The Hayward Indian School: Realities of an Off-Reservation Boarding School

Abstract

This paper discusses student's experiences at the Hayward Indian School and the realities they faced in their daily lives. Their daily routines, education, health, and resistance to the boarding school system are examined and placed within the context of the Indian boarding school system through comparisons of schools in the Midwest. The Hayward Indian School was located in northern Wisconsin, near Hayward. It opened in 1901, enrolling mainly Ojibwe students from reservations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The vast majority of the school's population came from the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation, which was only ten miles east of the school. During those years, students at the Hayward Indian School had similar experiences to other students in non-reservation boarding schools. Over the course of three decades, thousands of Indian children passed through the school with one thing in common. Their experiences at the school stayed with them for the rest of their lives.