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American Indian Studies

This page is a starting point for all students researching American Indian issues. This guide is created by the Labriola National American Indian Data Center.

Interviews

LAB EPH LO 2-12 Labriola   
Stephen Amerman, Ph.D. interviewed the following individuals in association with his dissertation research for Making an Indian Place in Urban Schools: Native Americans and Education in Phoenix, 1941-1984.

 

The resulting collection of oral histories features eight former students, one community activist, and the minister for Central Presbyterian Church, a Native church in downtown Phoenix.  The oral histories touch on the issues of minority representation on the school board and in the classroom, and the interaction between various minority groups in the schools.  Community life, activism, and the role of the Central Presbyterian Church are major themes.  Speakers mention Indian Club (a student organization) and the Citizens Advisory Group/Committee that was formed as an addition to the school boards.

 

Tape 1:  Charlotte Morris Charlotte Morris moved to Phoenix in 1989 after she finished her military service.  She attended Phoenix College majoring in Elementary Education.  She worked for a program called the Learning Circle, a support program for minority students.  She discusses her experience with school children in the Learning Circle program.  Contains two audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-2

 

Tape 2:  Dennis Alley Dennis Alley is a member of the Otoe-Missouria tribe of Red Rock, Oklahoma.  He attended Haskell Indian School.  He came to Phoenix around 1980 and worked at Phoenix Indian High School as a substance abuse counselor.  Mr. Alley also worked at Phoenix Indian Medical Center as a substance abuse program specialist and for the Foxfire Summer Program for the Phoenix Union High School District.  His children went to Alhambra High School, although one son transferred to Phoenix Indian High School.  His children were involved in both football and basketball.  Contains two audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-4

 

Tape 3:  Lola Allison Lola Allison was born in Browning, Montana.  She came to Phoenix in the 1960’s and attended Emerson Elementary School in the Phoenix Elementary School District.  She attended Phoenix Union High School from 1967-1971.  Ms. Allison now works as a nurse.  Contains two audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-5

 

Tape 4:  Mary Astor Mary Astor was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1935.  Her father was from Sacaton, Gila River Reservation, and she identifies him as Pima.  Her mother was Laguna Pueblo.  Her parents met at the Albuquerque Indian School.  Ms. Astor went to elementary school from 1943-1951 at the Osborn School in Phoenix.  She went to North High School from 1951-1955 and she attended Phoenix College from 1955-1957.  She worked at the Phoenix Indian School for many years.  Contains three audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-6

 

Tape 5:  Diane Daychild Diane Daychild grew up in Phoenix and attended various elementary schools in the Phoenix.  She attended Carl Hayden High School from 1961-1965 and Phoenix College from 1965-1967.  She worked for the Phoenix Indian Center and then for the Southwestern Indian Development Organization in Phoenix.  Her aunt and uncle, who had attended Sherman Indian School and Haskell Indian School respectively, raised her.  Contains five audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-7

  

Tape 6:  Michael Hughes Michael Hughes was born in 1956 to a mother of Hopi and Tohono O’odham ancestry and an Anglo father.  His mother moved their family to Phoenix in the 1960s.  He attended Washington Elementary School.  He attended Verde Valley High School near Sedona and moved back to attend East High School in Phoenix from 1971-1973.  In 1974 he went to work with the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C.  Contains four audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-8

 

Tape 7:  Dolores Johnson Born in 1935, Dolores is a Hopi with two brothers and one sister.  During World War II, his father moved their family to the Navajo Ordnance Depot between Flagstaff and Williams.  She graduated from Flagstaff High School in 1953.  She and her husband moved to Phoenix in 1953.  Her children went to Wilson Elementary School and Camelback High School.  Ms. Johnson worked as a nurse for over 28 years at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, from 1971 to 1999.  Contains three audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-9

 

Tape 8:  Reverend Joedd Miller Reverend Miller is a Euro American who grew up in Clarinda, Iowa.  He came to Phoenix to be a minister at Central Presbyterian Church in 1968, where he worked for many years.  He married a Tohono O’odham woman, Cecelia.  Together they run the central Phoenix restaurant, the Fry Bread House.  Contains one audiotape and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-10

 

Tape 9:  Henry Tom Community activist Henry Tom is a Chinese American born in the late 1920s.  His parents emigrated from China and Mr. Tom grew up in Toledo, Ohio.  He and his wife came to Phoenix in 1954 where he worked in the aerospace engineering industry.  He became the chairman of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the Phoenix Union High School District around 1972.  Contains two audiotapes and a typed transcript of the interview.  LAB LO-11

 

Tape 10:  Martha Sadongei Martha Sadongei was born in 1958 to a Kiowa father from Oklahoma and a Tohono O’odham mother from Tucson.  Her parents worked at the Phoenix Indian School, so Martha essentially grew up on the campus until 1970 when her family moved into a house near, but not on, the campus.  Ms. Sadongei attended Longview Elementary School and graduated from North High School.  She then attended Albertson’s College in Idaho.  She returned to Phoenix in 1980 to teach at the Longview Elementary School.  In 1993 she stopped teaching and trained to become a Presbyterian minister.  LAB LO-12

 

Copies of this guide can be printed from the Labriola Center website at: http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives/labriola.htm

 

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.