Wrangell Institute

In 1877, the first Presbyterian church in Alaska, the first Protestant church of any kind in the area, was founded near its current location in Wrangell at 220 Church Street.{{Cite book |url=https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=fourflats_papers |title=Welcome to Alaska |date=1948 |publisher=Board of National Missions, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.}} Reverend S. Hall Young, a colleague of minister Sheldon Jackson, was assigned to the Wrangell mission. He arrived on July 10, 1878.Young, S. Hall. 1927. Hall Young of Alaska. Fleming Revell

Young worked among both miners and the Tlingit. He established the Fort Wrangell Tlingit Industrial School to teach young Tlingit men various American trades, such as printing, boatbuilding, and construction from 1877 to 1907.{{Cite web |title=Museums Alaska - Alaska Native Boarding School Collections Survey |url=https://museumsalaska.org/alaska-native-boarding-school-collections-survey |access-date=2024-05-15 |website=museumsalaska.org}} This institution was a parallel to Sheldon Jackson's Sitka Industrial Training School, which later developed as Sheldon Jackson College.{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://outercoast.org/history/ |access-date=2024-05-15 |website=Outer Coast |language=en-US}}

The Wrangell Institute was established in 1932 by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on a site a few miles south of Wrangell. In its first year, it had 71 students. It was described as "one of the pet projects of the Roosevelt Administration".

Children were forced by the BIA to attend the school, which for some was a traumatic experience. Some were brought from homes on the open tundra to a forested and mountainous region. At the school, they were forbidden to speak their native language and in some cases were subjected to violence and sexual abuse.{{cite web |last1=Wells |first1=Don |last2=Wells |first2=Diane |title=The Indian Industrial and Boarding Schools – Part 4 |url=https://www.bigcanoenews.com/news/news-col1/columns/5922-the-wrangell-institute-boarding-school-atrocity-by-don-diane-wells |website=Smoke Signals: News and views from Big Canoe and around North Georgia |access-date=6 January 2019 |date=14 April 2014}}{{cite news |last1=Bolton |first1=Aaron |title=Why a Wrangell boarding school plan stirs bad memories — and opportunity |url=https://www.ktoo.org/2016/07/13/why-a-wrangell-boarding-school-plan-stirs-bad-memories-and-opportunity |access-date=6 January 2019 |work=Ktoo Public Media |date=13 July 2016}}

During World War II in 1942 Aleuts were evacuated from northern Alaska and housed in a tented encampment on the site.

The school closed in 1975. That year, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 was passed, enabling tribes to contract with the BIA to provide and manage education for their children. They took over some schools located on reservations or built new ones, so that their children would not have to go away to be educated. In addition, in the "Molly Hootch case" (Tobeluk v. Lind), the federal court ruled that the federal government had to provide local schools in villages that had eight or more children.

In 2016, there were plans to build a new boarding school on the site of the former Wrangell Institute.{{cite news |last1=Bolton |first1=Aaron |title=Former Wrangell Institute property could see another boarding school |url=https://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/05/31/former-wrangell-institute-property-could-see-another-boarding-school/ |accessdate=6 January 2019 |work=Alaska Public Media |date=31 May 2016}}

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Category:Boarding schools in Alaska

Category:Defunct schools in Alaska

Category:Native American boarding schools

Category:Educational institutions established in 1932

Category:Educational institutions disestablished in 1975

Category:1932 establishments in Alaska

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