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.
It's truly amazing how we're learning the "Foundations of Education" isn't it? From the four father's of education to the boarding schools on and off the reservations. As a child, I only knew of a boarding school just miles south of the where my mother was born, and where my late-grandmother attended. I only wish that I was as interested as I am now to have wanted to learn more about her experiences at the Keams Canyon Boarding School. Though most treatment and reasons to attend boarding were all quite similar, it is the experience of the students that make it's history interesting and the positive outcome and unfortunate negativity that they overcame, strengthening. It would be interesting to see what one of the catalogs looked like and what was published in them. I wonder if they were filled with "sugar coated" messages. It would be interesting as to learning about the paths that your ancestors walked. I am eager to read more in your posts.
ReplyDeleteI find myself interested in this book that you're reading since I live in the Rapid City area. I had no idea the Sioux San IHS in West Rapid has so much history to have started out as a boarding school so many years ago. I cant begin to imagine what it must have been like to be forced to go to get into the wagon with the superintendent of a school many miles away from the reservation and family.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I was unaware of that there was a boarding school in Rapid City. You said the school ended in 1933, I wonder by chance if there are any living people who attended the school, if not I'm sure their children have memories of their stories. Thanks for sharing
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