Tulalip Indian School Washington Girls Students Real Photo Postcard

The Tulalip Indian School in Washington operated as a federal boarding school, established to assimilate Native American children into Euro-American culture. Part of a national system, these institutions aimed to educate indigenous youth, often forcibly, by separating them from their families and tribal communities to replace traditional languages, customs, and spiritual practices with those of mainstream American society.

This image, likely dating from the early 20th century, depicts the girls' dormitory, a central component of the assimilation process. Within these dormitories, students were subjected to strict discipline, a curriculum emphasizing vocational skills like domestic science for girls, and the suppression of their cultural identities, marking a significant and often traumatic period in Native American history.