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Indian Schools
The Education of Native Americans


Mary Crow Dog, author of LAKOTA WOMAN, tells of BIA agents barging into the homes of the Sioux Indians and dragging children away from their families in order to assimilate them into "white society." She described the taking of those children to the boarding schools as "kidnapping." At the boarding schools, the children were forced to cut their hair, kept away from their families, sometimes were told their families were dead or didn t want them anymore and often abused both mentally and physically. In her book, she describes the schools as, "sterile, cold atmosphere, an unfamiliar routine, language problems, and above all the maza-skan-skan, that damn clock-- white man's time as opposed to Indian time, which is natural time." (p. 29).

One of the saddest chapters in Native American history has to be these children who were forcibly removed from their homes and families to attend boarding schools. Many times, Indian children died at these schools - from diseases they had no natural immunity to, from homesickness and other factors. There are hundreds of graves, over 250 at Carlisle alone, of these children who suffered and died alone and lonely, far from all that was familiar to them, remembered only by those friends and family who mourned their loss. The children who survived the training were no better off - and in some cases worse off - than those who escaped the forced schooling. They often found themselves unwelcome in white society in spite of their painful acculterization process, and sometimes returned to their tribes to find they were no longer accepted there either.

It should be pointed out, however, that not all Indian schools were the scene of such terror and heartbreak. Some schools were created at the request of the tribes and were monitored by the tribal leaders. One such school is the Red Cloud Indian School, founded as the Holy Rosary Mission in 1888 at the request of Chief Red Cloud, of the Oglala Sioux at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The school was founded by the Jesuits, who served as teachers and missionaries to the Indians. More information on the Red Cloud Indian School can be found at their Web site:



http://www.redcloudschool.org/history/history.htm


Another Indian boarding school, which is still in use today, is the Theodore Roosevelt School in northeastern Arizona. On January 24, 1923 an act was passed by Congress authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to establish and maintain an Indian boarding school to be known as the Theodore Roosevelt School. The first students were Navajo children; however the school was eventually attended by Apache students exclusively. In 1960 the Arizona State Department of Education received a contract to educate Indian children. As a result, Alchesay High School and Whiteriver Elementary School were built at Whiteriver, five miles north of Fort Apache. Once these schools were completed, most of the local students transferred to the new schools. Theodore Roosevelt then became a boarding school for children of many tribes.

In the mid-1800's the Choctaw and Cherokee Nations in what is now Oklahoma instituted an intensive program of education for their children. Because of the distances involved, most of the schools were boarding schools of necessity. These schools, however, were built and maintained with by tribal initiative and funding, and the tribal leaders worked intimately with the heads of the schools to insure the children were taken care of and taught useful skills as well as the white man's language and history. These children were expected to study hard and learn well so they could, in turn, teach others. Many graduates of these tribal schools became teachers themselves, and opened day schools near their homes. Unfortunately, the Civil War and lack of funding forced the closure of many of the tribal schools forever.

Three major legislative actions have restructured the Bureau of Indian Affairs since the Snyder Act of 1921. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 introduced the teaching of Indian history and culture into BIA schools. The Indian Self-Determination and Education Act of 1975 gave authority to the tribes to contract with the BIA in the operation of schools and to determine the education programs for their children. The Education Amendments Act of 1978 gave power to Indian school boards for local hiring of teachers and staff, and the direct funding of schools.

Turtle Mountain Community College, the tribal college on the reservation of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwa people in North Dakota, is an example of tribal self-determination working to benefit their children's education. One of the instructors at the college is Francis Cree, a 74 year old spiritual leader and former tribal chairman. For the past 15 years he has served as teacher, advisor and spiritual leader for the Ojibwa students and instructors at the college. He teaches Ojibwa history, traditions and values in a traditional eight sided log teaching lodge at the college. In the summer he teaches a class on plants and their healing qualities. He also holds a traditional sweat two nights a week for the students, faculty and staff of the college. He says the sweats give the students spiritual guidance, help them focus on their goals and learn about Ojibwa moral teachings.






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The Carlisle Indian School
by GFH Kate



Carlisle Barracks near Carlisle, PA, has had a long and colorful history, beginning in 1757 when it was founded by Colonel John Stanwix of the British Army. Colonel Henry Bouquet used it in 1758 when he conducted training for British and Provincial troops in Indian fighting tactics. It served as an arsenal and key supply point during the Revolutionary War; became the site of various Army training camps; was shelled and burned by the Confederate forces in the Civil War and now is home to the U.S. Army's War College.

Only one time in the history of Carlisle Barracks was it used to serve a peaceful purpose - although stories say some of the methods were far from peaceful. That time was the late 1800s and the purpose was the education and civilization of the Indian children - a project known as the Carlisle Indian School.

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was opened in 1879 and accepted students from nearly every tribe in the United States during it s 39 years. The Indian School at Carlisle was the idea of Brigadier General Richard H. Pratt, who was a Lieutenant at that time. In 1879 he petitioned Congress to establish a school to educate rather than subjugate the red man. He became the school's first superintendent and the first group of Indian students arrived at Carlisle on the night of October 6, 1879. The school closed in 1918.

The goal of the Carlisle School was to teach the Indian students how to be American citizens. It gave them lessons in English and other academic subjects and taught them a vocation such as shoemaking, tinning, carpentry, blacksmithing, tailoring, printing, harnessmaking, plumbing, bricklaying, and telegraphy. The girls learned sewing, laundering, and cooking.

Athletics were also an important part of the education. Jim Thorpe, Chief Bender (a Philadelphia baseball pitcher), Louis Tewanima (1908 and 1912 Olympics star), and Coach Glenn "Pop" Warner were all Carlisle students.



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Finding Your Ancestor's School



The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Education Programs has 26 agency/area offices across the country. These Offices are responsible for the 185 Bureau funded schools. Information on these BIA offices and some of their schools can be found at http://www.oiep.bia.edu/

The Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs from the 19th century to the present contains reports on particular schools, discussions of Indian schooling in general and tables of information about all the schools. In addition, information about the schools in each state and information about the employees, including their names, can be found in these reports. These reports can be found at the National Archives, in the government documents section of large university libraries, and other libraries which hold copies of government records.

To find the schools your ancestor might have attended, look in the annual report for the years they would have been in school. If you can identify the name of the school, you can then write to the National Archives for any school reports for that year that may list your ancestor's name. The school report may tell the names of students, their ages and what tribe they are from. That information is not standard, however, as it is contained on standard forms which may or may not have been completely filled out.

Two other sources of Indian School records can be found in the microfilm collections from the National Archives. Those collections are:

Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army) - (Group 153)

Occasionally, Army officers involved in the peacetime administration of Indian affairs found their policies subject to investigation by military courts and commissions. One of the subjects under this heading was the selection of Indian children to attend the school at Carlisle, PA.


Bureau of Indian Affairs (Record Group 75) Indian Census Rolls,
1885-1940. M595. 692 rolls. DP.

These census rolls were usually submitted each year by agents or superintendents in charge of Indian reservations. The data on the rolls vary to some extent, but usually given are the English and/or Indian name of the person, roll number, age or date of birth, sex, and relationship to head of family. Some of the rolls which pertain to Indian Schools are:

Roll #Contents

1 Albuquerque School (Pueblo and Navajo Indians), 1904-7, 1910-11
2 Bay Mills School (Chippewa Indians), 1909-11, 1913-15
12 Bloomfield Seminary, 1924
17 Carlisle School, 1911
161 Fort Shaw School, 1910 (Devils Lake - Sioux Indians)
403 1920-24, 1926 Pueblo Day Schools (Pueblo and Navajo Indians)

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