The Presbyterian Historical Society's Reparative Description Committee's previous work on the Tucson Indian Training School Records (RG 103) informed the selection of the Ganado Mission Records (Record Group 550), which contains close to 1,700 files of Indigenous student records, as a high priority archival processing project. In processing this collection, PHS now has an electronically searchable folder-level inventory of the collection, including the student records. The collection's scope covers the history and operation of the Presbyterian Ganado Mission (Ganado, Arizona) and its missionaries and staff as they pursued goals of culturally assimilating and converting the Diné (Navajo), Hopi, and other Indigenous peoples of the region. The materials are in English.
The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA) established the Ganado Mission at Ganado, Arizona around 1901 with the goals of culturally assimilating and converting the Navajo (Diné) and Hopi peoples. Prior to 1901, a scouting group, which included Reverend George Logie and William R. Johnston, surveyed for a location. Using the information that the scouting group had gathered, the PCUSA Board of Home Missions (BHM) and the Presbytery of Arizona (Synod of New Mexico) saw Ganado as a strategic location, it being located near several population districts within the Navajo Indian Reservation and railroad facilities at Gallup, New Mexico to the east and at Chambers, Arizona to the south. The BHM applied to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for a grant of over 100 acres near the Hubbell Trading Post in the Reservation. Charles Harry Bierkemper was the Mission's first pastor, and his wife, Alice Bierkemper (née Woodford), was the first teacher. They stayed on the property of John (Don) Lorenzo Hubbell while a manse was constructed. Navajo interpreters for Bierkemper included Tom Morgan and John Curley. The BIA approved the BHM's grant in 1902.
Missionaries and mission administrators pursued their goals of cultural assimilation and conversion of the Navajo and Hopi peoples primarily through the avenues of Christian education, evangelism, and medicine/medical care. The first church building (Ganado Mission Church) was constructed in 1906. A medical missionary, Dr. A. H. Waterhouse, arrived in 1906 as well. A day school opened in 1910 with Ms. S. F. Conklin and Ms. Olive Forsythe (Forsyth) as teachers. A mission building was erected in 1911. In 1914, the BHM transferred Kirkwood Memorial School (the BHM had obtained the school from the Methodist Woman's Home Missionary Society) from Jewett, New Mexico to Ganado. Kirkwood Memorial School was housed in the Westminster Building, which was built in 1915. Dr. James D. Kennedy, Waterhouse's successor, arrived in 1910 and operated the first hospital (twelve to fifteen beds in size), which was built around 1912. Pastors after Bierkemper included Clarence L. Platt and Reverend Hugh D. "Shine" Smith.
Around 1920, the PCUSA BHM asked Reverend Frederick (Fred) G. Mitchell to serve as the Mission's first superintendent. Mitchell worked to translate the Bible into the Navajo language. He remained superintendent until 1929 when Dr. Clarence G. Salsbury took the position. Salsbury had first arrived on the Mission in 1927 as a doctor. Mitchell left the Mission to be director of Indian Wells. Around 1923, the Mission paid the BIA to drill for water supply in Canyon de Chelly. Throughout the 1920s the Mission expanded, developing community centers and outstations for evangelizing and preaching at Cedar Springs, Cornfields, Greasewood, Allantown (sometimes spelled Allentown), and Tselani (sometimes spelled Tse Lani; T'selani). A new hospital building was constructed and named Sage Memorial Hospital in 1930. The hospital housed the School of Nursing, which became accredited in the early 1930s. The program was specifically developed to train Navajo nurses, though other Indigenous students were accepted as well as some foreign students. One of the first Navajo graduates of the School of Nursing was Ruth Henderson, who had previously attended Kirkwood Memorial School.
Enrollment in Kirkwood Memorial School increased in the 1920s, with there usually being around 150 students throughout the year. The school also included a Department of Evangelistic Training (known as the Bible Training School) to train Indigenous evangelists. A high school was organized in 1926. Anna E. Falls became principal in 1933. The high school was named Ganado Mission High School after being accredited by Arizona in the mid to late 1930s. While Navajo and Hopi students made up most of the student population, students from other Indigenous tribes attended as well.
A new church building was erected in 1941. Several cottages and housing buildings were constructed in the 1940s. Several staff and students enlisted in the United States Armed Forces during World War II, including student Keith Morrison Little, who would go on to become a Navajo code talker. In 1949, a new high school building was constructed and named the Clarence G. Salsbury High School. Salsbury retired soon after, with Joseph A. Poncel, previously superintendent at the Tucson Indian Training School, succeeding Salsbury. Arthur Dodd became principal of Ganado Mission High School in 1951. An addition to the curriculum at this time included a short course in the Navajo language for high school students to enable them to read to their non-English speaking parents and to interpret the Bible and English publications to them. The early 1950s also saw the closing of the School of Nursing, though Sage Memorial Hospital continued to operate. The new Sage Memorial Hospital building was built in 1963.
By the 1960s, enrollment in the Ganado Mission High School was decreasing as more students were attending public schools. The United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) Board of National Missions (BNM) closed the Ganado Mission High School in 1970, resolving that the school duplicated services of area public schools, though the closure was also based on financial reasons. That same year, the Ganado Learning Center briefly opened but was superseded by The College of Ganado (TCOG), which used a two-year community college model. In 1969, the BNM transferred Sage Memorial Hospital administration and property to Project HOPE (People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.) under a five year development agreement. Project Hope then transferred the hospital to the newly formed Navajo Nation Health Foundation in 1974. The Ganado Presbyterian Church remained in operation.
The collection contains seven series:
Series I, UPCUSA Board of National Missions / Program Agency Records, 1960-1974, chiefly contains materials created and compiled by Robert R. Cruthers, associate general secretary in the UPCUSA BNM and director of the Office of Institutional Development in the UPCUSA Program Agency. Records pertain to the transfer of Sage Memorial Hospital from the BNM to Project HOPE and to Cruthers' communications with TCOG president James N. Moss, mostly regarding early college governance and administrative matters. Materials include correspondence, minutes, reports, and subject files.
Series II, The College of Ganado (TCOG) Records, 1907-1986, contains materials created and compiled by TCOG administrators and staff, including Joseph C. Stickler, academic affairs director. The bulk of the records were created and compiled by TCOG presidents, including Edgar D. Charles, James N. Moss, Dr. Thomas C. Jackson, and Dr. Daniel Honahni. Records pertain to college administration, governance, and operations; legal matters; programmatic matters; and planning. Materials include correspondence, minutes, printed items and publications (including college bulletins and newsletters), reports, subject files, yearbooks, and other records.
Series III, Ganado Mission Administrative Records, circa 1909-2004, bulk 1920-1970, contains materials created and compiled by Mission superintendents, including Frederick G. Mitchell, Clarence G. Salsbury, and Joseph A. Poncel. There are some records created and compiled by coordinators Harry A. Brandt and Dura W. Jones and principal Arthur W. Dodd during the Mission's last decade of operation. Superintendents' files chiefly pertain to mission administrative, equipment, financial, legal, programmatic, and property matters (including for Sage Memorial Hospital); communications with BNM staff; planning; and statistical reporting. Materials include correspondence, financial records, minutes, photographs, printed items and publications (including issues of the "Ganado News Bulletin"), property records, reports, student lists and registers, subject files, and other materials.
Series IV, Ganado Mission Personnel Files, 1933-1981, contains a small set of Mission personnel files, chiefly for staff working at the Mission during its last decade of operation. Files include applications, contracts, correspondence, educational transcripts, evaluations, injury documentation, and other records.
Series V, Sage Memorial Hospital Files, 1956-1972, contains a small set of records created and collected by Sage Memorial Hospital staff. Records document hospital operations and do not seem to be complete and comprehensive. Materials include correspondence, financial records, and medical records.
Series VI, Ganado Mission School Student Files, circa 1913-1998, contains files of student records, chiefly arranged as alphabetical files. These files often contain: educational records, including transcripts, applications for enrollment, diplomas, report cards, progress reports, and test results; correspondence between school staff and parents, sometimes documenting disciplinary actions enacted on students but usually regarding financial matters like tuition payments. Often present are the original student file folders created by the Ganado Mission School, which usually document date of student entry, names of parents, and a tribal designation assigned by school staff (this information can also be found on applications for enrollment). Some files also include photographs (usually headshots or portraits of students); Indigenous names of students and family members; newspaper clippings; personal correspondence; and medical records.
Additionally, there are assorted student records stored at the end of the alphabetical files. These records chiefly include student information cards from the Kirkwood Memorial School era. These cards sometimes include the Indigenous names of students, the names of their parents, and students' residences. There is also a set of index cards with information regarding Ganado Mission School graduating classes and alumni.
Series VII, Audiovisual and Oversize Materials, circa 1919-1976, includes audiovisual items and oversize materials. Item-level description of these materials can be found in the Collection Inventory of the guide.
Click here to access the guide to the Ganado Mission Records and read more about the contents of the records collection.
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