Indian Boarding Schools in the 4 Great Plains States I visited Summer 2025 Part One of several likely

 Forced into Federal Boarding Schools

To quote Deborah Parker, chief executive of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

“There are still so many unknown questions.” (2024)

Sobering Stats.; that’s what I am starting with today, because I have a tendency of doing this. I like data, even if it is ugly. 

Numbers vary as well, especially if you are digging at ugly truths. A lot gets buried in hopes of being forgotten, so the use of “estimates” becomes the data.

It is estimated that between the upper 400’s to over 500 government-funded, often church-run Indian Boarding Schools operated across the US in the 19th + 20th centuries.

A Minnesota-based group has tallied more than 100 additional schools not on the government list that were run by churches and with no evidence of federal support.

Some are still operating in the 21st. 

We don’t learn about them in our history classes in public schools, and it really wasn’t until the dam broke in Canada and all their ugly little secrets about Indian Boarding Schools came out in the 1990’s that we began to talk about the “us too” existence of a dark past. 

A past that includes:

• The Civilization Fund Act of 1819 provided funding for schools to enforce assimilation. 
• I am ashamed to report it was a Massachusetts man, Henry Dawes and the Dawes Act of 1887 that codified Native American assimilation policies into law. This was a devastating act to the Indigenous peoples on their ancestral lands.

This is a break from my journey, but I could not help but throw it in b/c it breaks my heart that this one man could do such harm to so many by misuse of power + being (IMHO) on the wrong side off history

• The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted citizenship, often tied to giving up tribal status.
• House Concurrent Resolution 108 (1953): Initiated the "termination" policy, which aimed to end federal recognition of Native American tribes and subject them to the same state and federal laws as other citizens.
• Indian termination policy: A period of laws and practices designed to assimilate Native Americans by ending federal recognition of tribes, their land, and their sovereignty. This era ran from about 1953 to 1968.

That’s a long time and a lot of laws WASTED in trying to break, belittle, soul + spirit-kill a group of human beings!

What is mind-blowing to me is that religious groups got in on the action. Even the Quakers! How on earth were they justifying this shit?

I can’t put myself at anybody’s table in the 1800’s who signed on to the "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" fiasco. I just can’t. So I had to go check it out.

From the Feds/BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/media_document/vol_ii_appendix_a_list_of_federal_indian_boarding_schools_public_508_final%5B1%5D.pdf

From the Federal List/Bureau of Indian Affairs List:

Minnesota         20 schools

North Dakota    14 schools

South Dakota    32 schools

Iowa                 4 schools

For some history: https://boardingschoolhealing.org/us-indian-boarding-school-history/

I first went to Wahpeton, North Dakota (in video at 5:46)

It is right over the border with Minnesota. I didn't realize how close North Dakota was to Canada until I traveled up here. Also, many of the people I spoke with talk about going back and forth between the two countries/territories in relation to kin. Leonard Peltier is an example of an Indigenous person who spent time (besides almost 50 years imprisoned in federal jails) between schools and countries. Leonard also attended this school from ages 9-12.

The school is still operational, with a name change. It is now also tribally-controlled, so that means instead of the feds, it is affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Sort of like a parallel universe as it was explained to me. The grades are now 4-8.

The school started in 1908, but I am unsure if any of the original buildings remain. This one looked like it was from the 1960's.

This building looked new. It being July, the campus looked deserted. No one to answer my nudgy questions. How do pose a charged question like, "so do you still use harsh discipline here?" There had been reports for years about this school, and it was almost closed down more than once.

Through all the bad press the school stayed open. In the 1990's came the name change and overseeing. Many of the staff were former students and it is alleged the school had changed its ways. As I was to learn throughout this trip= there is good and bad in everything.

For a story on Leonard Peltier's time spent here:

https://inas.uga.edu/news/stories/2022/leonard-peltier-shares-his-indian-boarding-school-story

Are there lost children from the over 100+ year history of a place with such a storied past? Hard to know, but here is a bit of contemporary news:

13-year-old girl found dead at Wahpeton boarding school

This happened in 2018 and I could not find any other information about it.

Now there are students from 18 states and 33 tribes in attendance here, perhaps explaining the street sign.

Bismark North Dakota (the state's capital)

Obviously, these are not my photos; photos are from the state historical society.

As you can see, the buildings were extant in 1952. Something I learned from this pilgrimage was that there is no rhyme or reason to what was and wasn't preserved from the boarding school era. Some began as religious "missions/missionary" schools, others co-run by the government and religious groups.

I knew where these buildings were located, also knew they were still under government control, but from my mapping, I could gander a glimpse if from the road.

What I didn't count on, was construction and road closures, so here is all that I got:

The young man at the guard station was the unfriendliest human I had come across in my journeys. He appeared to be Anglo, had that military stance as he stood by my car, and either feigned or truly was ignorant about 1. history, and 2. Indigenous peoples in his community. He had no clue about Indian Boarding Schools + couldn't/wouldn't tell me if there were surplus or old buildings on the site. He was guarding his little barracks like a good soldier. The land + buildings were deeded to the state by the feds in 1945 for a military reservation + is now known as Fraine Barracks.

Despite having access, I said my mea culpa's, sent up healing juju, and went on my way.

I had done my reading, knew there were a great deal of stories about the place, both oral and documented.

I knew it was originally known as the Mandan School, and I knew there was a small outskirts town named Mandan (about 25k population), so that is where I steered the car to next. I learned some pretty nifty stuff about this place, it's history, and one amazing woman (and her daughter) who worked tirelessly to keep the history of her people alive and documented.

Mandan North Dakota

Let me tell you it was no easy feat to find the information I was seeking. Some person earlier on the pilgrimage told me to look for and follow Route 1806 South as it parallels the Missouri River's journey. I already knew "Water is Life," and it made sense to me (besides I love running waterways). Known as the "Native American Scenic Byway," it was an immensely wondrous sojourn for me. When I inquired in downtown Mandan, I was sort of misguided. Seeing this misappropriated structure that I run into all over this country should have told me something.

This indian head was done by a Hungarian immigrant in the 1980's. There has been criticism of this man's work, including "Claiming the figurine was a composite image of the eight North Dakota tribes, it resembles his other statues with a craggy, Methuselah-ancient look." I 100% agree. Our town had one in Mass, and as a kid I was awed by it; as an adult I am ashamed. This non-indigenous man made 74 of these things, got a lot of publicity for placing them in all 50 states, and I was glad when he stopped making them and finally turned to creating one for his country of origin in the 2000's.

So I was guided to "Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park" as a marker to start my descent down 1806. "Huh?" I said to self. "Why the hell would I want to go to a state park named after a dead white president not from the state on my pilgrimage to learn about Indigenous peoples?" But being curious and knowing I was heading South, I went.

As much as I wanted to dislike this state park, I was instantly changed when I saw the rock. I love the Civilian Conservation Corps and all the work they did during the Great Depression, and was happy they came here too!

The building was gorgeous, the rangers friendly and knowledgeable, and given the lateness of the day, I was thrilled to learn that I had time to visit the hidden treasure that lay across a bridge + a short hike (it was another scorcher day of 95-98 degrees).

I even had time for a quick pose with the CCC dude to make hubby back home jealous. Sorry that I cropped most of the Cottonwood trees to do so.

I was amazed to see that they had concretions similar to the ones we have along our river in Western Mass (we call them mud balls). I was to visit the Cannonball River later as I drove South.

...so off I went. This is the view as you approach. I feel like I became a bit obsessed with looking for and finding mounds as I drove around. Ancient cultures like Cahokia and Mississippian influenced later ones and mound building along the mighty Missouri River was a part of the culture. For over 5,000 years mound building happened! IMHO, this is the ancient history that the United States should be proudly boasting of. If only we hadn't desecrated most of it, and still don't do enough to preserve it (I bet there are way more fake or replicated ghost towns and pioneer villages than Indigenous ones).

This replicated village of the Mandan (yes, same name as the town) people features reconstructed earth lodges and a ceremonial lodge. The original Mandan village, which was a large settlement of earth lodges, was occupied for about 200 years before a smallpox epidemic in 1781 decimated its population.

feds interpretation of place (with a reminder that this 2nd'ary site is a mere sidestop on the larger Lewis + Clark narrative that is being told)

 On October 20, 1804, Clark wrote, “I saw an old remains of a villige on the Side of a hill which the Chief with us Too né tels me that nation lived in a number villages on each Side of the river and the Troubleson Seauex caused them to move about 40 miles higher up where they remained a fiew years & moved to the place they now live”. The site, located near the confluence of the Heart River with the Missouri River, was a former Mandan settlement that has come to be known as On-A-Slant Village. Estimated to have included about 75 earthlodges and perhaps 1,000 residents, the village had likely existed for over 200 years before a 1781 smallpox epidemic decimated the population.

A military post named Fort Abraham Lincoln was established at the site in 1872. It became a base of opera­tions in the U.S. Army’s campaign against the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne nations during 1876 and 1877. The fort was abandoned in 1891, after the completion of the railroad into Montana reduced its strategic importance. Five earthlodges have since been reconstructed on the site of On-A-Slant Village, and interpretive tours offer an introduction to historic Mandan culture. The site retains archeological evidence of the original village.

While there is much written about the military occupations of this site (including Custer's last military post prior to death), there is little about the Indigenous history. The CCC did the work of reconstructing 5 buildings and also marking other buildings on the site. The earth lodges were based on archaeological excavations. There was once about 85 lodges with an estimated population of about 1500. This was an agrarian culture and these were permanent homes. Also, little is written about an Indigenous Mandan woman named Scattered Corn, who helped with the 1930's reconstruction (she had learned how to build and lived in an earth lodge as a child). Sad I couldn't learn more.

This old map posted on the site was pretty much how I was traveling. The Missouri River enchanted me and I really enjoyed this part of my journey. Waterways hold so much history, if I am still and quiet, I feel like they whisper the history to me. It's a definite spiritual history that waterways and I connect around.

It was such an amazing temperature drop that I felt like I could just curl up and sleep in one these lodges for the night. But alas, I only had 30 minutes, so I once again moved it along.

I was thankful for the solitary site visit. I could read all the signs, touch the earth; the whole experience felt meditative.

Not all the lodges were open. So grateful this one was. I immediately spotted the picture of the woman. At this point in my pilgrimage I was a bit frustrated at the lack of literature on Indigenous woman.

It was with amazement that I read about Regina. Her name had already come across my readings on Indian Boarding Schools. Not only did she go to the Mandan/Bismark Indian Boarding School, but she also went to another extant one that I would visit later in my pilgrimage.

How blown away I was to learn more of her story because my initial encounter with her was in relation to a story another former boarding school student was telling. This person was dissing on the "goody two-shoes" girls at the boarding schools who followed all the rules. Yes, this story teller out-and-out named Regina as the prima goody. I so remember relating to the upstart (who spoke of actually fighting with the staff + running away) and saying to myself, "Oh hell no would I have followed those rules!" And her I was actually meeting Regina in a different light. Talk about illumination!

Now I had to know more. I sat in the heat of the scorching day, googling my little swollen hands away as I searched for more on this woman. You know I went straight to burials. If she was big in the Mandan community, then maybe she is buried her. And she was!

An important fact to know about her is that she converted to Catholicism. Another fact is that her husband, Edwin was also from the boarding school system. In fact, Edwin's father had been at the "Infamous Carlisle School" in the late 19th century, and went on to be involved with the promulgation of these schools as staff at many different schools, including Flandreau, where Regina met her future husbnd. (First band instruments were purchased in 1896. The first Stewart band of twenty-one boys assembled in 1896 under the instruction of Edwin Schanandore, an Oneida man educated at Carlisle Indian School who was employed at Stewart.)

History can quickly become complicated. So this woman married another Indigenous person, both of whom had been through the Indian Boarding School experience. If you are wondering like I was, how someone could come out of Carlisle and turn around and replicate the model, here is a bit more on the "Stewart Indian School," which now acts as a museum and says this about the place, "The Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum honors the children who attended the school, tells the truth about their experiences, and helps former students, their families, and their communities to heal."

What Makes the Stewart Indian School Unique

From the above mentioned pdf:

Military Training

 • Following the model of Carlisle in Pennsylvania, Stewart was organized through strict control and regimentation. Students wore stiff wool uniforms and were given numbers and had to line up by their number, marching everywhere. 

• Every moment was regimented by bells and bugle calls. 

• Sergeants were recruited from the student body to maintain order and minimize truancy. 

• The boarding school curriculum taught a sense of Americanism and civic pride. • Many boarding school students chose to go into military service. 

• Over 20-30% of adult Indian males served in WWI, although they were not given US citizenship or the right to vote until 1924.

So there you have it. They were Indian Boarding School people. I can't quite go as far as saying "out and proud," but the history sure does lean that way.

But back to Regina. I turned my car around, went back to Mandan, and found her.

It wasn't an easy search.

No one there excepting this pheasant, who wasn't talking.

Everyone knows how I feel about cemeteries.

I almost gave up, but then there she was with Edwin!

After much searching, I found two sites that give us a glimpse into Regina's live and commitment to her Indigenous roots.

Paragraph about Regina

"Regina Whitman (Mandan and Hidatsa) became Catholic, spoke only English, took up piano, and embraced the domestic arts endorsed by the American         program that called for women to be stay-at-home wives and mothers. Whitman was not punished or strapped. She was, in fact, grateful for her educational experience at the Bismarck Indian Boarding School and moved on to Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota. In Whitman’s latter days when she worked as a historic guide at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park where she interpreted her ancestral Mandan heritage through a lens syncretic with her lifelong Catholic faith.

From her obituary:

Regina was born on Jan. 14, 1919, at Elbowoods, N.D. to Carl and Gertrude (BlueBird) Whitman Sr. She was educated at the Bismarck Indian School and Flandreau Indian High School. In her younger years, she played piano with the Whitman Band where she met her husband. She and Edwin Schanandore were married on Aug. 23, 1938, and lived in Bismarck from 1945, moving to Mandan in 1951. He died on June 25, 1992.

Regina loved music and was a long time organist at St. Joseph's Catholic Church. She was a member of the Court of St. Cecelia Catholic Daughters of America.

She was a columnist for the Mandan News for the past six years writing "From My Lodge to Your Lodge." Since 1993, she worked as the interpreter of the Mandan-Hidatsa Indian culture for the Slant Village at Fort Lincoln State Park. She also did many presentations on the American Indian culture for schools, churches and organizations in the Bismarck-Mandan area. She had appeared in several documentaries and ads for North Dakota tourism featuring Native Americans. Regina volunteered many hours as a liaison between local churches and Native Americans helping the needy.

I included Regina's daughter, not only because she was a Special Educator like me, but because she shared additional important information about her mother which also educated me about the curious mound I found right near the cemetery.

It was a major byway (?highway) with cars whipping by. Not all the lettering was still visible, and the sign said absolutely NOTHING about it, so I had to dig (obviously not literally) and dig, but I found this:

http://www.cryinghill.com/cryinghillmemories.html

I drove away from Mandan crying myself. Thankful for all that I learned, sad for all the suffering in the world, and worried that we are not doing enough to honor, preserve, and acknowledge our true history in this country.

Thank you Monica and Regina