FORT BERTHOLD INDIAN SCHOOL, N. D.
CHILDREN'S COTTAGE AND CHAPEL, FT. BERTHOLD, N. D.
This school, as a whole, consists of a mixture of the three Indian tribes, the Mandan, Ree and Gros Ventre. The pupils come from homes scattered along either side of the Missouri River from Elbowoods to Berthold, a stretch of some twenty miles.
GROUP OF PUPILS, FT. BERTHOLD, N. D.
When one becomes acquainted with the children after they have been at the school a year or two and considers the homes from which some of them come, he is almost inclined to wonder at the transforming power of Christian education. Most of these Indians have graduated from the old-time tepee. Their houses to-day are of logs plastered with mud. Sometimes they consist of one room, but frequently have two or three rooms. A three-roomed cottage usually consists of a central room with one outside door, and a room at each end connecting with the central room, but having no outside door. The roof is made of rafters, upon which poles are laid crosswise, and the whole covered several inches with earth. The floor is sometimes of lumber, but more generally of bare earth, which in very wet weather is apt to be turned into mud by the rain that drips through the ground-covered roof. In the larger houses two or three families often live, sometimes with two or three grandmothers or grandfathers, or both.
The food being issued by the Government to them, each one has the same quantity and quality. They generally all eat together, the older ones sitting upon the floor, while the younger and more civilized eat from a table. Their dishes frequently correspond in quantity and quality with their advancement in civilization.
In the work of the school the principal writes: "As far as possible I intend to have the pupils 'know, and know that they know,' what they have gone over. I find that many of them seem to appreciate this careful and accurate knowledge. They may not make as good a showing in a report, but the purpose of the school is to work for the children and not for public recognition."