An Open Vault

On July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Artificial Intelligence, Hopi scholarship, Sherman Institute, The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue5 Comments

Below is my brief conclusion to The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue (2012), a book that I co-edited with Oregon State University Press. The conclusion, titled “An Open Vault,” recalls my experience as a graduate student at UC Riverside conducting research at the Sherman Indian Museum in Riverside, CA.

As I reflect on the power and capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, a topic dominating today’s news and social media, I am reminded of the importance of our personal stories and voices, which cannot be created truthfully or accurately by programs such as ChatGPT, Grok, and many others.

“Tell your story,” I often say to my students, “nobody can tell it but you.”

I hope people enjoy reading the following story (click image), written before most of us knew anything about this phenomenon called “AI.”

FIRST PEOPLES features The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue

On December 6, 2012December 6, 2012 By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn First Peoples, Indian boarding schools, Sherman Institute, The Indian School on Magnolia Ave, UncategorizedLeave a comment

This month Oregon State University Press officially launched my co-edited (with Clifford E. Trafzer and Lorene Sisquoc) book The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue: Voices and Images from Sherman Institute. The book is part of the First Peoples, New Directions in Indigenous Studies, initiative. Yesterday, Natasha Varner at First Peoples published a post about the book on their blog. She quoted at length from my Conclusion. Here’s the first paragraph of my Conclusion which I titled “An Open Vault”:

On a warm October day in 2004, I drove my car south on Magnolia Avenue in Riverside and made my way to Sherman Indian High School for the Sherman Indian Museum Open House. The event was a festive occasion, as alumni from across the nation came together to remember their school days and visit with old friends. Outside the Museum, the school’s choir was singing their alma mater, “The Purple and Gold,” and a group of older Sherman alums were taking refuge from the heat by sitting in the shade of a large palm tree. Near the school’s flagpole, children were laughing and playing, while their parents listened contentedly to the choir. The smell of frybread permeated the air.

To read the entire Conclusion, and to learn more about the book, be sure to check out the First Peoples website. They have done a terrific job in promoting the book on-line and at various academic conferences.

All royalties from this book will go to help fund educational and cultural programming at the Sherman Indian Museum in Riverside, CA.

UCR Press Release: New Book Recounts History of Sherman Institute

On November 30, 2012 By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Indian boarding schools, Oregon State University Press, Sherman Institute, The Indian School on Magnolia AvenueLeave a comment

The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue – Now Available for Pre-Order

On July 12, 2012 By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Indian boarding schools, Sherman Institute, The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue1 Comment

The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue: Voices and Images from Sherman Institute, is now available for pre-order. You can pre-order the book from several venues, including Oregon State University Press ($24.95) and Amazon ($22.52). Royalties from the book will go to support educational programs at the Sherman Indian Museum in Riverside, California. The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue is scheduled to appear this December.