Voices of Haskell Indian Students Between Two Worlds, 1884-1928

~Beginnings~
Like the first section of this book the chapter entitled Beginnings also gave history of the introduction of The Haskell Institute. In May 1882, A bill was passed that allotted money to build schools. The money was divided up and three schools were to be built with $150,000. Along with Chilloco, Haskell was one of the other schools. Dudley Haskell and his brother ran an architectural business and were chosen to construct the facility. Dudley and his brother were also chosen to plan Chillocco so it was natural for them to come up with a design for the Lawrence, KS based school. The reason Lawerance was chosen to be the area to put the new school was due to the central area, the easy access to railroad, and also it was Mr. Haskell's home town.
In the beginning the Haskell Intitute opened it's doors to twelve Ponca boys, also joined by two more Chillocco boys who were helping in the contruction of the school. Then two weeks later five girls and three boys from the Ottawa Reservation in Kansas. In the following weeks 100 more students joined. These indian children were of all different ages noted the youngest six months. Later on Haskell restricted it's enrollment to older childeren. By the end of the first year there were 280 children enrolled, 219 females and 61 males. The first year was tragic losing many children to illness due to the cold conditions of the school. The boiler to heat the intitution was not complete til late in the Fall. The death count is still unknown in that first year. The campus cemetary was occupied by 39 unnamed graves. The school also did not show record of some of these deaths. Haskell's Superintendant blamed the students for the deaths requesting that only childern of sound health be selected to attend the institution. Due to the conditions of the school there was a drop in enrollment. If Haskell was to survive it need to ensure the Indian Territory's that the intitute was a good place to send children. The enrollment dropped but then picked up in the following years. By 1894, The total student count was 660 which represented 35 tribes making it the 2nd to Carlisle in ethnic diversity.