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

 Along the West side of the Missouri River

After crossing the Mighty Missouri I was still in South Dakota and I had a few more Indian Boarding Schools to check out. So I made my way over to another Fort.

https://youtu.be/zvjFgIU8ffg?si=QW5dmBdiBISxpxFX

Dakota Life: Greetings from Fort Thompson

This show does a nice job showcasing some of the features of this place. 

South Dakota has an extensive military history with at least a dozen forts being established in the territory throughout the 1800’s. The fortifications were built mainly along the Missouri River where riverboat traffic was used extensively to move cavalry troops into Dakota Territory. The fort lasted but a few short years in 1864-1867, but sadly the name has stuck. There is so much history of and on the land besides this military stuff. This land is Crow Creek Sioux Reservation land. Fort Thompson serves as tribal headquarters; the alternate name for the place is Crow Agency. The history is dark and includes as has already been mentioned, post-Dakota Wars efforts of herding, moving, disenfranchising, and assimilating Indigenous people. Established in 1863, the Agency covers approximately 300,000 acres and has an estimated tribal enrollment of 3,500 members. The Lakota name is 'Kȟaŋğí Wakpá Oyáŋke'. The people of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe are mostly descendants of the Mdewakanton Dakota Tribe of south and central Minnesota, who had to settle on the reservation after escape or exile from Minnesota following the Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota. Some Yankton and lower Yanktonai Dakota also reside on the reservation. About 1,200 people live in Fort Thompson.

The land is covered with wild grasslands, prairie hills, and is famous for its archaeologically known large burial mound  complex.

The mounds stretch six miles along the Missouri River and artifacts have been found as well as a mass grave of 486 people. There has been much looting of mounds all over the America's, and this place is no different. The difference being that the 486 graves showed signs of warfare and so this circa 14th century site hs been labeled a massacre site. 

But I digress. Back to Indian Boarding Schools. The one for this area was called Immaculate Conception Mission School. Fort Thompson also is known as Stephan. in this place, missionaries and religious people came to be. 

The town circa late 19th century. Immaculate Conception Indian Mission was a boarding school on Crow Creek Reservation. It was established in 1886, under the auspices of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions. The government granted 160 acres for the school. For the students approved by the Government, the Mission School received $27.00 quarterly in compensation for clothing, food, lodging, medicine, care, and instruction. Food and clothing annuities that were distributed to the Indian Families were given to the school while the children were at the Mission.


Life of the Mission in the early days was extremely primitive. Nearby dams and creeks served as bathtubs, when the weather permitted. Water carried from the artesian well. Some grim history: On January 12, 1888, during the great blizzard, Sister Wilhelmina, a Benedictine, froze to death. She was going from the laundry towards the dining room, but lost her way. Her body was found kneeling against a fence not 100 feet from the house.

This mission buildings picture is from 1931. This area was prone to tornado's + the mission buildings were damaged on more than one occasion. Water supply issues were also experienced. There were also numerous fires.

 By 1938 there were 17 Benedictine Sisters were stationed at the Mission.

In March of 1970, the Benedictine monks of Marvin, South Dakota, announced their plans to turn over in total the four mission schools they were operating on the various reservations of the Dakotas to the Indian people themselves.

For the 1970-71 school year the school building at Stephan was leased to the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux Tribes at a fee of $1.00 a year, so they could start getting experience in operating a school. A school board was elected with members from both reservations. The school was no longer a Catholic Institution, once the tribes started to operate it, thus they were able to get Federal Funds.


In the 1971 and 1972 school year the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe took over the sole operation of the school. The name was changed to Crow Creek Reservation High School.

In the 1972-73 school year, the Tribe was given control of the dormitories which have been staffed with area Indian people.

Current news: The Crow Creek Tribal School system in Stephan, S.D., shown on Feb. 7, 2025, has 22 international teachers on its staff and has eliminated its shortage of certified teachers as a result.

Semi-current news:

 Reporter’s Notebook: Telling the tale of one boarding school 5/2024

‘They’re ready to go home’: Few answers at school gravesite 11/2024

One year after the discovery on Nov. 9, Immaculate Conception Mission School survivors from North Dakota and South Dakota gathered in Stephan, S.D., alongside Crow Creek citizens to honor the children who died at the school and share their own stories.

In near-freezing temperatures and drizzling rain, elders and youth gathered at the newly discovered gravesite fenced off near the intersection of BIA-23 and Crow Cr Creek Loop.

From Reporter's Notebook:

       From 1887 to 1975, more than 1,000 children were taken, many by force, to the Immaculate Conception Boarding School. While many students came from the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux tribes, children were taken from tribes across South Dakota and even as far as Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, North Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

The 2nd report has some disturbing news and first person accounts of abuse. Hard stuff to read, digest, and imagine. 

For many students, school life was completely different than dorm life. While the school provided a good education, the dorms were a place of work, fear and sexual and physical abuse.

The discovery of the 38 graves isn’t the first time the school has discovered unmarked graves, Lengkeek said.

In 2011 during the construction of the Crow Creek Tribal School, Lengkeek said three child-size caskets and bone fragments were found under the grounds that formerly belonged to Immaculate Conception.

I didn't stay long here either. It felt like a sad town to me. Or the history at the old school and the bad juju of the struggle to get answers about the found graves weighed heavy on me.

I was flummoxed that despite all this, there is now a new complex of new school buildings and a new name: Crow Tribal Boarding School. Yup, it is still continuing to this day, only now it is tribal run.

Here are a few pages of the 20 page packet that is a part of the application process:

It was quiet in this small town, I didn't see any people, and honestly, I was glad. I was so curious, but I knew I had to be mindful of how emotional the issue of finding 38 unmarked graves or even that people were speaking up about painful history; I just made like the wind and drove on.

And yet and still, the Mighty Muddy continued to be my guide as I drove to the next school.