Kaw Indian Boarding School
| Kaw Indian Boarding School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Opened | 1880 |
| Building Style | [[ ]] |
| Location | near Washunga, OK |
| Alternate Names | * Kaw Indians Training School
|
History[edit]
In 1873 the Kaw Indians were removed from their reservation near Council Grove, KS and forced by the Federal Government to move to Northern Oklahoma, then Indian Territory. The Kaw Tribe Agency was established in Washunga, OK in that same year. Soon after a boarding school was built and opened on the grounds for the assimilation of Kaw children. The building was a four-story structure made of native stone. Other buildings on the site included a dormitory, infirmary, and superintendents home. The superintendents' home later the Kaw Council House, and in later years the building was moved to higher ground and rebuilt stone by stone. It is now listed on the registry of historic places. In 1903, the US Government passed the Dawes Act which abolished the Kaw Reservation and others - the tribe lost all protection against white settlers, a battle they had already been losing.
In 1906 the entire original school building burnt to the ground. Newspaper at the time reported all 40 students and all staff escaping unharmed, but also reports that the structure would probably not be rebuilt because the land had already gone through the allotment process. Students were sent to a day-school for the rest of the school year in 1906. The next year, 1907, the Federal Government mandated Kaw children to attend Chillocco Indian School. However the Kaw Tribe pointed out that their contract with the Federal Government afforded them 7 more years of free schooling on their reservation and not elsewhere, so the government was forced to oblige. In 1964, the Oklahoma Corps of Engineers began the process of preparing the area to be flooded for the construction of Kaw Lake. In 1976, a portion of the already abandoned and them demolished town of Washunga was flooded. Visible now on Google Earth are only slight outlines of some of the streets.
The area now holds Kaw Lake.
