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Article Title: “They Get Milk Practically Every Day”. The Genoa Indian Industrial School, 1884-1934
Full Citation: Wilma A Daddario, “’They Get Milk Practically Every Day’: The Genoa Indian Industrial School, 1884-1934,” Nebraska History 73 (1992): 2-11.
URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/1992-Milk_Every_Day.pdf Date: 1/27/2010
Article Summary: In an effort to assimilate Indian children into white society, non-reservation boarding schools were built. These schools were located far from reservations to reduce contact between the children and their parents and Indian customs. Genoa, Nebraska, was selected as a school site because the government already owned the building previously used for the Pawnee reservation headquarters. Most of the children in the Genoa school made friends, adjusted to harsh conditions, and learned the art of showing a “white” veneer to get through their school years. But they paid a high price for their education in terms of their physical and emotional health. They were separated from their families and there was not enough money to adequately feed, clothe, and educate them. Full assimilation of the Indian children into white society did not occur and the schools began to close in 1901. Genoa school closed in 1934.
Cataloging Information: Surnames: Richard Pratt; Hiram Price; Samuel F Tappan; Horace R Chase; Homer Davis; C J Rhoads; Edgar A Allen; Sam B Davis; R L Spalsburg; Gertrude Parton; Estelle Reel; H B Pearis; Miss Kurtz; Ferdinand Shoemaker; Herman Bogard; W Carson Ryan Jr; Grace Stenberg Parsons; W H Winslow; Daniel M Browning; Thomas Morgan; William A Jones; Francis E Leupp; Henry T Oxnard; W B Backus; Thomas J Morgan; Julia Carroll; J E Ross, Samuel F Tappan; Allan Trotterchaud; Clarence White; Sydney Bird; William Jennings Bryan; John Haldiman; Logan Fontenelle; John Washakie; Chief Washakie; Silas Kitto; Horace Barse; Gertrude Provost; Ada Trudell; Victoria Tyndall; Aurelia Dupris; Angeline Whitefish; Grace Robert; James E Bell; Florence Wells; Herman Bogard; John Collier; Edgar Howard; W A Jones; Spotted Tail; Red Cloud
Place Names: Rosebud; Pine Ridge; Dakota Territory; Carlisle School; Chemawa, Oregon; Chilocco; Genoa Indian Industrial School; Stanley County, South Dakota; Nance County, Nebraska; Yankton; Rulo, Nebraska; Haskell School, Kansas
Keywords: “assimilation” “boarding school” “white ways” “treaty obligations” “Genoa Town Company” “tuberculosis” “epidemic” “scarlet fever” “Genoa Indian Industrial School” “The Indian News” “vocational training” “Bureau of Indian Affairs” “Sioux” “Ponca” “Arapaho” “Arikara” “Flathead” “Omaha” “Winnebago” “Pottawatomie” “Company E” “Indian Appropriation Act” “Oxnard Beet Sugar Company” “Farmers Alliance” “Knights of Labor” “desertion” “runaway” “All Nations” “Percheron horses” “Duroc hogs” “Holstein cattle” “University of Nebraska Agriculture Department” “Returned Students” “Indian Service”
Photographs / Images: Genoa Indian School sewing class; Genoa’s youngest female pupils; Genoa dining hall and gymnasium; Genoa Indian School graduates; Genoa employees’ cottages "THEY GET MILK PRACTICALLY EVERY DAY," THE GENOA INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, 1884-1934 By Wilma A. Daddario
In 1879 General Richard Pratt Carlisle School became the att tern did not tolerate any elements of Indian opened the first non-reservation for non-reservation boarding schools heritage in dress, language, or religion. boarding school for Indian children in across the country. Chemawa, Oregon, Children were taught that their native Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with children was the second non-reservation board- culture was worthless. Severe dis- from the Rosebud and Pine Ridge ing school to be established, opening ci~lineand arduous manual labor. as reservations in Dakota Territory.' on February 25,1880. It was followed by well as disease, homesickness, Ad Pratthad to begin his schoolwith Sioux Chilocco in Indian Territory near the loneliness were experienced by most children because the commissioner of Kansas border on January 25, 1884. children during their years at non- Indian affairs, Ezra A. Hayt, wanted Genoa Indian Industrial School was the reservation boarding schools. the children to be hostages for the good fourth school, opening on February 20, Originally, the reformers envisioned behavior of their people led by Spotted 1884.5 that the educated young Indians would Tail and Red C10ud.~ All the schools, ideally, were to be live in white society, completely Pratt and contemporary humanitar- located far from reservations to reduce integrated in neighborhoods, pro- ians believed that Indians would be contact between the children and their fessions, schools, and churches. helped most by complete separation ~arentsand Indian customs. The However, most of the educated Indian from their native culture and assimila- education was to be both academic and vouth returned to the reservation. and tion into white society. Abolishing the vocational. Indian children were to &any were ostracized because of their reservations would solve the conflicts learn the same manners. morals. and new "white ways." They were then between white settlers and Indians on religion as white children. Boys were to forced to choose between the manner the frontier as well as civilize and Chris- learn a white man's trade and girls were of living they had been taught at school tianize the Indians. Despite the to learn the proper care of ahome. Each or their traditional Indian ~ulture.~The interaction with diverse cultures student was to spend half a day in attitude toward Indian education among recent immigrants and know- academic work and half a day in changed to a preference for day schools ledge of Indian tribal customs, "the vocational or industrial training. or reservation boarding schools in the white Protestant majority continued to Students were enrolled for three-ve& early twentieth century,7 but once the imagine that its values and the nation's terms. The government paid for federal assimilationist ~olicieshad were identi~al."~ General Pratt transportation to the school and return been set in motion, the no;-reservation expressed the sentiment: to the reservation after three years, but boarding schools continued until [Ijn Indian civilization I am a Baptist, because I the students could not go home in the reforms during the 1930s. believe in immersing the Indians in our civiliza- summer unless their parents came for tion and when we get them under holding them In 1905 non-reservation boarding there until they are thoroughly soaked! them or paid for their transportation. schools had an enrollment .of 9,736 Children could not leave school during students, reservation boarding schools Wilma A. Daddario is a graduate student the year without special permission enrolled 11,402 students, and govern- in the history department of the Universityof from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, even ment day schools, 4,399. Only eighty- Nebraska-Lincoln. if parents requested it. Most schools four Indian pupils in the U.S. were Genoa Indian Industrial School
Genoa Indian School sewing class. (NSHS-G335-39) Photo by Louis R. Bostwick . . . . (below) Genoa's youngest femalepupils. (NSHS4335- 80) Nebraska History - Spring 1992
enrolled in district public schools in All spoke Lakota, which made it more 24 percent of the students in 1890,l7 1905. Seventy of these were in difficult to teach them English than if contrasts with 84 percent or 127 cases northeastern Nebraska and fourteen children from other tribes, who could reported in 1888.18Physicians' reports were in Stanley County, South not understand Lakota, had also been in 1912 reported 98 of 332 pupils had Dak~ta.~By 1926 69,892 Indian at the school.12 trachoma.IgIn 1925, the ratio was 106 of children were reported to be in a school Communication was only one of 445 Mantoux tests for tuber- of some type. Of this total, 22,099 many problems during the first year. culosis in 1930 showed 71.9 percent of remained in government boarding The school grounds had no outhouses the students had a positive reaction. sch001s.~ and no cisterns. All water for cooking, Homer Davis, the local doctor in Genoa Genoa, Nebraska, in 1884was a small drinking, bathing, and laundry had to who x-rayed and examined thirty-one village located in Nance County in east be carried from an outside well, bucket children who tested positive for tuber- centralNebraska. The town was select- by bucket. Water was heated in small culosis, wrote to the commissioner of ed as a school site because the govern- boilers on the stoves, and baths taken Indian affairs asking what to do with ment already owned the building in wooden washtubs. It required a large the sick ~hildren.~'Nearly a month previously used for the Pawnee reser- work detail just to carry clean water later, the reply from C. J. Rhoads, com- vation headquarters in Genoa before inside and dirty water outside, even missioner of Indian affairs, arrived. the Pawnee were removed to Indian without the weekly baths. At last, in The bureaucracy had no answer: Territory in 1875. Also, the existing 1887, the water problem was partially The question of the proper handling of this training schools in Pennsylvania and solved by erecting a windmill and a 300- situation throughout the Indian Service is being Oregon were becoming crowded, and it barrel tank connected to the given careful consideration by the Office, and we hope within the next year to arrive at some was expensive to transport the washrooms and the kitchen. A large definite plan relative thereto." students so far from their homes in cesspool was dug and connected with "Indian country" to schools in the east- the building. Bathing in wooden Contagious epidemics spread ern or western United States. Hiram washtubs remained a problem, and throughout the school almost every Price, commissioner of Indian affairs in Superintendent Horace R. Chase year. There was a chicken pox epidemic 1883, also mentioned the necessity of reported: "It may appear an easy task, in 1884, and in 1887, scarlet fever infect- fulfilling treaty obligations to the but the practical work of washing over ed 105 students. There was a mumps Sioux. They, along with several other 170 children with our present epidemic in 1891, but the most serious tribes, had been promised a school for arrangements almost discourages the epidemic was measles, which killed ten every thirty children of school age.1° bravest."l3 children in 1892. At one time, 105 of the The citizens of Genoa contributed Sanitary conditions improved when students were si~k.~3A total of twenty- $500.00 to supplement the govern- water was provided by the Genoa Town three deaths were reported for the ten ment's funds and purchase additional Company in 1895.14The same year, new years, 1884-94, most from tuberculosis land for the school, which was startedin bathrooms with showers, lavatories, and measles. In 1909 special Indian the vacant agency building situated on and warm water piped in and connect- agent Edgar A. Allen reported the 320 acres of farmland. The grounds ed to sewerage were constructed. All deaths of three students from infantile bordered the village on the east side of laundry was still done by hand in paralysis. The eight-year-old son of town with only a three block walk washtubs.15 Construction continued as Superintendent Sam B. Davis also separating students and townspeople. a warehouse, a barn, a steam plant for died, but his four-year-old daughter, The Union Pacific Railroad crossed the central heating, a power plant for elec- although partially paralyzed, re- farm several hundred feet in front of tric lighting, an expanded sewer sys- covered.24 the school building. tem, and a steam laundry plant were all The U.S. government's allotment for Seventy-one children arrived in completed by 1900. Appropriations for the Genoa Indian Industrial School was Genoa on February 20, 1884. All were 1901 included funds for a new school $167.00 per student per year to cover all Sioux from the Rosebud Agency, about building, hospital, and barn16 The expenses except for new buildings or 250 miles from Genoa in Dakota grounds were landscaped with trees, major repairs. On September 7, 1916, Territory. On August 20, 1884, the fences, walks, and flowerbeds. the government increased the support superintendent, Samuel F. Tappan, Tuberculosis, trachoma, and epi- for non-reservation boarding schools to reported an enrollment of 129 students, demics of contagious diseases were $200 per pupil per annum.25 With this all from Rosebud except for eighteen common at the school from its begin- small budget the students had to grow students from Yankton, also in Dakota ningin 1884until it closed. Trachoma, a and prepare their own food, raise their Territory. There were eighty-nine boys contagious viral disease of the conjunc- own livestock, and build and maintain and forty girls. The students ranged in tiva of the eye, was almost epidemic. their own buildings. age from seven to twenty-two years.ll The low report of 36 trachoma cases, or The amount of work done by the Genoa Indian Industrial School
boys in the school's first summer of 1884 was incredible. First, the land was cleared of weeds and stubble. Corn was planted on 130 acres and cultivated six times.26Forty-five acres were sown to oats, forty acres to hay, and twenty- seven acres in potatoes and garden vegetables. The boys planted 3500 hit trees, 3500 vines and plants, milked six- teen cows morning and evening, fed fifty-four pigs, and took care of all the horses and mules.27 The little boys, ages eight to ten, tended the garden. Along with farming and gardening, the boys gained experience in car- pentry and brick masonry. By the sum- mer of 1889 they had built a carpenter shop, a barn, a cowshed, a hogshed, an icehouse, a granary, and a corncrib. The granary and icehouse were built of brick made at the school kiln. Vocationaltrades for boys interestedin blacksmithing, harness making, shoe- making, and printing were only avail- Dining hall and gymnasium. (NSHS-G335-18) able in town. Boys interested in these occupations, or assigned to these duties, went to the shops in Genoa until the school shops were opened in 1888. girls worked half days in alternate gram. Genoa did neither of these and The girls were responsible for meal shifts, and gradually began to accom- was criticized in inspection reports. H. preparation and cleanup, housekeep- plish the almost impossible task of out- B. Pearis, the inspector in 1913, noted ing, and sewing. Housework and cook- fitting everyone. The girls made all the that the students were not receiving ing duties were production labor, not clothing for themselves and the small good industrial instruction, but were lessons in how to manage a private boys and mended for the whole school. only doing production work, especially home as the assimilationists wanted. From January until September nearly the girls.32The same year, The Indian The girls cooked huge quantities of 1,000 garments were made. A group of News, the school newspaper, proudly food instead of planning and preparing ten to twelve little girls darned stock- reported how Miss Kurtz and the girls family-sized meals. The daily diet was ings and sewed carpets from rags.29 who had stayed and worked over the limited, and few fruits and vegetables Estelle Reel, the superintendent of summer had canned 400 quarts of were served, especially after the sum- Indian schools in 1900. believed the strawberries, 1900 quarts of cherries, mer growing season. A menu reported girls were the key to the home and and gallons of cherry juice. Tomatoes by Inspector R. L. Spalsburg for would control the future of the next from 7000 plants were picked, canned, November 16, 1921, listed rolled oats, generation: pickled, and made into piccalilli and bread, coffee, and syrup for breakfast. Educate and civilize the future Indian father in catsup.33 Lunch consisted of boiled beef, dump- as thorough a manner as you please, but neglect The girls must have been skilled in lings, mashed potatoes, gravy, bread, the future Indian mother, and your work will be their food processing and cooking and water. The dinner menu was even because the medical inspector, Dr. less appetizing: beans, rolls, gravy, .and The Indian girls were to be taught to Ferdinand Shoemaker, in 1914 praised bread. Boys drank coffee at dinner, and maintain a proper domestic household the clean and excellent condition of the the girls received milk on that par- with system, orderliness, cleanliness, kitchen, and claimed the food served ticular day.28 and "a love for house decorations."31 was consistently better than at any of Gertrude Parton, the school's Some Indian schools built domestic the other schools, noting that "they seamstress, reported in 1886 that when cottages to provide for practical have butter two times a week, and get she arrived in January the children did experience for girls in home situations, milk practically every day."34 not have enough clothing. Forty-seven and some increased their outing pro- In the half days between their Genoa Indian School graduates. (NSHSG335-24) vocational "training," the children including physiology, geography, and high studies. However, Genoa was not were in the classroom. In 1885 the civil government. This was revised in permitted to add grade eleven until school was classified into primary, 1900 by a renewed emphasis on indus- 1929, or grade twelve until 1930. Also in intermediate, and advanced levels. trial and vocational training. Reading, 1926 the Bureau of Indian Affairs Classification was by capability and writing, and arithmetic were con- emphasized that while students above class standing rather than by age or sidered essential but "mere book grade three were only to be in the size. Primary and intermediate classes knowledge" was not considered academic classroom one-half day, they studied spelling, reading, arithmetic, necessary for Indian children.37 The were to spend one-fourth day in and construction of simple English 1900 theory was interdependence and vocational instruction, and only sentences. Advanced students studied correlation between the industrial and required to spend one-fourth day in grammar, composition, geography, his- literary departments, with the primary their institutional work or production tory, and dra~ing.~SEvening services importance on the industrial. However, duties for school maintenan~e.~~ were held daily with an hour study hall each new program continued to In 1932 grades one through three for older students after the service. On emphasize vocational education were dropped from Genoa's program. Monday evenings, singing lessons were instead of academic. Genoa offered Indian families and reservation person- given. Friday evenings were for eight grades of instruction until 1916, nel protested because in many cases, socializing in the assembly room or when a new course of study expanded long distances to the local public attending presentations of singing, the program to ten grades. After 1920 schools and lack of transportation and recitations, and composition^.^^ the primary students, grades one warm clothes meant that many children The academic requirements through three, were required to spend would not be able to attend school for changed as administrations and all day in the classroom. In 1926 a policy much of the year. In September 1932 philosophies changed in Washington. A of grading was established throughout Genoa's superintendent, Herman course of study and rules for the the Indian Service that set UD six Bogard, requested $108 for tuition schools presented in 1890 emphasized grades for elementary, three yeaki for from the Bureau of Indian Affairs so traditional academic coursework junior high, and three years for senior that two orphans in the primary grades Genoa Indian Industrial School
could live at the Indian school and tle boys "had only their matron and she Recruiting conflicts continued until attend public school in Genoa. W. Car- was a busy person for she had many 1894 when the commissioner of Indian son Ryan, Jr., director of education for boys and many duties."45 affairs, Daniel M. Browning, asked the bureau, replied that surely the As Parsons indicates there was much Congress to enact legislation providing school could come up with $108 to regimentation at the Genoa school. that no Indian child could be sent from avoid displacing the two youngster^.^^ Reveille was at 6:00 A.M., whistles any reservation to a school outside the However, there was no extra $108 in the announced meals and classes through- state or territory where the reservation budget, and Bogard was instructed to out the day, and taps sounded at 9:00 was located without the voluntary con- write to various reservations to find a P.M.46The students were formed into sent of the child's father or mother or place for the children. Finally in regiments for marching and divided next of kin. As part of the Indian December, Commissioner C. J. Rhoads into companies, each with its captain Appropriation Act in 1894, Congress instructed Bogard that if Bogard would and lieutenants. The students marched made it illegal for any agent or complete the paperwork, $27 would be everywhere, and practiced drilling on employee of the government to provided to send the children to the the parade ground or in the gym- withhold rations as a means of influenc- Rosebud reservation.4" nasium. At dress parades, the company ing parents to grant consent for their A number of different tribes were with the best marching performance children's attendance in out-of-state represented among the students at the was awarded the flag. Company E, schools.51 By the late 1920s and early school each year. In 1889 enrollment which was composed of the smallest 1930s, Genoa had more students wish- was 175. Sioux children predominated children, always received the most ing to attend than the school's capacity with 101 students, but northeastern applause, but was never awarded the of 500. Poor economic conditions both Nebraska reservations, about 120 miles flag.47 The Genoa school was even on and off the reservations prompted from Genoa, were represented with criticized by the government inspector many Indian parents to send their twenty-one. Omaha, twenty-one Win- in 1911 for not marching in accordance children away to school strictly for nebago, and two Ponca children. Other with the latest U.S. Infantry Drill financial reasons.52 tribes represented were the Arapaho Regulations.48 Thomas Morgan, William A. Jones, with sixteen students, the Arikara with Recruitment of students was a con- Francis E. Leupp, and other com- twelve students, and the Flathead with stant struggle for school adrninis- missioners of the Bureau of Indian two students."' Throughout the trators particularly in the early years. Affairs encouraged the outing system school's histoiy the students were pre- The allotment of $167.00 to $200.00 per for students as General Pratt had dominantly Sioux, Omaha, Winnebago, student had to cover fixed operating organizedit at Carlisle. Indian students Ponca, and in 1931, Pottawatomie. expenses as well as the pupils' expens- were to live and work in the homes of Eleven other tribes in 1931 sent a total es. In 1901Superintendent W. H. Wins- white families, where they would learn of ninety-five students to the scho01.4~ low re~orted that exDenses were white manners and how to fit into white Grace Stenberg Parsons lived at the higher ihan the schoofs anticipated society.53 Genoa's efforts in the outing school, where her father was the black- income, and he had to "rustle" for fifty system were not successful. In May smith, from 1907 to 1916. She de- more students.49 Also, the work in 1891 Henry T. Oxnard, owner of the scribed the arrival of the little children, cooking, cleaning, farming, harvesting, Oxnard Beet Sugar Company in Grand five years of age and up, who came in and repair around the school could not Island, wrote the commissioner of "scared, dirty, and clip- be hired with the limited funds, so more Indian affairs requesting permission to pers were waiting, all heads were students were needed as a work force. employ Indian boys for "thinning out" shingled, they were bathed with car- Superintendents wanted the students his sugar beet plants, a job requiring bolic soap from head to toe."44 Long to be sent directly from agency schools four to six weeks.54 Oxnard was told hair on small children, aside from any so the industrial schools would receive this was not a standard outing plan, but cultural significance, required cleaning older, more capable students already if the Genoa superintendent felt it was and combing. School personnel were trained in elementary English. The beneficial to the school, and the not able to spend this time on grooming agency schools, naturally, did not want students did not object, then the the children. to send their brightest and best pupils department would appr0ve.5~ Parsons sympathetically described to another school. Superintendent On June 5,1891, Superintendent W. how the children were lined up at bed- Horace R. Chase complained that he B. Backus notified Thomas J. Morgan, time in their long white nightshirts to felt humiliated to go to the Indian commissioner of Indian affairs, that the repeat a short prayer. Some then fell camps "and try to overcome the workingmen of the area had passed a asleep quickly, but others sobbed until ignorant prejudices of the Indians and resolution opposing the use of Indian they were exhausted. Little girls were induce them to accept the blessings of labor. The Farmers Alliance and the comforted by the older girls, but the lit- an edu~ation."~~ Knights of Labor, strong around Grand Nebraska History - Spring 1992
Island, were opposed to the Indian back.60Extreme measures were taken discipline, regimentation, and home- boys working in the beet fields, and he by Superintendent W. H. Winslow in sickness, but also provided occasional would rather not send the boys to 1906. The school disciplinarian tied entertainment, new experiences, and Grand Island because he felt there two captured runaway boys to a buggy friends. As early as 1903, local high would be trouble.56 Morgan was axle, and a third boy was tied around schools challenged the Genoa students furious, accusing Nebraskans of being the waist and driven ahead of the team in debate." Tennis tournaments, unappreciative of the school, of trying of horses. Witnesses from a neighbor- dances, trips to the circus, and a mov- to deprive Indians of a chance to work ing town reported this directly to the ing picture machine were part of the in a state that was once their homeland, commissioner of Indian affairs; the dis- extracurricular events held in 1907, and he pointed out how the idleness of ciplinarian admitted the facts and along with boys and girls basketball, the Indians had been a menace to the was di~charged.~' football, baseball, and ice skating. peace the past winter at Wounded There were other runaway situations Often the Genoa school was able to Knee. He threatened to transfer the that involved unusual circumstances. defeat its public school opponents in students to Carlisle. If Nebraskans In 1911 Superintendent Davis brought sports. In January 1919 the school continued to show hostility toward the Allan Trotterchaud back to school newspaper reported on a basketball school, Commissioner Morgan be- from Wyoming. Allan had run away game with Genoa High School. "The lieved the school should be discon- over a year earlier. His parents placed palefaces played a good game but they tinued and moved to a place "where the advertisements to find him, and he was were no match for our boys, the score sentiment of the people is more finally located.62In 1914 three boys ran being 49 - 18."69 As an intramural friendly.'757 away to Rulo, Nebraska. The father of activity in 1913, the students formed a After the Oxnard incident, boys one of the boys called the school to see "Winnebago" basketball team to play helping the local farmers over summer if there was a reward!63 Tragedies the other students on the "All Nations" vacation, and girls working as clerks in sometimes happened when the team.7O Boys went duck and rabbit Genoa stores, or in local homes during children left school. In 1921 Clarence hunting, activities the Indian Affairs the summer were the only other White was killed when he fell or was inspectors surely would have disap- "outings." Students who wished to pushed from a moving freight train proved.71 Sidney Byrd, a former stu- earn extra money often remained all near Fremont, Nebra~ka.~~Irvin Young, dent at Genoa, recalled that the cooks summer at the school, farming, garden- twelve, ran away in 1919. His parents would prepare rabbits shot by the ing, and cannirig. At a 1929 Senate hear- looked for him, the school looked for students if the game was cleaned and ing Mrs. Julia Carroll, a short-term him, other reservations were asked to labeled with the hunter's name.72 employee at Genoa in 1923, reported watch for him, but he was never By the 1930s activities described in that Superintendent Sam B. Davis found.65 Because permission to leave the school newspaper were similar to forced boys from the school to work on school was often denied, even after a those in Nebraska's public high his two farms located near the school. parent or relative's request, many schools. A sophomore class party and a Davis admitted owning two farms, but children ran away just to go home, to banquet for the seniors given by the said that he hired Indian students only visit relatives and friends, or to seek juniors were reported in April 1931.73A on holidays or vacations if they wished adventure. In 1928 several girls source of pride for the Genoa school to earn extra money.58 hitchhiked to Columbus, Fremont, and between 1900 and 1919 was its band, Homesickness and rebellion were Omaha. They were found in Omaha, invited to play at many fairs and special reasons for some students to run away expelled from school, and returned to occasions across the state. In 1911 the from school. The first year, 1884, their reservation. Continued rebellion band welcomed William Jennings Superintendent Samuel F. Tappan by other girls at Genoa caused the Win- Bryan to Genoa.T4 It represented the reported three runaway students be- nebago reservation superintendent to school at the Nebraska State Fair in tween February and In 1899 complain to the commissioner that 1914, serving as the reception band for Superintendent J. E. Ross reported Superintenden: Davis had returned "Omaha Day."75 that there were very few cases of deser- twelve runaway girls to the reservation The school's second area of pride tion in the past year. According to Ross, in eight weeks.66The Bureau of Indian was championship, purebred livestock. the runaways were the younger pupils Affairs wired Davis that he was not to Superintendent Davis and the school who were homesick, and did not dismiss any more girls without prior farmer, John Haldiman, began a pro- appreciate the educational oppor- approval. An extensive investigation gram of breeding purebred Percheron tunity presented to them. The older followed in an attempt to resolve the horses, Duroc hogs, and Holstein cattle children who ran away Ross deemed breakdown in morale and discipline, after 1907. The animals won cham- unworthy of "further consideration" especially among the girls.67 pionship awards at the Nebraska State and did not attempt to bring them Boarding school meant hard work, Fair, the Kansas State Fair and Genoa Indian Industrial School
numerous stock shows. The top stock- graduate went to the University of Ne- dency still totaled $8,000 in 1896 and men's publications and the University braska, the class of 1911 sent Victoria required the passage of a special of Nebraska Agriculture Department Tyndall to York College, and graduates appropriations bill to clear the sent representatives to Genoa for from other years attended the North accounts.gl Chase's successor, W. B. advice. Davis shipped some of the Dakota State School of Science and Backus, was also found to have a short- cattle to western reservations in 1913to Montana State University. Aurelia age in his accounts of $25,000. The improve breeding programs.76The sale Dupris received a scholarship to attend local newspaper, however, reported of this purebred stock added, on an Doane College in 1932. She was the that the department merely had a prob- average, $8,000 to $10,000 per year to only Indian then attending Doane. lem with their "redtapeism" and that the school's financial resources. Angeline Whitefish and Grace Robert, everything would be easily A major change in the school, and in two of her classmates, went to Hastings corrected.82 the lives of the students, came in 1917 College that year.79 Backus left the school in 1893 but when the U.S. entered World War I. By The school superintendents and all problems continued. No mention of the October of 1917, seventy-four pupils Indian school employees were political school's activities appeared in the 1894 had enlisted. The students who were appointees when Genoa Indian Indus- official report prepared by the com- still at school had to work hard to fill in trial School opened in 1884. No stan- missioner, and the new superinten- for the older boys. Printing the newslet- dard qualifications for employment dent, James E. S. Bell, served less than ter was turned over to three of the were required. Civil Service examina- a year. Bell's replacement, J. E. Ross, young boys, including fourteen-year- tions and registers of eligible can- in his 1895 report indicated con- old Logan F~ntenelle.~~The boys who didates for positions in the Indian troversy at the school, and expressed enlisted wrote back to their friends and Service began in 1891, but specialized his appreciation for fire protection teachers at school describing their training and college degrees were not from the city of Genoa! For several encounters with European cultures. required for school personnel until weeks in December 1895 The Genoa Three Genoa students died in the war. 1928.80 Leader carried this message from John Washakie, grandson of the Personnel problems existed at the Superintendent Ross: famous Chief Washakie of the Genoa school throughout its history. Warning - The people of Genoa and vicinity are hereby warned against purchasing any articles Shoshoni reservation, died of Superintendent Horace R. Chase was from the Indian pupils without they show written pneumonia. Silas Kitto and Horace suspended for financial irregularities in permit from the superintendent properly signed Barse were killed in action.78 1889. The claims against the Indian and stamped.83 . Graduates of the school formed a school during the Chase superinten- Sam B. Davis was appointed "Returned Students" association and former students tried to come back for reunions at graduation time or write Employees' cottages. (NSHS-G335- 7) each year. Subscriptions to the school newspaper helped them keep in touch with classmates. Many had returned to the reservations after graduation, and reported that they were farming, ranch- ing, or operating small businesses. Some of the graduates went on to busi- ness training schools, or to Indian schools like Haskell in Kansas that offered a high school diploma rather than the ten-grade program that Genoa offered until 1929. In 1910 Gertrude Provost attended nurses training in Philadelphia. Ada Trudell went to nurses training in Chicago in 1914. Other graduates found jobs teaching in schools in the Indian Service, playing semi-professional baseball for the Indian League, and working at the industrial trades .they had-studied. A few went on to higher-education.A 1910 Nebraska History - Spring 1992
superintendent of the school in 1907 townspeople who were resentful of the school's staff and the policies of the and stayed until the end of the school Davis's repla~ernent.~~ federal government. At times the year in 1931. Throughout his long The news that the Genoa Indian Genoa school became so dependent on tenure Davis maintained his belief that School would suspend operations for the students' manual labor that it often assimilation was the goal of Indian the 1933-34 school year, except for the neglected its primary goal of assimila- education. His letters to parents were few children requiring institutional tion. The conversion of Indian children often condescending, paternalistic, care, came from John Collier, com- into "white" workers, farmers, and and moralistic in tone. At times he missioner of Indian affairs, in the homemakers became secondary to the would explain to the Bureau of Indian spring of 1933. Four other non-reserva- production work necessary to keep the Affairs that he would not let a child go tion boarding schools that closed at the school itself operating. home, even after a family's request, same time were Salem School in Most of the children attending the because he felt the parent, stepparent, Oregon, Rapid City School in South school made friends, adjusted to the or other relative was not acting in the Dakota, Mount Pleasant School in harsh conditions, and learned the art of child's best interests. Davis was Michigan, and Hayward School in Wis- showing a "white" veneer to get married to an Indian woman, Florence consin. Eventually, twenty non- through their school years. But they Wells, who was a teacher in the Indian reservation boarding schools would be paid a high price for their education in Service before and after their marriage. closed under Collier's direction. terms of their physical and emotional She taught at Genoa before she The Genoa community protested the health. They were separated from their transferred to Oregon, where she and closing at once. Nebraska Representa- families, and even though the financial Sam Davis worked together at the tive Edgar Howardreceived letters and cost of operating the school was high, Warm Springs School in the late 1890s. telegrams from the Genoa churches, there was not enough money provided Their move to Genoa in 1907 was a the Commercial Club, and numerous to adequately feed, clothe, and educate homecoming for Mrs. Davis. Several of businessmen. Petitions were also sent them. A government report prepared in her former colleagues were still on the from Macy, Nebraska, to protest the 1928 suggested that the per annum staff when she returned. school's closing, and Nebraska allocation per student should have At the Senate hearings convened in Senators Norris and Thompson fought been nearer $700 instead of only 1929 to survey the conditions of the to keep Genoa open. Former Superin- $200: Indians in the United States, Davis was tendent Davis protested closing the Boarding schools that are operated on a per school at Washington hearings in June capita cost for all purposes of something overtwo accused of physically abusing the hundred dollars a year and feed their children students at Genoa and appropriating 1933.86 Some Genoa residents wrote from eleven to eighteen cents worth of food a day government supplies and equipment letters asking for Davis to return as may fairly be said to be operated below any for use on his own farms. Conflict of superintendent, believing that would reasonable standard of health and decency." interest questions were also raised somehow allow the school to stay In 1901, thirty-three years before the because Davis farmed a section of land open. majority of the non-reservation board- while serving as superintendent of the The school closed on March 1,1934, ing schools began to close, Com- school. Davis denied all charges, andno in spite of the protests. The missioner W. A. Jones contended that action was taken against him.g4 He educational policy of the Bureau of if the same effort and monev were retired in the summer of 1931. Indian Affairs under John Collier's expended on the reservation, it would His replacement, Herman Bogard, direction favored the replacement of be more beneficial to the Indian was a native of Michigan, and in the last boarding schools with day schools and tribes.88 For example, Genoa cost the year of his Ph.D. studies. Bogard was the alteration of curriculum to deal with government $60,412.84 in 1907, superintendent for the last two years rural conditions on the reservations. $90,663.00 in 1931, and $140,600.00 in the school was fully operational, 1931- The reservation day schools were also 1932. The dollars that were spent for 33, and for 1933-34, when Genoa's stu- intended to serve as community cen- fifty years of building and maintaining dent population dropped to only sixty ters, where children and adults could the school at Genoa would have been or seventy students who could not be learn as well as participate in native better spent to provide educational, placed in their own homes, with cultural activities. medical, and social services on the relatives, or in other schools. Bogard's The Genoa Indian Industrial School Nebraska and South Dakota reser- strength was in operations and building never received the wide recognition vations where most of the school maintenance, not in handling either and early reformers' praises that Car- children had their homes. Full assimila- children or adults, according to his lisle received, and never established a tion of the Indian children into white supervisor, W. Carson Ryan, Jr. Ryan reputation for academic excellence as society did not occur as General Pratt admitted, however, that Bogard did did Haskell School in Kansas. Con- and other late nineteenth century face hostility from some of the Genoa ditions at Genoa varied depending on reformers had hoped, and cultural Genoa Indian Industrial School
pluralism became the accepted prac- Wommissioner of Indian Affairs to Sam B. Davis, Mar. 7, 1931, RG 75, #13498. tice under John Collier and the Indian ~~nnualReport, CIA, 1892,677. s61bid.; 153. New Deal. z4Edear A. Allen to Commissioner of Indian "Ibid., 155. Wongress, Senate, Subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs, Survey of the Con- NOTES ditions of the Indians in the United States. 70th IRichard H. Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, '7Ibid. congress, Second Session, Febr. 4,1929,1601. Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-- 18R. L. Spalsburg, Supervisor to Com- S9AnnualReport, 1884,207. 1904, ed. Robt. M. Utley (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebr. missioner of Indian Affairs, Dec. 7, 1921, RG MIbid., 1899, 405. Press, 1987), 220. 75. #98535. 6lGenoa (Nebr.) Times, Jan. 4, 1907. 'Ibid. S9~nnualReport, CIA, 1886, 13. h'Indian News, 13, no. 9(May-June 1911):ll. 3Frederick E. Hoxie, A Final Promise: The 'Omid., 1900,433. "Sam B. Davis to Commissioner of Indian Campaign to Assimilate the Indians, 1800-1920 3lJosephiine E. Richards, "The Training yf Affairs, Nov. 3, 1914, RG 75, #118985. (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebr. Press, 1984), 12. Indian Girls as the Uplifter of the Home, NIbid., Sept. 15, 1921, RG 75, #74664. 4Pratt,Battlefield, 335. National Education Association Journal of Pro- "Ibid., Mar. 7, 1921, RG 75, #18849. 5Bureau of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the ceedings and Addresses. 11900): 705. W. M. Ziebach to Commissioner of Indian Commissioner of Indian Affairs (Washington, ~'H-B. Pearis to C6mm