Indiana school days: Native American education at St. Joseph's Indian Normal School and White's Manual Labor Institute

Abstract

Two boarding schools existed in the state of Indiana to educate Native American children between the ages of six and eighteen. Both schools received a government contract to teach native students which provided the institutions with money for each student they enrolled. St. Joseph’s Indian Normal School in Rensselaer operated from 1888 to 1896. White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute in Wabash educated Native American children as part of a government contract from 1882 until 1895. These two schools were not the only institutions to educate Native American students in Indiana. However, they are the only boarding schools referenced in the literature on native tribes in Indiana and the only institutions I have found referenced which participated in a government contract to educate native children. This thesis will study both institutions during the period of their government contracts from 1882 until 1896.