Haskell Cultural Center and Museum Tour

On November 12, in honor of Native American Heritage month, the Racial Justice Ministry arranged a tour of Haskell Cultural Center and Museum and Haskell Indian Nations University.

Haskell began as The United States Indian Industrial Training School established in 1884. Its purpose was to forcibly assimilate children from tribes around the country into “mainstream” America. Children as young as three or four were removed from their families and placed in the school where they were not allowed to learn or speak their native language or practice their native customs. Consequences for not following these rules included denial of adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention, and starting in 1910, incarceration in the school’s jail.

A major shift began in 1933 as Dr. Heny Roe Cloud became the first Native American to be Superintendent of Haskell Institute. He was the first Native American graduate of Yale University and led a shift in culture from assimilation, poor conditions, and punishment to a school that supported and empowered native voices.

Haskell graduated its last high school students in 1968 and became accredited as a junior college in 1970. Then, in 1993, Haskell Indian Junior College became accredited as a University becoming the four year higher education institution it is today.

Haskell Indian Nations University is the only federally funded four year university in the world that provides a tuition free college education to citizens of the 574 federally recognized tribes throughout America today.

Participants on the tour learned about the unsettling history of the Indian Boarding Schools programs and how Native people from around the country helped to turn the school from a place of oppression to a place of opportunity for Native students across the country.