Flandreau Indian School (FIS), previously Flandreau Indian Vocational High School, is an

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

for Native American children (primarily

Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...

) in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Moody County, South Dakota Moody County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota, United States. The population was 6,336 at the 2020 census. Its county seat is Flandreau. The county is named for Gideon C. Moody. Geography Moody County lies on the east side of So ...

, adjacent to Flandreau. It is operated by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and is off-reservation. It is one of four such off-reservation boarding schools directly operated by the BIE. It offers grades 9-12. Established in 1872 as a Presbyterian mission school, it is the oldest continuously operating

Indian boarding school American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid 17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Na ...

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History

The

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

established this as a

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

school in 1872, serving grades 1-6. The federal government took over operations in 1877 and opened dormitories in 1892 for boarding students. High school classes were later added. In the 1940s the Lakota campaigned to close the school but it did not succeed. Since the mid-20th century, public school districts and tribally controlled schools have provided education to more Native American students. BIE funding decreased for this and similar schools after a change of rules in 2004. Many facilities were closed and staff were laid off. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, such federal boarding schools were intended to assimilate Native American students into the dominant Anglo-American culture: teaching English, Christianity, and European American culture.
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By the early 21st century, many federal schools had become centers of second chances, assisting students who were orphaned, had learning problems, or difficult home lives.

Admissions

It is open to children who are members of

federally recognized tribes This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

. In 2002 the school admitted 95% of applicants. Those who were not admitted were generally limited to children with disabilities which the school could not accommodate.

Operations

The federal government covers the cost of classes, room and board for students. This is part of its treaty obligations related to establishing the reservations and peace after the Indian Wars.

Student body

In 1972 there were about 600 students. In 2002 there were 370 students. In 2002 most students attending Flandreau were seeking environments more stable than those at home. Some are legacy students, with a history of other family members having attended. A third group seek a new environment for the "adventure", as Matt Baney of the ''

Argus Leader The ''Argus Leader'' is the daily newspaper of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Owned by Gannett, it was the state's largest newspaper by total circulation until 2021 when it was surpassed by the ''Rapid City Journal'', according to statistics from t ...

'' reports. In 2015 Flandreau School had 279 students; while the majority were from South Dakota, there were 34 from Nebraska and 7 from Iowa.

Athletics

The athletic teams are called the Indians. Erin Grace of the ''

Omaha World-Herald The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ch ...

'' wrote in 2015 that "It is a word used gingerly around here." In 1989 the school was in South Dakota athletics class AA. It did not have an American football team. That year it requested to be in class A.
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References

External links

Flandreau Indian School
Public high schools in South Dakota Boarding schools in South Dakota Native American boarding schools Moody County, South Dakota Native American history of South Dakota {{coord, 44.0611, -96.5929, type:edu_region:US-SD, display=title