FLANDREAU, SOUTH DAKOTA
Wrapping up a circuitous loop of the 4 states I traversed, I headed East this time, to the eastern edge of South Dakota. Flandreau, South Dakota is situated on the Big Sioux River (which is a tributary of the Missouri River that flows down into northwestern Iowa). There is an Indigenous footprint here; the Santee Sioux Tribe is here as well a still functioning, large Indigenous Boarding School. Flandreau itself is a neat and tidy small town with a population of about 2,300 people. Sadly, the town is named after a U.S. Indian agent.
The Indigenous presence in this town, besides existing for thousands of years prior to Colonial/Settler times, is somewhat a mixture of displaced peoples. The descendants of Mdewakanton Dakota migrated (aka were displaced and forced to move) from Nebraska. The Dakota (meaning "friend" or "ally"), remembering from the beginning of the journey are the 3rd major Indigenous group: Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota, collectively called The Sioux by non-Indigenous settlers and opposing groups (like the Ojibwe who gave the name that means "little snakes") that came to the region. The people do not refer to themselves as Sioux, they instead are Oyate (The People).
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian Reservation is a small region (2,500 acres) of the Prairie Coteau made up of folks from ceded land in Wisconsin and Minnesota. This area set-aside was made in the mid-19th century. The Dakota Wars of 1862 saw Indigenous folks being forced into concentration camps/prisons in Iowa and South Dakota. A Santee Agency was set up and in 1869 (after the AWFUL Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and before the MORE AWFUL Dawes Act of 1887), 25 families from Nebraska gave up tribal rights, converted to Christianity, became citizens and acquired homesteads in the area that later became Flandreau. The area tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux, was formally recognized by the Feds under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
I did not go to the Santee Sioux Tribal Area/Reservation area up the road (behind the school) as I was more interested in the 1870's creation of an Indian Boarding School in Flandreau that is still in existence 135+ years later.
A History of the Flandreau Indian School
The origins of the school started in a Presbyterian church and meetinghouse; The River Bend Meeting House.
This water tower has 1892 as the start.
Students came to the Flandreau
school from tribes throughout the Northern Great Plains, Rocky
Mountains, and Midwest, including the states of South Dakota, North
Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan, for at least the first forty-five years of the
school's existence.
The main building of the school circa 1890's
Over the years, the Flandreau Indian School has been known variously as Flandreau Indian Industrial School (1893-1894, 1898-1900); United States Indian Industria! School (1894-1899), United States Indian School (1900), Riggs Institute (1901-1908). and Flandreau Indian Vocational High School (ca. 1910-1964). The name Flandreau Indian School has been used consistently since 1964
The campus is a mixture of old and new. Some buildings (mostly the white wooden structures labeled as "quarters") look like they are not in use but it was hard to say on a hot, hot July day when school not in session.
This is a 31 page PDF of the school done by the SD Historical Society
Beginning witb nine teachers and fewer than fifty students, the school
bad graduated more than six thousand individuals by 2005.' Over the
decades, the campus overlooking the Big Sioux River in eastern South
Dakota has changed to reflect the evolution of Indian education in the
United States.
bad graduated more than six thousand individuals by 2005.' Over the
decades, the campus overlooking the Big Sioux River in eastern South
Dakota has changed to reflect the evolution of Indian education in the
United States.
...the Flandreau Indian School has undergone five distinct periods of construction, demolition, and remodeling.
Old St. Mary's Church across the dirt and dead-ended road.
The barn was built by students and the shop teacher in 1929. It was originally used for dairy until the farm closed in the 1950's, then it was converted into a vocational shop.
The administrator's building is one of 2 extant buildings from the first generation of government buildings were built (1892-1915).
I had a lovely visit with a women from administration who gave me information about the school. There are now 13 buildings with 4 residential buildings and 85 staff. Approximately 300 students from 40+ different tribes.
"Flandreau Indian School parents, students and staff allege students were prescribed medications without their guardians' knowledge – and under threat of punishment."
I didn't ask about the scandals either. I had felt shifts in myself; shifts in my thinking about what happened, shifts in my attitude. I was now totally undecided. Unique situations in complex times. Tough decisions families had to make. It all was situational. I know it sounds cliche'ish, but there is the good and bad in everything. It is just that the bad was so so bad. And children were often snatched from their families. Then there is the whole concept of "assimilation," and all that was done under this really messed up banner of oppressor's thinking and doing what they want to the oppressed. The oppressed in this case being children. Little humans. There I go- shifting again!
This investigation/report mentions both Flandreau, which is on the border with Minnesota, and a school 18 miles away across the border in Pipestone Minnesota.
2019
There are others: articles written for newspapers, journal reports, whole books on the Federal Boarding Schools. I am sure I mentioned it before but no harm in mentioning again. In Fall 2023, Dr. John Truden taught American Studies 200: Indigenous Peoples and Federal Boarding Schools in the United States. In that course, each student assembled annotated bibliographies on a specific federal boarding school. These bibliographies were designed to be accessible to Indigenous communities. Each bibliography includes a description of a particular school along with descriptions of primary sources and second sources relating to that institution.
Both Flandreau and Pipestone Indian Boarding Schools made the list of 14 schools that were researched.
PIPESTONE, MINNESOTA
Pipestone was one of my favorite places to visit. It is a larger small town on my circuit of some very tiny spaces with big histories. Population is about 4,000 people.
AI (artificial intelligence- I am almost at the end of an exhaustive search for information, so what if I dipped into AI- correct me if info is inaccurate) had this to say:
"Pipestone, Minnesota, is a profoundly sacred place for many Indigenous peoples, particularly for the soft red pipestone (catlinite), used for centuries to craft ceremonial pipes central to prayer and spiritual connection, with traditions dating back over 3,000 years, serving as neutral ground for diverse tribes to gather, quarry, and honor ancestors..."Although a gathering place for Indigenous Peoples to quarry, the town itself is over 90% white. Some folks are critical of the misrepresentation and exploitation of Indigenous people in this small town (its the economics and tourist $$$ that most want, not historical truth or ongoing tribal beefs, or even any regard for the actual human beings that existed and ARE STILL HERE.
For an alternate view, this quick story of my most hated encounter of the trip (the bullshit FAKE AND MYTHICAL poem by Longfellow of NY, "The Song of Hiawatha") and how it played out (literally was a staged play/pageant) for 60 years in this little town for mainly white tourists: Town of Pipestone and Erasure of Indigenous Peoples
It was a dicey trail I walked. I came to learn about the school, but I really really liked the National Monument. Here is a video of my favorite Indigenous person working at a National site, Gabe Yellowhawk, doing a 38 minute talk on the history of the Pipestone Indian Training School:
Pipestone Indian Training School
"After the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, the U.S. federal government built various boarding institutions across the nation with the aim of assimilating Indigenous children into American culture. Among the newly built schools was the Pipestone Indian (Training) Boarding School, inaugurated in 1893 and officially closed in 1953. (There are cases in which the school was also referred to as the Pipestone Indian School Reservation.) Many Indigenous communities were left with no other option but send their children to Pipestone by (1) force or (2) due to tribal displacement post-Minnesota Sioux War of 1862. Upon the school’s founding, however, waves of resistance prevailed largely attributed to the illegal establishment of the school on Yankton Sioux reservation land. In 1926, the conflict was resolved when the Supreme Court Case, Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States, determined the building of the school violated the 1858 Treaty of Washington. Consequently, the court ruled compensation for the Yankton Sioux. However, in order to attain the compensation, the Yankton Sioux tribe were obliged to cede all control of the quarry land to the National Park Service.
The original campus consisted of 60 buildings that served up to 400 students. The majority of its first students came from the Sioux and Chippewa tribe nations. The average age of the first 102 students being 13. In 1910, the institution began to recruit students from surrounding areas, including but not limited to the following tribes: Cherokee, Iroquois, Winnebago, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, etc. The student body demographics, however, were largely comprised of the local Sioux nation students. Upon the institution’s closure in 1953, majority of the buildings were torn down. From its closure until the late ‘60s or roughly early ‘70s, the only remaining two-story building that comprised the campus, was inhabited by the superintendent. Since then, the land has been sanctioned off and given to different associations. Majority of the reservation is now currently owned by the National Park Service and the Pipestone National Monument."
Gabe, who is not a historian, had a few inaccuracies in his presentations (when queried by audience member on info that was outside the scope of his talk).
I borrow from another Dickinson College student's bibliographical information (excellent extensive bibliography):
"After the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, the U.S. federal government built various boarding institutions across the nation with the aim of assimilating Indigenous children into American culture. Among the newly built schools was the Pipestone Indian (Training) Boarding School, inaugurated in 1893 and officially closed in 1953. (There are cases in which the school was also referred to as the Pipestone Indian School Reservation.) Many Indigenous communities were left with no other option but send their children to Pipestone by (1) force or (2) due to tribal displacement post-Minnesota Sioux War of 1862. Upon the school’s founding, however, waves of resistance prevailed largely attributed to the illegal establishment of the school on Yankton Sioux reservation land. In 1926, the conflict was resolved when the Supreme Court Case, Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States, determined the building of the school violated the 1858 Treaty of Washington. Consequently, the court ruled compensation for the Yankton Sioux. However, in order to attain the compensation, the Yankton Sioux tribe were obliged to cede all control of the quarry land to the National Park Service.
The original campus consisted of 60 buildings that served up to 400 students. The majority of its first students came from the Sioux and Chippewa tribe nations. The average age of the first 102 students being 13. In 1910, the institution began to recruit students from surrounding areas, including but not limited to the following tribes: Cherokee, Iroquois, Winnebago, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, etc. The student body demographics, however, were largely comprised of the local Sioux nation students. Upon the institution’s closure in 1953, majority of the buildings were torn down. From its closure until the late ‘60s or roughly early ‘70s, the only remaining two-story building that comprised the campus, was inhabited by the superintendent. Since then, the land has been sanctioned off and given to different associations. Majority of the reservation is now currently owned by the National Park Service and the Pipestone National Monument."
I spoke with people who had descendants that went to this school. All did not have good things to say.
An oddly compelling factoid: one of the most famous survivors of the boarding school experience was activist, author, and teacher Dennis Banks. He was sent 300 miles from his tribal lands to the school at age 5 and stayed in the boarding schools until age 17. He ran away multiple times and severely beaten each time he did.
Here he is on Democracy Now:
Native American Leader Dennis Banks on the Overlooked Tragedy of Nation’s Indian Boarding Schools
The boys dormitory is on the right and the dining hall is on the left. The Pipestone Indian Training School started and ended with controversy. The school was built on land that was supposed to be reserved for the Yankton Sioux Tribe. There was a long legal battle over this treaty-protected land. In 1926 it was settled with $$$ and not the land. This created further controversy as the associated Pipestone quarries were on the land. To this day there is internal tribal beefing around the quarries (but still it is a shared space inter-tribally).
There was and is widespread resistance to Indian boarding schools, but the Pipestone Indian School inspired particularly active resistance for two reasons. First, it was built illegally on Yankton Sioux reservation land. Second, during the school’s tenure, management of the quarries fell largely to the white superintendent of the school instead of the Yankton people.
In the 1940's the government began phasing out the school for good, with 1953 as the official end. Now all that is left is the Superintendents house.
Behind the shroud of trees is the last of the Pipestone Indian School buildings.
I would have driven right by it. So thankful for folks who shared information and locations with me.
Looks very much like many other old abandoned school or governmental buildings, except... the ripply effect of the red pipestone or Sioux quartzite.
The school was built on 600+ acres. In 1937 the area around the school (the quarries) was designated the Pipestone National Monument and 301 acres went to the Monument. While controversial, there were some positives at the school. For example, in 1912 students began to publish a weekly student newspaper, the Peace Pipe, the first Indian newspaper in the nation.
A Minnesota coalition was formed to study the records of the 24 boarding schools that operated in the state and started with Pipestone. The story echoes ones I had read or heard about throughout my pilgrimage- students sometimes signed up by parents/guardians, other times students forcibly sent/taken. This article includes a story of a female student who ran away from the school and eloped with a student she met at the school. There was even a legal battle to try to get her back.
"Sometimes the school would make decisions for a student without consulting the student’s family, like cutting hair, for example, over concerns that a student had lice. She said families would often get upset because surgeries were performed on their children without consent, most commonly tonsillectomies."
In the 1940's the government began phasing out the school for good, with 1953 as the official end. Now all that is left is the Superintendents house.
The buildings included local quarried stone- Sioux quartzite and red pipestone.
Built in 1907 used as superintendent's house until 1953, then as a private residence until 1983. Empty since then (? use as storage my new school/college next door).
In 1953, nearly 100 years after the creation of the Pipestone Indian Reservation, the Pipestone Indian School was closed. With the closure of the School, the Bureau of Indian Affairs transferred approximately 114 acres in the northwest corner of the Reservation to the State of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as the Pipestone Wildlife Management Area. In 2019 the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources transferred the property to the full custody of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and it became a wildlife refuge. The Pipestone Indian School grounds west of Hiawatha Avenue were sold to the State of Minnesota Board of Education, and now serve as a campus for the Minnesota West Community & Technical College. The Pipestone Indian School Superintendent’s House is still standing on a portion of the land next to the school, and is on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. The building, as well as the small plot it stands on, is currently owned by Pipestone National Monument’s cooperating association, the Pipestone Indian Shrine Association.
On the National Register of Historic Places!?! No way! There is even controversy and conflict over what to do with this building. The building is in endangered status and IMHO it would be a shame to see it go.
That was 13 years ago and still nothing done. The site isn't very visible from the road, especially with a brand spanking new college as its neighbor.
And with that, after an amazing sojourn around the 4 Great Plains states of Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa I had visited as many Indian Boarding Schools as I could. I know you are wondering about Iowa, huh?
Okay so I was almost done. One more state to go...
IOWA
There were 3 Indian Boarding Schools in Iowa, all located in the eastern part of the state. None in existence anymore to go visit.
This was the Toledo Industrial School. Tribal opposition was strong and the school did not last long.
Today Meskwaki education is in the hands of the tribe at the Meskwaki Settlement School in Tama. Meskwaki students go to school close to home and are taught by those who understand tribal ways. When students reach the ninth grade, they leave the Meskwaki Settlement School for North Tama County Community School District.
Winnebego Mission School didn't last very long
The school, a substantial, two-story structure of stone, was located on Yellow river, about six miles up stream from the Mississippi, and approximately ten miles from Fort Crawford. David Lowey, a Presbyterian minister who had been appointed teacher for the Winnebagoes by President Andrew Jackson, opened the school in the spring of 1835 with his wife as his assistant.
The removal of the "Winnebagoes from western Wisconsin and eastern Iowa to their new home in the Neutral Ground resulted in the abandonment of the school on Yellow River in 1840.
White's Manual Labor Institute - Iowa was the 3rd Indian School, which also did not last long. The school had many iterations, moves, and boon and bust times. It was not an exclusive Indian boarding school.
I didn't like Iowa at all. I have no reasonable explanation; I just felt bad juju the whole time. Blood Run National Historic Landmark, a sacred site and ancestral lands of Indigenous people that existed in the area for thousands of years and Iowa has done little to preserve this site. It was stated that "Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources is working on a study to develop a park." At my visit= nothing. AND...the most of the casino's are owned by white folks (4 out of 24 Indigenous owned), specifically one white family, the Kehls are major owners (with their Elite Casino Resorts- I wonder if BIPOC folk are welcome?).
So that concluded my summer pilgrimage of 2025. Some parting factiods or found-outs:
- Beginning in 1869, the federal government sought to reduce corruption in the reservation system by assigning religious groups to oversee the appointment of Indian agents and by creating the Board of Indian Commissioners, a nonpartisan group responsible for distributing Indian funds. And thus began the era of disease, war, and forced assimilation for Indigenous children.
- Indigenous people were not considered citizens until 1924 and were routinely disenfranchised through various schemes.
- For 150 years, the United States government sent Native American children to remote boarding schools as part of a systematic effort to seize tribal lands and eradicate culture. Dozens of these schools were run by the Catholic Church or its affiliates. A Washington Post investigation revealed widespread sexual abuse of generations of these children at many institutions.
- In 1928, the Brookings Institution released The Problem of Indian Administration, popularly known as the Meriam Report. The document was highly critical of the bureau's boarding schools, particularly for educating young Indian children, and recommended that curricula be adapted to suit local conditions and include the introduction of American Indian culture. Some boarding schools were closed over the years due to their high cost of operation, questions about their effectiveness, parental opposition, and greater reliance on public schooling, but those that remained open faced a larger pool of potential students.
- In 1945 the most ugly, nasty, discriminatory, and racist comments expressed by white/Anglo Alaskan Senator Allen Shattuck made history. Shattuck bemoaned the notion of equality among whites and Alaska Natives: "The races should be kept further apart. Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?"
- In 1978, Congress passed and President Jimmy Carter signed the Indian Child Welfare Act, giving American Indian parents the legal right to refuse their child's placement in a school. Damning evidence related to years of abuses of students in off-reservation boarding schools contributed to the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Congress approved this act after hearing testimony about life in Indian boarding schools.
- Nearly 83% of Native American school-age children attended boarding school in 1926;1969 Nationally, still almost 35,000 children in 77 boarding schools; 2023 approximately 9,500 children in boarding schools.
I leave you with a tough-to-watch (for me) clip from a 2008 documentary, "Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School":Our Spirits Don't Speak English
And they want that acknowledgment. They want that face-to-face acknowledgment, not on a piece of paper. They want that face-to-face acknowledgment that they were wronged by the U.S. government.
I am not an Indigenous person, nor am I a Quaker, but I do strongly believe in what Quaker and Civil Rights Activist Bayard Rustin made famous= "Speaking Truth to Power."
I am an ally to the courageous folks who challenge authority by speaking honest, often uncomfortable, truths to those in charge, demanding accountability and change. As an ally, I went on my pilgrimage to Indian Boarding Schools to bear witness, learn more about, and try to understand what our country did to the Indigenous children of our nation. I came home with lots going on in my head. Six months later, and seven blog posts written, and I still feel unsettled about conflict history. I always do. I always will. The most I can do is say, "I am sorry," and send intentional juju up to the universe in hopes that we as human beings can do better going forward.
The final word
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