Cantonment Indian Boarding School

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Originally built by the Mennonite Church sometime before 1888 (when a new building was constructed after complaints by the Cheyenne) upon 3,800 acres of land in rural Oklahoma, this land belonging to the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes was reduced to 800 acres by the U.S. Government by 1913. Rev. D. B. Herschler was Superintendent in 1888. Schooling was conducted 10 months out of the year, with an attendance of 61 pupils on record in March of 1888. Great emphasis was paid to teaching the Christian faith, as well as "labor with their hands". Children taught not to hunt or gather, but rather to garden, farm, and take care of stock. Girls were taught kitchen work and sewing instead of weaving. Native languages were banned from use, making English the only acceptable language. Consumption (or Tuberculosis) seems to also have been a problem at this particular boarding school, with confirmed reports of multiple children dying from the disease on several occasions. native.jpg