The days of Haskell students were strategically planned, they spent every minute either engaged in academic instruction or various work details.The children did not have time for play. The students evenings were spent learning gender specific industrial training. The Indian children at Haskell followed strict white gender roles of the time. The Superintendent wrote "Indian children should "hear little or nothing of the wrongs of the Indians and the injustices of the white race". During 1918, Haskell offered 23 industrial subjects and 17 academic subjects some examples were band, vocal music, drawing, physical education, and manners. These activities had limited instruction.
A large number of students weren't interested in academic studies rather interested in practical instruction. The Haskell students produced enormous quantities of food and goods. Male students worked in fields, preparing to become laborers and farmers. Females worked in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, and sewing, preparing to become housewives. Many of the females tasks were repetitive and lacked any educational value.
The school treated the Indian culture as a vanishing race and not a living culture. Students were allowed to pursue cultural arts and crafts but were reminded that in the worldview they were not acceptable. The goal of Haskell was to transform the children into obedient law-biding, patriotic, and economically self-sufficient citizens who would willfully reject their ancestors lifestyle.
How disturbing...to think that their ultimate goal where these children were concerned was that of stripping them of their ancestry and obviously their own traditional cultures and values. No matter how hard they the administration and staff tried, they would never accomplish stealing their identity (so to speak)...They will eventually find their roots and go back to where they came from. However, the transformation of the child can be a positive thing, but they must allow them to always know who they are and where they came from.
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