Haskell Indian Nations University

culture in order to survive. The US government had earlier provided some schools on reservations according to treaties, which were usually administered by religious missions. In the late 19th century, it also began to establish off-reservation boarding schools. Native American children were recruited from a variety of tribes to attend for their education, and were expected to abandon their tribal traditions while there. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded in 1879 in Pennsylvania, became the model for federal immersion programs in education. In 1882 the United States Congress authorized three new boarding schools to be established in Nebraska, Kansas, and Indian Territory (a plan that would cost $150,000), and the Carlisle school was the model for these soon-to-be-constructed institutions, including what became Haskell in Kansas.
When Haskell opened in 1884, it was called "United States Indian Industrial Training School". It had 22 elementary school-age students the first year. Soon boys were taught …