Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School  

Most but not all boarding schools in MT. were built near a fort for protection.

History

Fort Shaw Industrial Indian Boarding School opened in 1891. It was discontinued 30 June 1910, due to declining enrollment.

In 1904, it had a famous girls' basketball team that barnstormed its way to St. Louis playing basketball and performing, and won the "World Championship" at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Records

Some of the existing records of the school are at the National Archives Rocky Mountain

 Region (Denver). The records in that collection include:

• Registers of pupils, 1892-1910

• Sanitary Reports, 1894-1899

• Roster of employees, 1891-1910

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Fort Shaw Indian Industrial School.

 The census includes the non-Indian employees of the school, as well as the pupils at the school.

 However, they are recorded on the general population schedules, not the Indian Population Schedules.

 They are recorded as District 215, Fort Shaw Indian Industrial School, in Cascade County, Montana.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Fort Shaw Boarding School,

 1907-1910, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Roll 53, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (their microfilm number1724271).

A census for Fort Shaw School was taken in 1910 as part of the Annual Indian Census Rolls

This roll has been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, roll 161. A copy of this record is also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their microfilm number 576850).

Narrative Description

The small town of Big Arm, Montana is located in the shadow of the Mission Mountains, along the west side of Flathead.

Lake. Approximately ten miles north of the county seat of Polson, Montana, Big Arm is nestled on the south shore of the lake’s “Big Arm” bay.

Located within the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Big Arm School is owned by School District #23, and situated on a gentle hill south of Highway 93                .

The one-story, wood-frame, 36’ x 24’ school faces east, and features a front gable roof covered with metal sheeting.

Gable returns accentuate the wood-shingle gable ends. A wide frieze board further defines the roof-wall juncture. The

original narrow clapboard siding is intact throughout the building. The east elevation features a modern (1975) enclosed front gabled porch, covered with wide clapboard. The original, even, fenestration pattern of the east elevation is present beneath the porch structure, and includes a centered entry with one single, two-over-two double-hung window on either side. The original steps to the entry are also present beneath the porch structure.

The north elevation features a ribbon of vertically-divided two-over-two double-hung windows: one pair of windows on either side of tripled windows. A modern wood door provides entry to the front (east) porch from its north elevation.

Another 1970s-era pedestrian door is located on the south side of the west elevation. The south elevation has no openings.

Narrative Description

The small town of Big Arm, Montana is located in the shadow of the Mission Mountains, along the west side of Flathead

Lake. Approximately ten miles north of the county seat of Polson, Montana, Big Arm is nestled on the south shore of the

lake’s “Big Arm” bay. Located within the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Big Arm School is owned by School District

#23, and situated on a gentle hill south of Highway 93.

The one-story, wood-frame, 36’ x 24’ school faces east, and features a front gable roof covered with metal sheeting.

Gable returns accentuate the wood-shingle gable ends. A wide frieze board further defines the roof-wall juncture. The

original narrow clapboard siding is intact throughout the building. The east elevation features a modern (1975) enclosed

front gabled porch, continued top second column.

Ft. Shaw was covered with wide clapboard. The original, even, fenestration pattern of the east elevation is present

beneath the porch structure, and includes a centered entry with one single, two-over-two double-hung window on either side. The original steps to the entry are also present beneath the porch structure.

The north elevation features a ribbon of vertically-divided two-over-two double-hung windows: one pair of windows on either side of tripled windows. A modern wood door provides entry to the front (east) porch from its north elevation.

Another 1970s-era pedestrian door is located on the south side of the west elevation. The south elevation has no opening.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879–1918)
 was an Indian boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1879 at Carlisle, Pennsylvania by Captain Richard Henry Pratt, the school was the first off-reservation boarding school, and it became a model for Indian boarding schools in other locations.

It was one of a series of nineteenth-century efforts by the United States government to assimilate Native American children from 140 tribes into the majority culture. The goal of total assimilation can be summed up in the school's slogan: "To civilize the Indian, get him into civilization. To keep him civilized, let him stay."

The late nineteenth century was also a period of continued expansion of public education across the country, with the Reconstruction era (United States) legislatures having created public school systems in the South for the first time, and new northern towns' founding schools to keep up with the settlement of the Midwest and West, as well as expanding immigrant populations in industrial cities.

In the early years of the twentieth century, Coach Pop Warner led a highly successful football team and athletic program at the Carlisle School, and went on to an illustrious career in professional football. He coached the exceptional athlete Jim Thorpe and his teammates, bringing national recognition to the small school. In 1912 Carlisle won the national collegiate championship.

After the school closed in 1918, the United States Army took back Carlisle Barracks and used the facility as a hospital to treat soldiers wounded in World War I. Later it established the War College there.

In 1961 the complex was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL). In later decades the school was re-evaluated by historians and analysts in terms of the psychological damage done to Native American children by assimilation efforts, as well as documented cases of abuse. The school was also recognized for its ideals. In 2000 the former school was the site of a historical commemoration for its Native American students and the full history of the experience.