Students shortly after arriving to boarding school.
One of the worst ideas about how to best solve the so called 'indian problem' authorized the seperation of indian families. Boarding schools limitied and often times denied children's visits to their own communities and to see their own families. Officials thought that this would hinder the work of assimilation or that students would lapse into their former lifestyles. Because of this students were expected to stay at school, even during summer vacations. This often meant they would stay for four years or more at the boarding school.
The most common difficulty experienced at school was homesickness. From 1879 through the late 1930's, thousands of Ojibwe, Dakota, Menominee, Oneida, and other tribal children from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas traveled far away to receive a government education. When Flandreau in South Dakota and Haskell in Lawrene Kansas opened, they became popular destinations of students from these tribes. Although most children sent to boarding schools were around 12 or older, some cases children were as young as 5 years old. Children felt lonely and isolated when they arrived and many continued to be homesick during their lenghty terms of study. This policy didn't really change until Jon Collier became Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1933. Upon this, children were actually encouraged to spend summer vacations with their families.
Prior to the late 1920's students at Flandreau and Haskell were strongly discouraged from visiting their families. When there were cases of extreme hardship such as family sickness or tragedy, preapproval was requested of an Indian agent or local reservation superintendent before children were able to return home. Eventually, Indian parents learned how to somewhat work the system and made their requests accordingly. ot all requests were aloud and there were many turned down. Numerous complaints were written to Indian Affairs and often left unanswered.
Although the lonesomeness of parents and children was overwhelming, parents still knew the importance of education or learning a trade for their childrens future and just basically dealt with it and expressed their desire for succes in school and wished to keep them thier 'as much as they could stand it'.
Teacher and student at a boarding school in MN.
I couldn't possibly imagine not being allowed to go home for summer vacations. It's a little extreme for a child to be away from their family for such a long period of time. I know I get homesick after being away from home for a week! The children in my book lived somewhat close to home. They were allowed to go home during holidays and throughout the summer months, but it all depended on if their family could afford the journey or have transportation to pick them up.
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