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Native American Boarding Schools in Montana
Towards the end of the 19th century, Native American tribes had been mostly confined to reservations. Their nomadic lifestyle had been curtailed, and they found themselves living a difficult existence. Food was scarce, and poverty was rampant. To further erode the Native lifestyle, the government, in conjunction with religious organizations, developed the concept of Indian boarding schools. The first of these opened in Carlisle, PA in 1879. The concept was the brainchild of Brigadier General Richard Pratt. The essence of the Indian boarding school was cultural assimilation, boiled down in a phrase Pratt coined: "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." To accomplish this, children were taken from their parents and often moved hundreds of miles from their home to live and attend school at a boarding school. Government funding enabled religious schools to function. Every essence of Native culture was stripped from these small children, and they lived difficult lives full of school, prayer, work, punishment, and hunger.
Cultural assimilation is when a minority group or culture comes to resemble the dominant group or culture. European Americans wanted to force Native Americans to assimilate. They attempted this through many ways including imposing new religious views, imposing views of land ownership, and pushing Natives to become farmers and ranchers. These were all drastic changes. Natives had their own religious beliefs, they had very different views of the uses of land, and most Montana tribes did not farm or raise cattle or sheep. European Americans believed the Native way of doing things was inferior and the only course of reasonable action was for the Native Americans to change. Native Americans educated their children in ways that were also considered inferior and Euro-Americans forced Native children into new schools.
Section 1: Native American Children
Section 2: Campus
Section 3: School Life
Discussion Questions
Cultural assimilation is when a minority group or culture comes to resemble the dominant group or culture. European Americans wanted to force Native Americans to assimilate. They attempted this through many ways including imposing new religious views, imposing views of land ownership, and pushing Natives to become farmers and ranchers. These were all drastic changes. Natives had their own religious beliefs, they had very different views of the uses of land, and most Montana tribes did not farm or raise cattle or sheep. European Americans believed the Native way of doing things was inferior and the only course of reasonable action was for the Native Americans to change. Native Americans educated their children in ways that were also considered inferior and Euro-Americans forced Native children into new schools.
Section 1: Native American Children
Section 2: Campus
Section 3: School Life
Discussion Questions
Section 1: Native American Children
Native children left their homes for boarding schools at very young ages. While some parents sent their children to boarding schools freely, children were often forcibly taken. Food was scarce on the reservation, and when parents resisted they might be told they would not get any rations or help from the government. Some parents willingly sent their children believing they would be well fed and cared for. Unfortunately, children were not always treated well. Many were abused, underfed, and forced to perform manual labor in difficult conditions. Many suffered from illness and never recovered.
Children were separated from their families and taken to a campus that would become their new home. They were not allowed to wear their own clothes. They were forbidden to speak their own language. Their hair was cut short, particularly the boys. They often had to pick an English name and could not use their given name. The Mission schools included religious education as part of the normal routine.
They lived hard, lonely lives, isolated from their families. Visits were discouraged and letters were the only regular form of connection. These children were trapped between two worlds - cut off from their Native homes, and not truly welcomed or accepted into the American culture being forced upon them.
Due to the emphasis on work at boarding schools, the children did not attain high levels of education. Most stayed at the schools between 4 and 10 years. Many children eventually returned home to the reservations, with mixed results. Some found the welcoming embrace of family, while others felt lost and out of place, having forgotten their birth culture and language. The skills taught to the children at the boarding schools had little use on the reservation.
Four children [family encampment]
Four young girls stand in front of a tipi. Probably in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana.
Antoine E-lum-ski-em and family
Indian family, Antoine E-lum-ski-em in a roached headdress, two women in typical costume, two children standing in front of Antoine. One woman holding an infant in a decorated cradleboard.
Indian family
A picture of an unidentified Indian family, likely on the Rocky Boy Reservation, Montana. A woman and six children stand in front of a tipi. Library note: The family is identified in a Montana Historical Society photo in MMP as the Smallboy family. The boy in the front row on the right side of the photo wearing decorative leggings is Robert Smallboy (Bobtail).
Two Flathead children
Two Flathead children outside of a teepee between two log buildings. Likely in the Mission or Jocko Valley area of Montana.
Section 2: Campus
The formal program of boarding schools began in Pennsylvania in 1879, but church missionaries had a presence in Native lands well before that. The Sisters of Providence Mission was founded on the Flathead Indian Reservation 1864. Boarding schools were operated by Christian missionaries, often with limited funding provided by the government.
Children slept in dormitories. These were designed like military barracks, and were generally overcrowded. Food and hygiene were poor, often resulting in sickness and even death.
St. Ignatius Church and Boys' School
Saint Ignatius Church and Boys' School, Saint Ignatius, Montana. Library note: This is likely the academy established by the Ursalines after fire destroyed the original Jesuit/Sisters of Providence school in 1919. The Ursalines operated the school until 1972.
Mission School, Saint Ignatius
Saint Ignatius Mission School, front view, Saint Ignatius, Montana, circa 1910.
Saint Paul's Mission School near Hays, Montana
Overview of school buildings of St. Paul's Mission School near Hays Montana on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.
St. Paul's Mission
Six boys, possibly Gros Ventre or Assiniboine Indians, and two men, possibly priests, standing on the steps at the entrance to a large, four-story stone building at St. Paul's Catholic Mission school for Indian children on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation at Hays, Montana. Another building, two-story with a railing, and a fence are in the distance. Bud Lake identified the photographer as Father Prando.
Pryor Dorm
Children in uniforms in front of boarding school at Crow Agency, Pryor, Montana 1899. Smithsonian Institution Notes: Negative 56281, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Original (?) number 12 (penciled on reverse of one of three identical original prints - University of Montana, Museum and Northwestern Historical Collection, copy negative numbers 54-579B and 54-579C. Handwritten in pencil on reverse of one original print and black ink on face of one original print, 'Pryor Boarding School.' One of the original prints was a sepia print (54-579B); the others were not. Identified as 'Pryor Dorm' by Crow Indians through Barney Old Coyote, Spring, 1969.
Dormitory, Cut Bank Boarding School
Dormitory, Cut Bank Boarding School (interior image of bedroom with beds). Montana.
Dormitory, Catholic Mission, Big Horn District
Interior of a dormitory room at the Catholic Mission at Crow Agency, Montana, where children attended boarding school. The room has rows of metal-framed beds with mattresses and pillows, a metal heat stove and stovepipe, wash basins on a wooden stand, and a corner shelf with a bell and lamp. Between 1905-1911.
Section 3: School Life
Children attended classes half the day and worked the other half in jobs designed to train them to be domestic help. Some worked in agricultural fields and barns. Some manufactured simple items such as furniture. Others worked in laundries or performed sewing work. These jobs supported the school, which had limited funding from the church and government.
The following schedule was given for the boarding school in St. Ignatius on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Note how much of the day is dedicated to work, instead of schooling:
5:30 am Wake Up
6:00 am Mass with Rosary and Hymns
Breakfast
Kitchen Work
Sweeping and Other Cleaning Chores
8:45 am Class
11:00 am Work
1:30 pm Class
4:00 pm Work
5:00 pm Recreation or Walking
6:00 pm Study
7:00 pm Catechism
7:30 pm Dinner
8:30 pm Bedtime
For more information see: Montana Tribal Histories: Educators Resource Guide and Companion DVD Developed by Julie Cajune Published by the Montana Office of Public Instruction 2011 Revised 2013 See Chapter 5, Page 84-100
Old Willow Creek Indian School, west of Browning
Old Willow Creek Indian School, west of Browning, Montana. Students and teacher pose in classroom, 1898.
Crow Indian girls at boarding school
Crow Indian girls at boarding school in winter. Group of girls in dark coats make snowmen. Buildings are visible in the background. Circa 1907-1914
Mrs. Matson's large class, Cut Bank
Mrs. Matson's large class, Cut Bank Boarding School (students seated in benches in classroom). Montana.
Mrs. Matson's small class, Cut Bank
Mrs. Matson's small class, Cut Bank Boarding School (students seated in benches in classroom. Chalkboard has drawing of fireplace with stockings and the words: A Merry Christmas). Montana
Mrs. Matson's large class, Cut Bank
Mrs. Matson's large class, Cut Bank Boarding School (students seated in benches in classroom. Chalkboard has drawing of fireplace with stockings and the words: A Merry Christmas). Montana.
Mrs. Matson's small class, Cut Bank
Mrs. Matson's small class, Cut Bank Boarding School (five students in classroom). Montana.
Little girls group
Little girls group, Cut Bank Boarding School. Montana. Nineteen girls pose outdoors.
Large girls group
Large girls group looking west, Cut Bank Boarding School. Montana. Twenty girls pose outdoors near river.
Large girls group
Large girls group looking west, Cut Bank Boarding School. Montana. Twenty girls pose outdoors near river.
Indian school children at Cut Bank Creek
Indian school children at Cut Bank Creek at Owen Heavy Breast's place. White child and adult stand at one side of image, Native American adult stands at the other side of image. Cut Bank, Montana.
Old Willow Creek Indian School, west of Browning
Old Willow Creek Indian School, west of Browning, Montana. Students and teacher pose in classroom, 1898.
St. Labre Indian School girls
View of Indian school girls with two nuns and staff posed beside frame building. Between 1879-1930
Saint Paul's Mission School, Students and Teachers, near Hays, Montana
View of a large group of female Native American students posed with nuns amid rocks and trees at St. Paul's Mission School near Hays, Montana on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Circa 1900.
Saint Paul's Mission School, Students and Teachers, near Hays, Montana
View of a large group of female Native American students posed with nuns amid rocks and trees at St. Paul's Mission School near Hays, Montana, on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Circa 1900.
Crow Indian girls at boarding school
Group of Crow Indian girls standing in front of a brick building at Crow Agency, Montana. The younger girls stand in front holding hands and wearing checkered fabric dresses and lace-up shoes. Older girls stand behind them wearing plaid or striped fabric dresses and lace-up shoes. The older girls have their hands on the shoulders of the younger girls standing in front of them. The younger girls are Annie Wesley, Lottie Grandmother's Knife, Alice Shows As He Goes, Edith Long Ears, and Rose La Forge (married to Charlie Dillon in Carlisle, PA). The older girls are Olive Comes in Day, Addie Bear in the Middle, Hazel Red Wolf, Lois Horse That Sings, Fanny Butterfly, and Victoria Big Shoulders (Jim Big Shoulders' mother).
Discussion Questions
Examine the first group of images of Native American children. How does their traditional clothing differ from the clothing in the school images?
Why were the children forced to wear different clothes, change their names, and not allowed to speak their language?
Are any of these children smiling? Why or why not?
Do you see any personal items in the dorms? Why or why not?
What skills do you see being taught in the images? Why are these skills being taught?
Some of the photos from Mrs. Matson's classroom have evidence that they were taken near Christmas time. How do you suppose these children spent the holiday?
Did the boarding schools produce the desired results?
The pictures in this presentation only represent a few of the boarding schools in the state. Can you name some others?
Some Montana children were sent to other states. Can you name some out of state schools where Montana children were sent?
Additional Teacher Resources
Montana Tribal Histories: Educators Resource Guide
Companion DVD
Playing for the World: The 1904 Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School Girls Basketball Team Model Teaching
Library of Congress Teaching Materials - Boarding Schools
Chapter 4, “Dislocation/Relocation,” of Montana Mosaic: 20th-Century People and Events DVD
Native American Boarding Schools in Montana. Montana History Portal, accessed 05/12/2023, https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/92610
