Circle of Nations Wahpeton Indian School, formerly Wahpeton Indian School, is a tribally-controlled grade 4-8 school in Wahpeton, North Dakota. It is affiliated with the

Bureau of Indian Education The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C., and formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Assistant S ...

(BIE). It is not on an

Indian reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...

History

The United States Congress passed a law establishing the school in 1904, with Porter James McCumber of North Dakota championing the law. President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt signed the act into law. The school began taking students in 1908. Its first classes were held in February, and it was controlled by the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

(BIA).GPO-DOI report, PDF p. 7/29. The school previously used harsh discipline that was used in various

Indian boarding schools in the United States 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 ...

. In 1929, area businesspersons investigated the school after receiving reports of starvation. In 1947 the BIA initially was to close the school, but instead kept it open with reduced enrollment. There were plans to close the school in 1985. - Clippings from Newspapers.com: page
4568
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In 1992 U.S. House member Byron Dorgan received reports from a counselor at Wahpeton related to abuse, and Dorgan reported them to the BIA. By 1993 the federal and North Dakota governments investigated matters at the school. In June 1993 it became a tribally controlled school as the Wahpeton Indian School Board, Incorporated assumed ownership of the school, and from that point forward the

(BIE) began providing grants. The school received its current name in 1994. In 1994 the BIA released a report regarding conditions at the school. Kent Conrad, a U.S. Senator from the state, dismissed it, calling it "a sham and a whitewash." By the 1990s the people overseeing the school were formerly students in the boarding school and created a regime that prohibited verbal or physical abuse. In 2018 Tanner Rabbithead became the CEO and Trevor Gourneau became the principal.

Student body

Its students originate from 18 states, with 33 tribes represented. many of the students come from situations with food insecurity and/or school absenteeism. In some cases families with domestic problems send their children to Wahpeton so that when the situations are resolved, the children may return and the family may save face, versus the loss of reputation and permanency from foster care.

References

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PDFAlternate link

Notes

External links

Circle of Nations Wahpeton Indian School
{{coord missing, North Dakota Public middle schools in North Dakota Public boarding schools in the United States Boarding schools in North Dakota Native American boarding schools 1904 establishments in North Dakota Educational institutions established in 1904 Education in Richland County, North Dakota Native American history of North Dakota Wahpeton, North Dakota

History

Student body

See also

References

Notes

Further reading

External links