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Arapaho boys at Carlisle Indian School
5. Arapaho boys at Carlisle Indian School, “doing
squaw work,” Date Unknown (St. Michael’s Mission, Wind
River Archives at CWC)
 The
Wind River mission schools had only Shoshone and Arapahoe students
but “Gravy High” like Carlisle and other larger off reservation
schools also boarded students from other tribes. While these schools
offered greater opportunities and a wider variety of classes and
vocational training, they were far from home. Sometimes students
stayed away for over ten years before returning home:
Queeachen was planning to go to Carlisle when school opened
in the fall. He was a very promising student and some of his teachers
had talked to him about the advantages he would have if he would
go to this big eastern school. He finally decided that he would
enjoy seeing and learning new things. His parents did not want
him to go...Red deer still felt that some of the old ways of doing
things might stand his son in good stead....A group of five boys
from Wind River Reservation were accepted. They were taken to
Rawlins in a horse drawn buggy driven by a government employee.
The school children waved and called “good-by” to them
as they started, but the good-bye that had been hard to say had
been said at home. (From an unpublished manuscript by Rupert Weeks.
Courtesy Mildred Weeks and family)
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