Exhibits > Trout Creek >
Chapel at Sacajawea Cemetery
3. Chapel at Sacajawea Cemetery, ca. 1920-1935
(Wind River Archives at CWC)
 This
one room cabin was the first Wind River residence of the Episcopalian
missionary and teacher. The Rev. John Roberts. it originally doubled
as a classroom for both Shoshone and Arapahoe children and served
as the reservation’s earliest boarding school.
John Roberts, a Welshman educated at Oxford, England, left a ministry
with the lepers on the Bahama Islands of the East Indies for work
in the American west. Traveling by train from his first post, in
the Colorado mines, to Rawlins and then by stage to Wind River,
Roberts arrived at what was then called the Shoshone and Bannock
Indian Agency on February 2, l883. The stage barely made it through
the fierce blizzard which took the life of Maggie Sherlock of Atlantic
City, a young student who froze to death while attempting to return
to her boarding school in Utah.
At Wind River, one of Rev. Roberts first tasks was to establish,
in cooperation with U. S. Indian Agent Dr. J. Irvin, a school for
Shoshone and Arapahoe children so that they, unlike Maggie, would
not have to travel far from home to receive an education. Before
the school was completed, Rev. Roberts held classes in his log home:
While waiting for the first government boarding school to
be built, the Indian school boys shared Mr. Robert’s cabin.
The only furnishing was a carpet on the floor, well padded with
straw. This made a fairly good bed. but the fact that the smaller
boys had spent the early evening on the bank of Trout Creek hunting
and catching skunks, was not conducive to a good night’s
rest. (From the unpublished memoirs of Rev. Roberts’ daughter,
Elinore Markley. Courtesy Beatrice Crofts, Lander)
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