Circle of Nations Wahpeton Indian School, formerly Wahpeton Indian School, is a tribally-controlled grade 4-8 school in

Wahpeton, North Dakota Wahpeton ( ) is a city in Richland County, in southeast North Dakota along the Bois de Sioux River at its confluence with the Otter Tail River, which forms the Red River of the North. Wahpeton is the county seat of Richland County. The populat ...

. 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 The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

passed a law establishing the school in 1904, with

Porter James McCumber Porter James McCumber (February 3, 1858May 18, 1933) was a United States senator from North Dakota. He was a supporter of the 1906 "Pure Food and Drug Act", and of the League of Nations. Early life Born in Crete, Illinois in 1858, he moved with ...

of North Dakota championing the law.

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

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. 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 Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

: page
4568
an
13
In 1992 U.S. House member

Byron Dorgan Byron Leslie Dorgan (born May 14, 1942) is an American author, businessman and former politician who served as a United States Representative (1981–1992) and United States Senator (1992–2011) from North Dakota. He is member of the Democratic ...

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 Gaylord Kent Conrad (born March 12, 1948) is a former American politician who was a United States Senator from North Dakota. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party, the North Dakota affiliate of the Democratic Party. First elec ...

, 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 Face is a class of behaviors and customs practiced mainly in Asian cultures, associated with the morality, honor, and authority of an individual (or group of individuals), and its image in social groups. Face refers to a sociological concept in ...

, versus the loss of reputation and permanency from

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family mem ...

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