Stewart Indian School: A Legacy of Assimilation, Resilience, and Remembrance
The Stewart Indian School, which operated from 1890 to 1980, stands as a complex symbol in the history of Native Americans in the United States. Located southeast of Carson City, Nevada, it served as an Indian boarding school for children from Great Basin tribes and, eventually, for students from over 200 tribes across the West and Southwest. The school was part of a broader federal government policy aimed at assimilating Native American children into American society, a policy that had profound and lasting impacts on generations of American Indians. Today, the Stewart Indian School Living Legacy preserves their stories and cultural legacy - Never to be Forgotten.
The Assimilation Era: Eradicating Native Culture
The initial mission of the Stewart Indian School was rooted in the federal government’s assimilation policy. This policy sought to eradicate Native culture by removing children from their families and communities. The goal was to teach them English and vocational skills, thereby integrating them into mainstream American society.
During the early years, children were often forcibly removed from their homes. Upon arrival at the school, they were subjected to strict rules and harsh discipline. Students were required to cut their hair, don uniforms, and abandon their traditional attire. Speaking their native languages was forbidden, and they were compelled to adopt English as their primary language. These measures were intended to strip away their cultural identity and replace it with American customs and values.
Aletha Thom, a former student, recounted her experience upon arriving at the school: “I was 12 years old when I first arrived… It was very scary my first night at the little girls’ dormitory. The first thing that they told me was to go to the shower-they called it the lavatory. I was an Indian little girl from Moapa, not knowing what a lavatory is. My first word I learned here at the school was lavatory… they gave me a number. My number was number 2.”
The daily life of students at the Stewart Indian School involved a rigorous schedule of academic instruction and manual labor. They spent half the day learning academics, including how to read and write English. The remainder of the day was focused on unpaid labor. Boys performed woodworking, ranching and farming, painting, mechanics, and carpentry. Girls performed domestic skills in baking, cooking, sewing, laundry, and practical nursing. The school depended on the unpaid labor of the students to keep it open. They worked many hard hours washing clothes, cooking, farming, and other manual labor necessary to keep the school operating.
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This forced assimilation was not intended to welcome students into society with open arms, but rather to create a servant class for white settlers, while also working to destroy native culture.
A Shift in Policy: The Indian New Deal
In the 1930s, federal policies towards Native Americans began to shift. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, also known as the Wheeler-Howard Act, marked a turning point. This legislation aimed to increase Native American self-determination and self-governance.
With these changing policies, the Stewart Indian School also evolved. Students willingly attended to be educated.
Frederick Snyder, who served as superintendent from 1919 to 1934, played a significant role in transforming the school. He improved the grounds, creating an architectural and horticultural showplace. Snyder brought Hopi stonemasons from Arizona to teach the students stonemasonry. The students built all 65 stone buildings on the campus, as well as the historic Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe, along with many other buildings within the region.
Alida Cynthia Bowler succeeded Snyder and embraced the reforms of the Indian Reorganization Act. She also served as Indian Agent for most of Nevada and worked to empower tribal councils.
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The Stewart Experience: Varied Perspectives
The experiences of students at the Stewart Indian School were diverse and complex. While many endured hardship and trauma, others found opportunities for education, skill development, and community.
Ron Lewis of the Pima Tribe, a graduate of the class of 1978, had a different perspective on his time at the school. “I really enjoyed my time living here and got to learn how to wash, make my bed-I got to watch TV for the first time in my life… I was poor, and I don’t take a lot of things for granted, same with how I grew up.” Ron learned diesel mechanics and, in his senior year, he studied operating classes.
Aletha Thom also shared a story of a year during which the alumni had a barbecue at the school. She met a woman who had graduated around 1975. “I asked her, ‘Did you like it here?’ She said ‘I loved it here.’ I’d never heard anyone say they’d loved it before. I wondered, why did she love it? She said, ‘Well, I had three meals a day. I got to sleep in my own bed. I had my own dresser, my own everything here, and I even made friends. Because at home, I didn’t have that. Me and my siblings had to sleep on the floor. We didn’t have any food, because my mom and my dad were alcoholics. They spent all our money on alcohol, and sometimes we starved.’ I did not realize that some children could grow up in that kind of atmosphere, but it’s true, even on my reservation.”
These varied perspectives highlight the complexity of the Stewart Indian School’s legacy. While the school was undoubtedly a tool of assimilation, it also provided some students with opportunities they might not have otherwise had.
Closure and Remembrance: The Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum
In 1980, the Stewart Indian School closed its doors due to federal budget cuts and earthquake safety issues with the masonry buildings. However, the school’s legacy lived on through its alumni and their families.
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In 1985, the school was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2020, the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum opened in the former administrative building at the front of the campus. The museum is dedicated to the memories of the first Stewart students from Great Basin tribes in 1890, and all students and their families who were impacted by the Stewart experience.
The mission of the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum is to tell the stories of the thousands of American Indian children from western tribes who were educated at Stewart. These stories tell of a complex past that changed the course of generations of these children. The countless stories of hardship, resilience, strength, and triumph are at the core of the current efforts to preserve the Stewart campus and are illustrated in the exhibits at the museum. In addition to sharing Stewart’s history, the museum is a place of living heritage through exhibits of contemporary Native art, storytelling, arts and crafts demonstrations, lectures, public programming, and educational activities. The museum serves as a research facility for Stewart students, staff, faculty, alumni, and the general public. This museum is not a museum in the Western sense, but a gathering place for Stewart alumni and their families.
The center features a storytelling room for craft making, the Wa-Pai-Shone Gallery of Great Basin Native contemporary art, a research room, and a permanent exhibition about the history of the school. The exhibits use quotations from oral history interviews with Stewart alumni to illustrate how every student’s experience was different. Touch screens share the students’ words and voices, so visitors engage on an aural level as well as visual.
The museum is designed so visitors encounter panels on the invasion of the Americas, genocide, and the repeated efforts to destroy Indigenous cultures immediately upon entering the main exhibit area. Before leaving the main exhibit space, visitors encounter a panel emphasizing the failure of assimilation programs at boarding schools, and the survival of Indigenous languages and cultures. They are also reminded of the sovereignty and resiliency of American Indians, as well as their resolve to heal from the brutal impacts of the boarding school system.
Today, the campus is a 110-acre National Historic District that is home to over 65 historic buildings comprising the former Stewart Indian School and is owned by the State of Nevada. In 2009, the Stewart Indian School landscape preservation plan was developed and proposes a wide variety of campus landscape features, including selective building grounds reconstructions, pavement restoration and reconstruction, preservation of key landscape features, inclusion of landscape and campus interpretation, and restoring and reconstructing athletic fields. In 2015, the Nevada State Legislature passed a bill designating the State of Nevada Indian Commission as the coordinating agency for activities and uses of the buildings and grounds of the School. In 2018, the Nevada Indian Commission developed a Master Plan for the Stewart Indian School campus.
A Place of Healing and Cultural Celebration
In addition to the Stewart Indian School and the Cultural Center and Museum, many cultural events celebrating the American Indian heritage, history and pride are held in Carson City throughout the year. Since 1990, the Stewart Indian School grounds have hosted an exciting, weekend-long cultural celebration.
The Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum is dedicated to the memories of the first Stewart students from Great Basin tribes in 1890, and all students and their families who were impacted by the Stewart experience. The vision of the museum is to serve as a steward of living American Indian materials and traditions.
The Stewart Indian School changed the course of generations of American Indians. For more than 90 years American Indian children were removed from their homelands, family and culture with profound impacts on their lives. The Stewart Indian School Living Legacy preserves their stories and cultural legacy - Never to be Forgotten.
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