Part III Stories of Student Survival

 This last chapter talks about a lot of different facts that happened at Haskell Institute. Haskell had its own newspaper called the Indian Leader. Lot of the information that the author talks about does go back to reference events that have happened in the Indian Leader. In May 1888, nineteen young men petitioned questioning the number of deaths at the school. In that year in a ten month period there were at least thirteen deaths. Previous the superintendent had already a nurse who was skimming rations. One month later they had a new physician at the school, which was good news. One could assume that maybe their voices were heard and helped change the medical care. There was a first group of siblings’ five boys and one girl who arrived at Haskell in the earlier years that came out on top and they all graduated at Haskell.


    There was a whole section on student activities that was at Haskell. To sum it all up Haskell had band, choir, glee club, debate, YMCA, four literacy societies, home economic club, mandolin club, YWCA, baseball, football, athletic club, track, croquet, and basketball. At one point in time they were basketball champions.

    The school had different departments such as the Normal and Commercial Departments. The Normal Department was normal classes plus the kindergarten. The Commercial Department was an alternative choice for the upper level students operating in a high level. The school also had a connection with University of Kansas because the superintendent there was Haskell’s first.

    The author says Vuckovic says it best "The children adapted to the circumstances and compensated for the institution's deficiencies with their great sense of community, friendship, and compassion. What the school could not provide for them, they successfully provided for each other: emotional warmth and mutual care. Haskell could only survive because the children appropriated the school for their own needs. They transformed it into their own world, a truly Indian School that meant more to them than educators had ever envisioned."

    I learned great educational information about Haskell Institute that I never knew existed. I look forward to reading about other boarding schools. Some of the stories made me feel sad in the late 1800s, but we need to beaware of what the young Native American children went through.  Now I can take this information and pass it down to others. Thanks for reading my posts.

Stories of Students Sacrifice

Can I please go home?


The beginning students of Haskell according to the ledgers weren't allowed to go home. As I read a few of the letters from some of the students writing to the superintendent I began to feel sad for them. In the letters they would ask so nice to go home. Some of the children wanted to see there families because they missed them, someone was getting married or a member was getting ready to pass to the next life. The letters of appeal would usually be denied or if they were to respond it would be too late. The only time they got to go home is if they were sent home because of illness.



Sibling Group Part I

This part of the book talks about sisters that arrived at Haskell. One of the sisters passed away in 1987. The other sister finished her term according to the record, however in the ledger it said "dropped." Her death wasn't in her official student record. Like this girl, this incident would happen to many others that their official death would not be recorded in their file to minimize the number of deaths at the school. In this next case about of couple of brothers is quit similar about the letter of appeals. There were two brothers, in one of their ledgers it would say "accidently killed." A young boy would right a letter to the superintendent about the brothers. The young boy claimed he had worked with them and felt responsible for brothers. He wanted to take their remains back to their home for their family. The letter was denied and that young boy would be listed as "deserted," a couple of months later. I wish I could no more about these stories I read through out the book. I get so into reading these letters and stories and then nothing. I'm only left with my imagination to end the story.



Military Atmosphere

The second superintendent, who was a staunch military man, would introduce strictness and discipline. He would have the children wake up every morning at 5:30 a.m. The students would march where ever they go. They'd march to meals, work and to school. The day began with loud bugles playing taps and that’s how their day would end as well. The superindendent would soon replace the guard house for a jail. This jail would remain on campus for twenty two years. This military life would pay off for some of the young men who would join the Army. The author would list five students that later became sergeants. At first I felt wow that is super early to get up in the morning. Then I was happy to see that some of the students adapted to the lifestyle. Even though they didn't have a choice it is good to see that some stuck it out and used their tools given to them to become someone important.

The First Decade

     In this part of the book the author is researching letters. These letters are from parents, students, and the school. He depicts each letter than researches the people that are mentioned in the letters. He researches the people from records from the school. There are letters from the parents to the school. In the letter they write how their child is doing in school, certain wishes they would like their child, and whether or not they would like their child to come home during their breaks. The children would write letters to the school or super indent at the time requesting if they could come back for a second term. The children would also let the school know what is going on in their life and how they miss school. The child would also let the school know how other children were doing that were done with their term and sent back to their home reservation. In the author's research she finds there are a lot of gaps missing. When some of the students talk about another student in their letter there is no record of them or no records in the ledger that they came back to school again or even finished school.


    Destruction of Identity was quite interesting as I was reading along. Upon arrival at a boarding school institution, students were stripped of their language, dress, spiritual beliefs, societal norms and culture. Native students burdened with a foreign white name. The author wanted to expand on this issue of destruction of identity. The author presented a table of information of the native students. The ledger would have the entire child’s information including their white and native names. For example some of the names that were quite interesting to me were, Julius Caesar, Henry Beecher, William Penn, Grover Cleveland, a and Andrew Jackson. The author says along with this new identity but hardship faced by the student who would eventually discover that his new name was tied to an alien identity that he would learn about through a book. It would also to be difficult to trade a name with meaning at home for one that belonged to a white man. The author would also discover from the ledger that there would be more than just one student with these names. There would be more than one or two or even three arrival dates for these boys. She would find out there was three Andrew Jacksons and two Grover Cleveland’s.

    Mary Riley, a teacher? student? both? There are so few primary documents from Haskell in the 1800s that have survived to it was a challenge to find information on one individual. The story of Mary Riley was very interesting because there is still a mystery who she was? From the records there was a Mary Riley listed in the 1884-1889 Haskell student registration ledger. The information about her said she was a full blood Seminole and seventeen years old when she arrived on August 17, 1888. The ledger also said she died in Oct. 7th, 1888. In Haskell Cemetery there is a tombstone that reads her name. This is just the beginning of her story. There were three letters to the school. One of the returning addresses was from Nebraska and the other two were from New York. The author finds that Mary Riley listed on an annual report listed as a teacher. So the author has a list of questions that I would like to know as well that are quite interesting. So if Mary Riley was a teacher, why is her name included in the student registration list? Maybe it was to bolster the student numbers at school. Maybe a student arrived and was given the name Mary Riley. Why is there a tombstone at Haskell cemetery with her name on it? If she was a teacher and being paid wouldn't there be money available to send her body home. Last question was Mary Riley a Seminole? Maybe Mary Riley was a Seminole who was educated in Eastern schools and arrived at Haskell as a teacher. Mary Riley still remains a mystery of what happened to her.

    Health Issues was a big concern in boarding schools. Outbreaks of sickness in the schools would include respiratory infections, tuberculosis, pneumonia, diphtheria, trachoma, and scrofula. Contributing factors to their sickness was inadequate food, under staff that would provide medical care, overcrowding and segregation of children in poor health from the rest of the student body. Many students did not make it through their initial term, they would never make it home, and some were sent home and would succumb to illness shortly after their arrival at home. Some of the students would be buried at the school and some just disappeared.