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.