[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School

[Santee, Nebraska: circa 1870s-1880s].

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Unbound. An archive of 21 mounted albumen prints measuring between 5" x 8" and 8" x 10", with captions. Very good with some waviness, toning, and slight edgwear.

A collection of photographs documenting Santee, Nebraska with a focus on the Santee Normal Training School. The photos appear to have been compiled by J.S. McFarland who was employed at the school as a farm supervisor and whose name appears on the verso of each print. Images related to the training school show Native American teenagers dressed in western attire, formally posed for a class photo, and several students from the Standing Rock tribe. One photo features a shot of the Santee “Broom Brigade,” a military-style women’s drill team that marched with brooms in lieu of rifles. Other photos depict an older member of the Ponca tribe identified as Little Eagle, posed outside of his teepee and adorned with a bear claw necklace. There are also photos of two Native American policemen, a Yauktou warrior, and various scenes of life on the open prairie.

Founded in 1870 by Rev. Alfred E. Riggs, a congressional missionary, the school was created in order to provide training and education to members of the Santee Sioux tribe after they were forced from their ancestral home in Minnesota following the Sioux uprising of 1862. At its height, the school had an enrollment of two hundred students (many from other reservations throughout the Great Plains) and offered courses in history, literature, physics, mineralogy, botany, and mathematics. While the goal was the Westernization and Christianizing of a foreign culture, Riggs proved slightly more progressive than many of his contemporaries. He steadfastly believed that the students should be taught in their native Dakota language, which lead to many funding spats with the federal government.

A modest but interesting collection of photography from the Santee Normal Training School in the late 1800s.


Item #438235

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Item #438235 [Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School. J. S. McFARLAND.
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School
[Photographs]: Santee Normal Training School