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Indian Education and Bureaucracy : the School at Morris, 1887-1909 / Wilbert H. Ahern

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Indian Education and Bureaucracy : the School at Morris, 1887-1909 / Wilbert H. Ahern Indian Education and Bureaucracy The School at Morris 1887-1909 ~--r^;:^:'^.<^.^^f»l^'-? S^"^'"^ •'**"-, . ',•.-••",;••..- •-••"•>;•'• .;. vV. •-'':r^'>*|^j^"<^->f''<*^il THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL run by the sisters ofthe Sacred Heari Mission at Morris, shown here in the late 1880s 82 Minnesota History Wilbert H. Ahern FIFTEEN buildings sat empty on a wind-swept knoll in ricultural education. During the preceding two dec­ western Minnesota during the winter of 1910. Freshly ades, they had served a difiFerent enterprise. planted trees and shrubs as well as the new brick fa­ These buildings — the earliest dated back to the fall cades on the two most substantial buildings gave the of 1887 — had been constructed as the Morris Indian grounds an air of expectancy rather than abandonment. School. It did not last long. After 22 years, the federal Yet both moods were appropriate. These buildings and government abandoned the school and the policies that the associated 292 acres of campus on the eastern edge created it, suggesting the stillbirth of a comprehensive of Morris in Stevens County were soon to become the national system of Indian education. In its score of University of Minnesota's West Central School of Agri­ years, however, the Morris Indian School reflected culture and Experimental Station, a new venture in ag- dramatic shifts in federal Indian policy and the role of education in that policy. Moreover, in the history of this school, one can see, writ small, implications of the ' The author is indebted to the graduate school and the emergence ofthe modern nation-state. Morris campus of the University of Minnesota for grant The dreams of Mother Mary Joseph Lynch and her support and to the staffs of Record Group 75, National companions in the Convent of Mercy at Morris gave Archives, at Marquette University, and at the Rodney Briggs Library, Morris. birth to the first Indian school in Morris. Born in Ireland Ansley to Commissioner of Indian Affairs (CIA), March in 1826, Mother Joseph had joined the Sisters of Mercy 17, 1892, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), letters received, at the age of 20. She had served with Florence Nightin­ National Archives Record Group (NARG) 75, copy in the gale in the Crimean War and in 1860 came to America, Morris Indian School Records, 1884-1909, West Central where she established an industrial school in Brooklyn, Minnesota History Center (WCMHC), Morris. This collec­ tion of duplicates of NARG 75 documents relating to the New York, and taught in it for 15 years. She then led school will hereinafter be cited as MISR. Information about missions to Michigan and to Minnesota. Independence Mother Mary Joseph Lynch comes from the author's corre­ and determination marked her path. As T. S. Ansley, an spondence with the late Sister Cecilia M. Barry, R.S.M., inspector for the Department of Interior, observed: historical researcher for the Sisters of Mercy, Omaha, Nebr., "Mother Joseph is a genuine speciman of an Old and fi-om Mother Joseph's communications xvith the Office of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C, and with the Bureau of Country farm woman; a worker, a manager and a close Catholic Indian Missions (BCIM), whose archives are in the calculator; one who works hard herself and expects ev­ Marquette University Archives, Milwaukee, Wis., herein­ eryone around her to do likewise."' after cited as ABCIM. See especially Mother Joseph to Fa­ The Sisters of Mercy traveled to Morris in 1886 at ther Joseph A. Stephan, March 19, July 9, 1896, and Mother Joseph to the Reverend E. H. Fitzgerald, November 25 the invitation of the local parish priest, Father Francis 1896, both in ABCIM. Watry. He wanted them to staflF a parochial school, but ^ Questionnaire, Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary they came because the Morris location brought them Church, Morris, in James A. Reardon Papers, Catholic His­ closer to the Indian children with xvhoni thex' xvished to torical Society, St. Paul; Morris Tribune, March 5, 1885, work. The examples of the Benedictines at Collegeville September 19, 1947; Sue Irvin, "The Sisters of Mercy and Sectarian Indian Education," 3, unpublished manuscript and St. Joseph, the Franciscans at Clontarf, and the 1973, WCMHC; Mother Joseph to CIA, July [?], 1884, letters Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet at Craceville en­ received, NARG 75; Sisters of Mercy to Commissioner couraged them to try blending education for white and Thomas J. Morgan, August 21, 1890, MISR; Mother Joseph to Indian children. For the Sisters of Mercy, genteel edu­ Father Stephan, March 24, 1887, ABCIM. The work of cation of prosperous young ladies never had the attrac­ schools at Collegeville, St. Joseph, Clontarf, and Graceville, all in Minnesota, is reported in annual reports of the Com­ tion that mission work for "benighted" Indian children missioner of Indian AfFairs (ARCIA) for this era. held. Mother Joseph envisioned an industrial training school for Indian giris from 12 to 16 years of age. "More can be done for them at that age," she told the commis­ Mr. Ahern, who received his doctorate from Northwestern University, is professor of history and director of the West sioner of Indian affairs." Central Minnesota Historical Center at the University of Her plan coincided with a dramatic shift in federal Minnesota-Morris. This study of the Morris Indian School Indian policy. Even as the costly conquest of the tribes parallels his work in progress on northern reformers, racial of the Great Plains moved ahead, Indian policv re­ minorities, and the school. formers grew influential. These self-stvled "Friends of Fall 1984 83 roUment to 50 and began plans to build an Indian school on the edge of Morris.'' Although her first trip to South Dakota in April, 1887, recruited only three young chddren, she enrolled 12 within a few months. South Dakota, however, was not the best source for students. The reservations at Pine Ridge and Rosebud were too far removed. Despite being located at Lake Traverse, only 60 miles xx'est of Morris, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux showed httle en­ thusiasm for sending their chddren away from home. Both their growing disillusionment with the United States failure to recognize its obligations to them and their lengthy experience with missionary schools en­ couraged them to keep the schools for their chfldren MOTHER Mary foseph Lynch in the Convent of Mercy close to home. In this they had the support of their In­ garden in Brooklyn, before her move fo Morris dian agent who wished to fill the government school on the reservation. Moreover, those who wanted a Roman Catholic education found the school at Graceville more the Indian" advocated assimilation into American cul­ attractive since it was only half as far away as Morris.^ ture. The General Allotment Act of 1887 dramatically By 1889, however, Mother Joseph discovered an in­ highlighted the move to destroy tribal relations, but the terested community in the Turtle Mountain Ojibway of faith of the reformers in education had the most signifi­ north-central North Dakota. The longtime presence of cant imphcations for the Office of Indian Affairs. Edu­ French traders among the Pembina Ojibway had re­ cation had long received lip service from federal poli­ sulted in their almost universal conversion to Roman cymakers, and most treaties had committed the Catholicism. In addition, extraordinary poverty had government to provide schools to the tribes. Beginning struck these people by the late 1880s. Many of them with the "peace policy" of President Lllysses S. Grant, were metis who had moved to the region following the however, the school evolved as the linchpin of Indian failure ofthe second Riel rebellion of 1885 in Manitoba. policy. By 1886 attendance in the Indian schools had more than tripled, and appropriations devoted for them were almost 50 times greater, growing from .$37,597.31 ^ Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis: in 1873 to $1,788,967.10 in 1886 (in constant 1873 Christian Refomwrs and the Indian, 1865-1900 (Norman, dollars). 3 Okla., 1976) offers the most recent and comprehensive treat­ ment of this stage of American Indian policy and the influence ofthe "Friends ofthe Indian. " See also his valuable collection THE DISPARITY between enrollment and appropria­ of primary sources, Americanizing the American Indians: tions underscored the difficulty of creating a federal Writings by the "Friends of the Indian,"' 1880-1900 (Cam­ system of education within little more than a decade. bridge, Mass., 1973). Williert H. Ahern, "Assimilationist Racism; The Case ofthe 'Friends ofthe Indian,' " in fournal Not only the magnitude of the task but prevailing defi­ of Ethnic Studies, 4:23-32 (Summer, 1976), examines the nitions of the role of government mandated that non­ central role of education in this phase. Paul Stuart, The governmental agencies, mainly the churches, play an Indian Office, 127 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1978). essential role in the first stages of the expansion of In­ ^ARCIA, 50 Congress, 1 session, 1887-88, House Execu­ dian education. In 1887 the various religious denomina­ tive Documents, vol. 2, p. 13-17, 758, 799 (serial 2542). Francis Paul Prucha, The Churches and the Indian Schools, tions still managed 35 percent of the Indian boarding 1888-1912 (Lincoln, Nebr., 1979), especially chapters 1^, schools through contracts with the federal government. provides the most complete and balanced analysis of the role The Roman Catholic church educated more Indian stu­ of the churches in Indian education and the controversies that dents than any other denomination and was responsible arose from this. for all federally sponsored Indian schools in ^ Stephan to Mother Superior, Morris, Deeember 22, 1886, and Mother Joseph to Stephan, December 27, 1886, Minnesota.'* both in ABCIM. At Christmastime 1886, the Reverend Joseph A.
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