Genoa Indian School

I read this 23 page paper this afternoon that was loaned to me by Kiwanis friend Mel Janousek. It was written by Ronald C. Naugle and Nancy Svoboda Ledford and titled “Glimpses of Life at the Genoa Indian Industrial School 1884-1934”. The origin of the U. S. Indian Industrial School at Genoa, Nebraska can be traced to the 1850's when the Federal Government was negotiating with the Pawnee Indians for the purchase of their lands. A treaty was signed in 1857ceding much of Pawnee lands and provided for the establishmet of a school. It opened in 1966 as the Pawnee Agency School, and provided vocational training for the Indians in the area until 1874 when the Pawneees were relocated on Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Following some unsuccesful uses, the 1982 Congress approved funding for the establishment of a federal boarding school where Indian children could receive vocational traininng. It was one of 16 Indian boarding schools eventually established throughout the country. The Genoa school established in 1834 was one of the largest, most successful and longest-lived of such schools. Enrollment reached nearly 600 students at its peak during the early1900s. While emphasis was on vocational training, the 3 r's were also taught. By the early 1930's, the Federal Government took another look at the establishment of training facilities on individual reservations and closed-out the Genoa school in 1934.