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= Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School = The Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School was established in 1923 on the grounds of Fort Apache, Arizona, which the U.S. Army had abandoned and turned over to the Department of Interior in 1922. The school is located slightly south of the town of Whiteriver, Arizona. The Bureau of Indian Affairs originally intended for the school to serve Navajo children but by the 1930s, the majority of students were Apache. The Theodore Roosevelt School is still open today as a middle school, administrated by a school board selected by the Tribal Council.

Founding
On January 24, 1923, the United States Congress passed an act that allowed the Secretary of Interior, Albert B. Fall, to establish the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School at Fort Apache, Arizona. The first students of the school were Navajo children but the majority of the student population was Apache by the end of the 1930s.

School Layout
The Theodore Roosevelt School is housed in multiple buildings surrounding the old parade grounds of Fort Apache. The classroom building, erected in the early 1930s, houses 10 classrooms (one of which is used as the school's library), a gymnasium (which is also used as the school's auditorium), and the school's offices. The two-storey boys' dormitory was constructed in 1932 and contains 20 sleeping rooms. Each floor has a television room and a recreation room. The restrooms are not private as there are no doors on the toilets and no private shower stalls. The girls' dormitory was constructed in 1931 and is located at the opposite end of the parade grounds from the boys' dormitory. The girls' dormitory has similar facilities to the boys' dormitory but personal privacy is provided in the bathrooms. There is also a large cafeteria with a kitchen that serves the students meals.

Restructuring in 2009
In 2009, the Theodore Roosevelt School ranked among continually low-achieving schools in Arizona, due to a high turnover rate of students, lack of parental involvement, poor attendance, and a high rate of truancy and delinquent behaviors. In response to this, the Bureau of Indian Education and the state of Arizona mandated that the Theodore Roosevelt School undergo a restructuring phase. Restructuring required the school to take corrective actions including: the adoption of the Native Star Indicators, recruitment of a certified teaching staff, a doubling of instructional time spent on critical learning areas (mathematics and reading), an increase in the amount of professional development for students, and the implementation of an intervention program for both mathematics and reading. The restructuring plan lead to dramatically improved student success in the area of mathematics.

Mission Statement
The Theodore Roosevelt School's mission statement is "To prepare and empower all students for the choices and challenges they will face in the future by providing a positive, healthy, social and educational environment which is based on each student's indigenous language and culture." The school offers instructional and non-instructional programs to address this mission statement. There are monthly meetings of the Parent Action Committee which allows for parents, students, and teachers to bring up their thoughts and concerns about numerous issues. The school is also partnered with Apache Behavioral Health Services which provides support in the area of mental and behavioral health services (which helps immensely with the school's high rates of at-risk students).

To address traditional Native American culture and language, the Theodore Roosevelt School offers a Native Culture course along with a traditional Social Studies Class. The school would also like to introduced Apache language courses for its students but some obstacles still stand in the way of their implementation. There is also an Indian Club at the school which gives students the opportunity to practice Native traditions and participate in the Native American community.

Designation as a National Historic Landmark
In March, 2012, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the Theodore Roosevelt School at Fort Apache as a National Historic Landmark. This ended a 13-year long push by the White Mountain Apache Tribe to have a historical site that would let them tell their part of history. The White Mountain Apache Tribe originally nominated the Theodore Roosevelt School to be a National Historic Landmark in 1999.