Providing for the children

I found this photo of the Rapid City Indian School on google images.
This section of the book went into full detail on how the children's needs were met. It discussed the the kinds of food they were given and how many mouths there were to feed. They fed anywhere from 250 to 300 children at every meal with the help of the girls in the kitchen and the boys in the bakery. Such large quantities of food didn't necessarily mean that the children ate well. The food was divided among so many mouths, that it was not always well prepared. The kids use to get pretty hungry as they were only given such a small amount of food. It wasn't until 1929 that the food menus showed considerable improvement in variety and the use of dairy products.
Health care for Indian students remained the most pressing need at the Rapid City Indian School. The indian populations were coming in contact with a variety of diseases such as smallpox epidemics, measles, influenxa and worst of all, tuberculosis. When an epidemic spread through the school, the staff could only nurse the sick and hope for their recovery. When time did not favor recovery, as when students wasted away from tuberculosis, schools often granted families wishes and sent the children home to die. Students received care from a full time nurse, assisted by students, and a local physician employed part time by the school. Poor health conditions became the norm at the Rapid City Indian School. The school's greatest failing was its inability to provide adequate health care for students, a problem directly attributable to inadequate appropriations. By the mid 1920's, the Rapid City Indian School was not a healthy environment for children.

Many Roads to Rapid

I retrieved this photo of the book from flikr.com
I am reading The Rapid City Indian School by Scott Riney for our Foundations of American Education class. I chose this book as I feel that I have more of a personal connection due to the fact that Rapid City is located near the Cheyenne River Reservation which is where I am from. I thought that it would be neat to learn about what it was like for the children of the reservations to be taken to Rapid City and put in boarding schools away from their parents. Honestly, I did not realize that there was a boarding school located in Rapid City, but as I opened the book, it suddenly all became clear to me. This first chapter along with the introduction tell about the location of the school. The Indian School existed from 1898 until 1933, which at this time closed down to make way for a tuberculosis sanatorium also known as Sioux San.
Some students attended unwillingly,poverty forced others from their families and for some it was an opportunity to gain an education, to meet students from other tribes or to follow in the footsteps of other family members. For Indian children from the reservations of Wyoming, Montana and western South Dakota there were many roads to Rapid.
A superintenden by the name of Collins did a lot of the recruiting of students from Pine Ridge, Shoshone Agency of Wyoming, and the Cheyenne River Agency of South Dakota. He took them to the school in wagons driven cross country in cold weather that was hard on the children and the superintendent alike. Recruitment was also done by sending out enticing catalogs describing the school and it's many opportunities and advantages.
I found myself deeply involved as I continue to read and am looking forward to taking a journey down the path that my anscestors once took.

"I Could Always Plow a Pretty Straight Line" - Chapter 3

One of things in the chapter that I learned and outraged me, was that the children were more-or-less forced into manual labor.

The photo at the left came from the blog of Tom Benjey, and it shows the fields surrounding Chilocco.

The Chilocco theory was that every man needed a trade. The way they applied this was to essentially force the boys into manual labor.

They thought that Indian youth were a shy and timid people, that needed to be exposed to both people and tools. Perhaps the youth were less shy, and only intimidated by their non-native counterparts.

"The Fines' School on Earth" - Chapter 2

This photo came from a website titled: Chilocco Restoration (http://www.chiloccorestoration.com)

One of the things in this chapter that stood out to me was the references to Ms. McCormick, the students thought of her as a mother in many ways. She was able to share compassion while also, keeping order. Many of the personal relections of her, were of a positive nature.

Another amazing thing I learned in this chapter, was that the students prepared the food. Although, the meals were planned by Ms. McCormick, the students were charged with the preparation they were remarked as being "...bland and boring...".

Another thing that stood out to me in this chapter, was the hiring of the Matrons & disciplinarians. The matrons by today's standards were quite unqualified. With very little required to gain a position.