Dear Russell:

I am currently reading case records of children at the
Thomas Indian School between 1890s through the 1950s.  The TIS, I
gather, was never under the Department of Education, being an
institution for "dependent and neglected" Indian children.  At times,
however, children were sent to the Thomas because parents were
convinced that a superior education was to be had there.  Later, by
the 1930s to 1950s, the institutions was used by counties for Indian
children.  I have identified some cases where children were perfectly
happy in foster homes supported by counties but were transferred to
the TIS by those counties because the state would assume the entire
cost for chldren at the TIS and the county would save.

Although ethnicity is important, I am approaching the institution
operation not from an ethnic point of view but am comparing its
operation and particularly the care given the children with other
instituitons in the state. (I am familiar with the operation of
institutions for African American and white children).  So far, I
have seen changes in the TIS with changes in the institution's
management.  My expertise is in child welfare, and I have done other
work on children's instituitons and the politics of child welfare in
NY State.

If you accept the fact that the TIS was clearly assimilationist from
the very beginning, there were times when the TIS compared favorably
with some other institutions for non-Indian children in NY, particularly those run by
Catholic orders.  The kids had enough to eat (you'd be surprised at
what happened at some other institutions) and depending on who was
the management of the TIS, were encouraged to go to school, etc.
Interestingly enough, also, there were periods when many children
returned to their parents for summer vacations, but there were other
periods when the children's parents were so looked down upon that the
kids were not allowed to make extended visits.

I am planning to do a book on the school, but have not yet decided on
the structure.

Please let me hear from you.  Although my email address is from my
university in Canada, I am now retired and living in Pine Hill NY, in
the Catskills.

Best wishes, and I hope we can learn from each other.

Eve Smith

 I am trying to flesh out the structure of the reservation school system in
New York State.  Each reservation had a number of schools with the Thomas
Indian School as the central institution.  Operation of the schools fell
under the Department of Public Instruction which became the Department of
Education.  I am looking for any information on secondary literature dealing
specifically with New York.  These were on-reservation schools and were
under state control.  I haven't had any luck to this point with secondary
sources.  Any assistance/suggestions are appreciated.


Russell V. Combs Jr.
Ph.D. Program
Dept. of History
SUNY-Albany
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]

Eve P. Smith, DSW