Negotiating Assimilation and Missionization in Indian Territory: Native Americans, the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, and Boarding Schools in Oklahoma, 1870s-1960s

From the 1870s through the 1960s, Indian Territory and Oklahoma were at the center of federal assimilation policies and Catholic missionization efforts, particularly in the form of Indian boarding schools. In Negotiating Assimilation and Missionization in Indian Territory, Professor Bryan Rindfleisch explores the complex history and enduring repercussions of Catholic Indian boarding schools for both Native American and Catholic communities in Oklahoma. By delving into archival records, personal narratives, and community responses, Professor Rindfleisch weaves together independent historical analysis with understanding of what Native American students, families, and tribes endured in the name of assimilation.

Bryan C. Rindfleisch is an associate professor of history at Marquette University where he teaches Early American and Native American history. His other works include George Galphin’s Intimate Empire: The Creek Indians, Family, and Colonialism in Early America (2019) and Brothers of Coweta: Kinship, Empire, and Revolution in the Eighteenth-Century Muscogee World (2021).