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.