Charlevoix county herald., 1916-05-12
INDIANS TRAINED
TO FORGET TRAITS
500 RED CHILDREN BEING TRAIN.
ED IN WAYS OF WHITES BY
GOVERNMENT
ARE SUPPORTED BY CONGRESS
Every Public Convenience Maintained
In School at chiloeco, Ok.

In School at chiloeco, Ok.
Chilocco, Ok.-At Chilocco. Ok, the
government is endeavoring to effaCe
from the minds of Indian boys and
girls all memory of their ancestors
primal traits. This work has been in
progress since January, 1884.
The school is known as the United
States Indian school and was founded
for the use of Indian children born
to members of the five civilized tribes.
Congressional appropriations support
the school, which has become pub
lie school for all Indian children. No
tribal funds are diverted to support
the institution, and although children
tribes were not eligible as students
at the time the school was founded, no
Indian children are now barred be-
cause of their tribal membership.
Practically every Indian tribe in the
United States is now represented at
the school, the Oklahoma Indians
forming the majority of the students,
and the Cherokees predominant.
Chilocco, of about 500 inhabitants,
is isolated on tract of land embrac.
ing s,640 acres owned by the govern
ment and Immediately south of the
Oklahoma Kansas boundary line. The
land is within Kay county.
When visitor leaves the train at
Chilocco he looks toward the west
and there sees the only evidence OF
habitation. The group OF buildings
comprising the Chilocco Indian school
is silhouetted on the horizon, about
one and one half miles distant, though
because of several long swales in the
road leading to the school the distance
is very deceptive.
The principle buildings constructed
of yellow limestone, stand on a tree
less and wind swept prairie. With the
exception of the trees around the
group of buildings, there is scarcely
tree to greet the eye at Chilocco.
The trees on the campus have the APP
pearance of having been grown by
man.
The landscape artist and the archi-
tect who planned Chilocco Indian
School evidently intended that all
principle buildings composing the
group would be constructed around
quadrangle, but the buildings have
overlooked the quad"
Those in charge of the school live in
hot
and the railroad station. On the walls
of their rooms hang pictures portray
ing much of the old Indian life. On the
walls of the rooms in the dormitories
where the Indian boys and girls live
there is but little to suggest the care.
free life their ancestors lived
Mr.. Schall explained that the policy
IF the government is to keep from tie
eye and ear of the Indian students ev
erything suggestive of the camp life
and the war path. The government
endeavors to bring to the eye and the
ear of the students everything sugges-
tive of civilization.
Apparently those in charge of the
school devote considerable attention
to intoxicating refinement, cheerful
ness and politeness in the minds OF
the students. The Indian students at
Chilocco are not stoics. Their faces
are animated and a smile invariably
greets visitor
There are 535 students in the school
29O being boys. The boys are not CIV
en- military training, but they go thru
a daily exercise re- milling the dis
mounted cavalry drill.
Periodically the boys and girls are
permitted to go to Arkansas City, the
trip days being alternated, the boys
going one Saturday and the girls the
next.
All students have an opportunity to
attend religious services of their own
choosing. The Ministerial Alliance OF
Arkansas City sends a minister to the
school each Sunday, and the priest at
Newkirk visits the school each Sun
day.
There is a strong Y. M. c. A. among
the male student body, and the meet
ings are well attended.
All the buildings are heated by
steam and the residences supplied
with gas from the Blackwell gas field
southwest OF the reservation.
The electric light plant and the wa
terworks system at Chilocco are op-
Grated by students, and the place has
a sewer system.