo word for an object and then she said the English word. Box 1 contains publications; box 2 contains photographic prints; box 3 contains Indian School students' artwork.

Tuba City Boarding School was established in 1898 under the authority of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for the education of Native American children in Northern Arizona. The first school was located in Blue Canyon, 25 miles southeast of Tuba City and was known as the Blue Canyon School. Later, the school was moved to Moenave, AZ just four miles west of Tuba City. Finally in 1901, the school relocated to its present location in Tuba City, AZ. From its beginning up until the 1940s, the school was operated by the Department of the Army. Then in the 1950s the school came under the direction of the Department of the Interior.