1890: The Stewart Indian School Opens

Stewart Indian School, Circa 1901Credit: Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum

Stewart Indian School, Circa 1901

Credit: Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum

When and why did the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) decide to build an off-reservation boarding school in Nevada? The answers to these questions are connected with the influx of settlers to the Nevada Territory in the 1850s and after statehood in 1864, the sheer size of the state, and the diffuse nature of Indigenous settlements throughout the region. Ultimately, OIA officials believed an off-reservation boarding school would be the best way of rapidly assimilating Native children in Nevada, thereby ensuring that Indigenous lands would be open for non-Native settlement.

Beginning in the 1850s, a surge of settlers into the Great Basin region dramatically disrupted the lives of its Indigenous inhabitants. Settlers traveled to the Nevada Territory after the discovery of gold, silver, and ore in the 1850s and 1860s, and to mine copper and coal in the 1870s and 1880s. As settlers moved West, they also sought control of Shoshone, Paiute, and Washoe lands, to live on, farm, and exploit for their natural resources.

To aid settlers, the federal government established three reservations in Nevada during the 1870s: the Pyramid Lake Reservation in Western Nevada, the Walker River Reservation in central Nevada, both of which were established in 1874, and the Western Shoshone Reservation (now known as the Duck Valley Reservation), which straddles the Nevada-Idaho border, in 1877. Northern Paiutes were forced from Western Nevada into Shoshone territory in the center of the state, while some Western Shoshone were forced to move north. Citizens of the Washoe nation were not forced onto reservations, though some established encampments near settler towns. Southern Paiutes were given allotments on land poorly suited for farming, which made it difficult for families to survive.

Pyramid Lake, NevadaCredit: Wikimedia Commons

Pyramid Lake, Nevada

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Each of these reservations maintained schools for Native children. In 1885, the OIA opened a boarding school on the Pyramid Lake Reservation. Students attended and lived on school grounds during the school year, and remained in contact with family members who lived on the reservation. The school quickly filled to capacity, leaving many potential students without access to a nearby school. To remedy this problem, local OIA officials decided, without consulting Native parents, to send older children who had reached a certain level of proficiency out of state to other on- and off-reservation boarding schools where they could continue their educations. Native parents were incensed at this decision, and OIA officials described the students who were sent out of state as deeply distressed as a result of this separation.

The local Indian Agent, William D.C. Gibson, who later became Stewart’s first superintendent, recommended that an off-reservation boarding school be established in Carson City or elsewhere in Nevada, in part to ease the concerns of Native parents, who supported their children’s’ educations, but not their transfer to distant locations. Gibson’s primary motivation, however, was his belief that assimilating and “civilizing” Native children in Nevada was critical to settling the state and resolving Nevada’s “Indian problem.” The example set by the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and its creator Richard Henry Pratt (see this previous blog post) was the model for the off-reservation boarding school established in Nevada.

Nevada state officials agreed with Gibson. In 1887, the Nevada State Legislature approved the construction of an off-reservation Indian boarding school in Carson City, located just across the border from California and fourteen miles east of Lake Tahoe, and provided the land on which the school was built. The school was named after William Morris Stewart, a Republican Congressman from Nevada who secured federal funding for the school.

Carson City, Nevada, 1866Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Carson City, Nevada, 1866

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Stewart Indian School opened on December 17, 1890, with 37 Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe students enrolled. These students were collected by school officials who traveled to Indigenous settlements throughout the state. Some parents allowed their children go to Stewart, while others were taken by force. By the end of the school year, Superintendent Gibson reported that 105 pupils, five over its 100-person capacity, had attended Stewart during its first year. He envisioned doubling or even tripling that number as the school expanded and its reach increased.

So how did things go during Stewart’s first few years? Often not as administrators had planned. In January 1891, an outbreak of mumps infected nearly ninety percent of the student body. Students ran away and parents removed their children from the school, fearing for their health and safety. Similar problems occurred in later years, when the school was plagued with outbreaks of smallpox, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. Further, students did not behave as administrators expected them to, and frequently ran away in response to disciplinary actions undertaken by school officials.

Stewart Indian School students, in uniform, circa 1905.Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Stewart Indian School students, in uniform, circa 1905.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Parents aided their children’s escape in some cases, and then hid their children from OIA officials who went in search of them. Parents, many of whom saw the value in their children’s education but wanted input regarding school policies, protested Stewart officials’ efforts to extent the school year and consistently maintained a presence near and at the school, despite federal rules against such behavior. These patterns set the tone for interactions between students, their families, and school officials throughout the period the Stewart Indian School remained open, and consistently forced Stewart officials to reconsider school policies and negotiate with Native families.

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Samantha WilliamsComment