Sac and Fox Boarding School

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Sac and Fox Boarding School
Opened 1872
Alternate Names



History[edit]

The Sac and Fox Indian Boarding School, begun by Quaker missionaries in 1872, was located on the eastern edge of the reserve land and many Sac and Fox children were forced to attend. A number of Sac and Fox elders remember the government sheriffs' coming to their villages to "catch" children, load them into wagons and take them to the Sac and Fox School and a number of other Indian Schools as far away as Pennsylvania. There they were forced to learn English and were often punished for speaking their active Indian lanuage.

"Many wagon loads of nearly 100 children are expected to attend the Sac and Fox Mission School," reported a Stroud newspaper in September of 1901.

The first school building was a handsome three-story brick structure, built at a cost to the tribe of $9500. Other school buildings included a girls' dormitory, boys' dormitory, a laundry, a large barn, and a water tower and sewer system.