Part I: Twelve Years at the Magdalena BIA dorms

Publisher’s Note: This is the first story of a three-part series on the BIA dorms in Magdalena.

In February 1959, the Department or the Interior announced a $331,445 contract was awarded for construction or new BIA dormitory facilities at Magdalena, making it possible for 128 Navajo children from the surrounding area to attend the local public school. Some of the children to be accommodated in the new dormitory were enrolled in the nearby Indian Bureau boarding school at Alamo while others were currently living in BIA facilities at the Albuquerque Indian School. The new dormitory, the BIA said, would allow Navajo students to attend classes closer to the reservation while others would attend school for the first time with the completion of the new facilities. The children, ranging in age from 6 to 16, would attend classes at Magdalena public schools under arrangements that have been worked out with its local school board.

Seventy-year-old Alamo Navajo weaver, Violet (Secatero) Lucero, lived in the Bureau of Indian Affairs dormitories for all 12 years of her education at the Magdalena Public Schools.

She remembers being about five or six years old when she was taken from her home in Alamo, 30 miles away, to the BIA dormitories in Magdalena.

“It was kind of hard at first because being pulled away from your family. I didn’t know any English,” Lucero said “It was hard, but as I went on, it brought me some good stuff, lonely stuff, happy stuff, and so I just learned from there like that.”

Documented insight to the organization of the BIA dorms in Magdalena came from one file from the National Archives and Records Administration named “Magdalena Dormitory program, 1965 to 1966, United Pueblos Agency Branch of education Gallup area”

The file includes a 19-page informational document from 1965 which contains the history and purpose of the dorms, goals, curriculum, schedules and policies.

According to the informational document, parents of preschool children were contacted in the spring to discuss entry into Magdalena schools and secure an application. The document notes that in most cases, an older child from the family is already at the dorm; if that is not the case, they make a home visit.

It would have been about 1960 when Lucero was picked up as the oldest of three.

“All children are picked up at the Chapter House two days prior to registration at the Magdalena Municipal schools. This time is devoted to checking physical welfare, readying clothes, assigning beds, and welcoming children to the dormitory.” the document said.

Although Lucero doesn’t remember all the details of the day they picked her up to take

her away, she does remember that her paternal grandfather resisted.

“I know my grandpa didn’t like it because when they came for me, he said, ‘You’re not taking her because she’s already learning traditional,’ because my mom was a weaver, I was learning my weaving and all that,” Lucero said.

She recalled her grandfather pleaded with them to take him instead of her.

“I guess he felt that it wasn’t right. But at that time, they did take me in.” Lucero said.

Lucero said she believes her parents were threatened to go to prison if they didn’t let her and her sisters go.

A set of documents in the file shows a series of eight letters written to the parents of two children with poor attendance records in 1966 and 1967. Included is a letter sent on May 10, 1967, to the chief of justice of the Navajo Tribal Court in Window Rock, Arizona. The letter requests that the judge prosecute the parents of two students with poor attendance.

“Throughout the year Agency and Dormitory staff have worked diligently in counseling certain Alamo parents to enroll and keep their children in school… We therefore respectfully request that the following parents be prosecuted in the Navajo Tribal Court Pursuant to the terms and provisions of the Navajo tribal resolution provisions for compulsory school attendance.” said the letter sent to the judge.

“It wasn’t a choice, it was forced,” Lucero said. “So I learned how to discipline myself to speak English. English is my second language.”

According to the 1965 schedule, students would arrive on bus to the dorms on August 28 and begin classes two days later.

In 1964, while Lucero was there, additional dormitories, a kitchen, activity room, and staff quarters were added to the property, and enrollment included 110 girls and 113 boys ages 6 through 22.

Lucero said one of the challenges was being around so many kids at the school, especially the “bully girls” and being the oldest of three girls, she felt her role was to protect her younger sisters.

All dorm students were sent to Magdalena Public Schools and six year old students who were non-English speaking were sent to a pre-first class with an emphasis on verbal English and adjustment to school life.

Lucero said in those days, the teachers were strict, and they disciplined students with a paddle. Because she didn’t understand English at first, she didn’t know what she had done wrong, so she tried to be careful not to get in trouble.

“I guess it was good, but sometimes we didn’t understand why,” Lucero said. “It was tough, but in another way, it disciplined me.”

She also knew Spanish, which she learned from her grandfather, who was fluent but with English the only language allowed she wasn’t able to use it either.

The policy briefly mentions the use of the Navajo language: “ First-year students spend that year with an emphasis on verbal English. All students are urged to express themselves in English at every opportunity. Navajo is not forbidden except in the case of study hall.”

The 1965 daily schedule included meals, chores, study hours, and classes. Older students were responsible for their laundry and were assigned more difficult details, they were also responsible for younger kids in the event of a fire.

Lucero, who lived at the BIA dorms in Magdalena, remembers doing detail, where they would clean their rooms and bathrooms.

“Each routine is planned not only to accomplish a definite purpose in the care and welfare of the student group, but also to help establish good personal habits in health grooming and clothes care, cleanliness and individual responsibility.” said documents from 1965 on the Magdalena BIA, found in the National Archives and Records.

An environmental health survey report of the Magdalena dorms complied by the division of Indian Health under the U.S. Department of health, education and welfare gives insight to the living conditions at the dorm.

According to the November 1965 report, the fifteen-page inspection report details the conditions of plumbing, ventilation, lighting, sleeping facilities, bathroom facilities, the work environment, and hygienic practices.

Over thirty defects are reported, including recommendations on correcting the overcrowding by adding more space in the sleeping quarters, additional showers and bathrooms, window screen and light repairs. The report states multiple concerns with cleanliness and sanitation methods.

The report’s conclusion states, “This report is submitted with the intention of pointing out the insanitary conditions existing at the Magdalena Dormitory. The recommendations for correcting the insanitary conditions are based on standards published by the U.S. Public health service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”

Lucero said she did enjoy the arts and crafts at the dorms on the weekends.

“The Saturday afternoons arts and crafts session have been an area of major emphasis,” said the documents along with a list of woodcarving, weaving, beadwork, painting, archery, sewing, papercraft and leather craft.

According to the document, Saturday afternoons at the dorm were also for physical activities such as hikes if weather was permitting; otherwise, activities such as indoor ping-pong or folk dancing were scheduled. It also states that Friday and Saturday evenings were devoted to parties, movies, and attendance at school functions.

But for Lucero, she said the best part was when her grandpa would come by and bring her gifts. She also remembers looking forward to summers and holidays when they could go home. In the summer, she continued her weaving education with her mom, who taught her everything she needed to know about traditional weaving, including how to clean and spin the yarn.

The schedule included weekend home visits that were scheduled once a month, parent meetings , a Thanksgiving vacation, a two-week Christmas vacation, a one-week Easter vacation and school ending on May 31.

“I tell my grandkids they’re lucky that they have school out there, right there at the door where the busses come back here. We only get to see our parents on holidays, and it was kind of rough,” Lucero said.

She said the journey to travel from Magdalena to Alamo back then was a lot longer and not as easy as it is now.

“At that time, they had no way they can get up fast, those days there was a dirt road and it was a rough. It takes a couple hours with the wagon to come into town. I’ve been on the wagon with my grandpa and that’s the way I was brought up,” Lucero said.

When it came time to raise her own kids, it was important to her that they didn’t struggle in school.

“My kids and my grandkids, they speak mostly English and the computer and all this stuff right now,” Lucero said.

After high school, she went on to work for the Magdalena schools for 37 years. Lucero still lives in Alamo but also lived in Magdalena for a decade.

Looking back on her days at the dorm it’s hard for her to say it was good or bad. She said many say it was wrong they took the kids from Alamo away from their family.

“People feel that way, sometime I guess your mind would run like if something bothers you, I guess you feel that way, but I know how to not feel that way, because a lot of the stuff I can’t go back and change it, and I had to go forward,” Lucero said.

These days, she can be found working with her sisters at their Navajo Taco stand in Magdalena or watching her grandkids play sports. Lucero continues to find joy in weaving using the handmade tools made by her father; her work can be found in local art galleries in Magdalena.

Next week: The Visitor

Dr. Eugene Leitka, of the Seminole tribe of Oklahoma, will turn 95 next month. He remembers visiting the BIA dorms in Magdalena periodically on Fridays as a New Mexico State University Doctoral Student in 1968.