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Girls at Roberts’ Mission
10. Girls at Roberts’ Mission playing with
swings, Date Unknown (Intermountain Collection, Wind River Agency,
courtesy of Eastern Shoshone Culture and Resource Center)
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For many children the hardest thing to get used to at boarding
school was the routines—having to be at a certain place at
a certain time and eat according to a schedule, whether you were
hungry or not. In the early days boarding schools also represented
first encounters with a number of new things and strange arrangements.
“Everything was a lot different,” Pansey St. Clair recalled.
“Everything from food, to clothing, to bedding, and going to
church—all that was completely different.”
Some students were used to sleeping on the ground, on mattresses
or beds of hides, blankets and brush. At schools, cots had to be
made with hospital corners, right enough so a quarter would bounce
on them. Butter and dairy products and vegetables like celery were
also new to many, as were shoes:
We [had] always went barefoot. There were no shoes. Didn’t
know what it was like to wear shoes. Oh, it about killed us off,
but we live through it!
To church, we had funny little hats. They remind me of an old
sage chicken. You had kind of gray little feathers sticking up
there. We all dressed the same.... First thing you’re always
kind of scared. You kind of don’t trust anybody. Then after
you get used to it, I likes the mission. It was just like home.
I was a wonderful place for the little Shoshone girls. It was
more like home. You helped in the kitchen. I helped bake bread.
We had little chores we had to do. I remember some of them had
to empty that old potty!
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