Volume 35 Number 3
May 1996

The training of young married couples was a component of the historic American Indian education program that existed at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Hampton, Virginia in the late 19th century. Ethnographer Alice C. Fletcher, a school supporter and policy reformer known for her work among the Omaha, spearheaded the program, which began in the fall of 1882 (see Note 1). Fletcher had "begged that Hampton receive a few married couples and train them in model housekeeping on such a scale as would be feasible on the reservations in the West" (Folsom, 1918, p. 91). The first two families, selected and escorted to the school from the Omaha Agency in Nebraska by the ethnographer, were Noah and Lucy La Flesche and Philip and Minnie Stabler, accompanied by their young son Eddie and Philip's eleven year old nephew, Gus Stabler. These carefully selected families, and the small number of those that followed, were to serve as role models in the effort to advance assimilation among American Indians. Hampton school officials, consistent with other reformers of the day, viewed the family as "the unit of Christian civilization" (p. 83). As a campus publication noted of one of the Omaha couples trained at the school, "Here is a little unbroken family, a nucleus of civilization!" (Southern Workman, April 1885, p. 44).

The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute had been founded in 1868 by Brevet General Samuel Chapman Armstrong to provide training to newly freed African-Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. The mission of the private, nondenominational school was to train "the hand, the head and the heart" of selected youths "to be examples to, and teachers of, their people" (Ludlow, 1888, n.p.). Ten years after its founding, Hampton began an experiment in American Indian education with the enrollment of newly released prisoners of war from Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. Arrested by the U.S. military during the Red River War on the Southern Plains, the hostages spent three years in prison. During their incarceration, under the guard of military officer Richard Henry Pratt, they were taught rudimentary English, Christian hymns and other elements of Euro-American life. At the end of three years, 22 of the hostages, mainly Cheyenne and Kiowa, remained in the east to "learn more of the white man's road," the majority at the Hampton Institute.

Following the enrollment of the Fort Marion students, Hampton's experiment in American Indian education was expanded with support and funds from the government. Pratt, on loan from the military to assist Hampton officials with the work, was dispatched to Dakota Territory under federal orders to recruit among the Sioux (see Note 2) or Lakota, "on the principle of taking the most pains with those who give the most trouble" (Southern Workman, December 1878, p. 91). The first group recruited directly from reservation communities, 49 students representing six different agencies, arrived at Hampton on November 5, 1878 (see Note 3). The school's assimilationist American Indian education program became the forerunner of the late 19th century federal, off-reservation boarding school system. By the time the program ended in 1923, it had enrolled over 1,300 students from 65 tribal groups (see Note 4).

Hampton's bi-racial schooling included a separate Indian department, an academic or Normal school program, a night school, training in the trades, and an outing or work program. The school's American Indian students traveled long distances from their families and homes to a quasi-military environment where every detail of their training was regulated by school officials intent on their transformation to Euro-American cultural norms. Students were expected to learn English, to adopt Christianity, and to relinquish the ways of their people. Students were also expected to adhere to the school's teachings on their return home. Hampton's administrators and faculty sought to prevent any of their native pupils from "returning to the blanket," or tribal ways. Students, instead, were encouraged to serve as "cultural missionaries" upon their reentry into tribal communities, advancing assimilationist goals among relatives and friends.

Thus Lucy La Flesche, the 21 year old daughter of Omaha chief Joseph La Flesche, described her journey from the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska to participate in the newly initiated model family program at Hampton in the fall of 1882. In the summer of that year, Alice Fletcher, who had close ties to the influential La Flesche family, was employed by Carlisle's Richard Henry Pratt at $50 per month, "a mere pittance but the best I can do," to escort students home from Carlisle and to recruit others for his school as well as Hampton (Mark, 1988, p. 79). After traveling among Sioux communities in Dakota Territory, Fletcher went to the Omaha Reservation in time to help celebrate the passage of an allotment bill for that tribal group (see Note 5). She then headed east with the students, the six Hampton participants arriving at the school on August 22, 1882. By that time, there were over 80 American Indian students on the campus, the majority Sioux (see Note 6).

The married couples were housed in Winona Lodge, a dormitory newly completed in 1882 as a residence for American Indian female students on campus. The husbands were enrolled in the Indian department, a separate program created at Hampton in 1879 to provide English language and other instruction to students with little or no exposure to Euro-American ways, and they were trained in carpentry and home construction. A short time later, the men participated in the planning and building of two cottages, which were to house their families on campus. Their wives were instructed in "the various arts of home making and home keeping, and proved most earnest pupils" (Ludlow et al., 1893, p. 388). Lucy La Flesche initially took classes in the Indian department but later qualified for entry into the Normal or academic program. In addition to taking care of her young son Eddie, Minnie Stabler, 22, received similar training. She wrote: "I work in [the] afternoon and go to school in the morning. I keep house myself and cook, wash, iron, sew and scrub" (Hampton University Archives [HUA] student file: M. Stabler).

The Southern Workman, a school publication, reported the arrival of the new students at Hampton, commenting:

The Southern Workman also observed that Lucy La Flesche retained her maiden name, according to Omaha custom, upon marrying: "It is a curious fact that the husband takes the name of the wife" (p. 101). Another publication noted that Lucy's "family being higher in rank than Noah's, he was obliged on marrying her to take her name" (see Note 7)-(Ludlow et al., 1893, p. 388). Lucy, who was cited in reports as being "more advanced" than the rest of the newcomers, wrote: I went to school when I was about ten years old, at Omaha Mission. I went to school about four years. If I had cared more about learning as I do now, I would have learned more than I did" (Southern Workman, August 1883, p. 87). The Southern Workman noted: "The women can sew a little, but are not experts in taking care of rooms. They prefer to put the sheets on the outside of the bed, and blankets in the place of sheets. They are willing to learn however" (October 1882, P. 101).

A few months after the arrival of the two Omaha families at Hampton, they were joined by Philip and Kate Counsellor [also Councillor] with their son Charles, a Sioux family from Lower Brule in Dakota Territory. The Counsellors were among a group of students escorted to the school by the Reverend Thomas L. Riggs, missionary to the Sioux. The Southern Workman described Philip's recruitment as follows:

School officials reported that Kate, the 18 year old sister of Hampton student Peter Brazeau, had "not been much if any at school, and cannot read or write, or speak English." Charles, described stereotypically as "a fine little brave, who speaks English exactly as well as he does Dakota," was a child of one year or younger (p. 19).

The two babies in the program accompanied their parents to some classes. Josephine Richards, who taught mathematics, noted:

The two babies also helped "to enliven the sewing-room, where they [were] left during their mothers' absence in the morning, and [were] kindly treated and waited upon by the girls, who [vied] with each other in caring for them" (p. 228).

During the period, school officials and the network of reformers supporting their assimilationist agenda sought nothing less than the total transformation of American Indians. Tribal people were expected to replace traditional housing such as earth lodges and tipis with "civilized" housing, to alter traditional land use patterns through allotment policies, to adopt Euro-American marriage customs, and to emphasize the nuclear family at the expense of extended families and tribal kinship structures. Besides attempting to adjust to the loss of land and traditional means of subsistence, American Indians endured attacks on their cultural ways. Biases expressed against tribal cultures during the period include the use of negative technology such as "savage" and "primitive" as well as other ethnocentric commentary on native life. With respect to marriage customs among the Sioux or Lakota, for example, school officials and their supporters failed to recognize or understand that daughters were not sold by their parents, but that marriages with gift exchanges were arranged according to custom (see Note 8). Couples could also elope. Furthermore, in a number of Plains tribal cultures "a woman had the right to refuse to marry a man selected by her parents, and she also had the right to divorce" (Wishart, 1995, p. 514). As indicated by the commentary below from Hampton supporter James McLaughlin, the Indian agent at Standing Rock Agency in Dakota Territory, such officials were not averse to dismantling tribal marriage customs and arranging their own matches (see Note 9).

McLaughlin, interviewed during a visit to Hampton in 1883, commented that he thought the plan to educate young couples "an excellent thing" and expressed the opinion that the participants "ought to have separate houses or apartments to keep house in." Questioned on whether there would be a home for girls who "go back [to Standing Rock] married or soon to be," he indicated that "there would be no difficulty as to that." McLaughlin further stated:

Asked how many marriages he had arranged at Devils Lake in Dakota Territory, his previous agency assignment, McLaughlin replied: "We didn't have one girl who left that school who did not marry one of our young men from our school, or one of our apprentices. The [Catholic] sisters always made it a point to persuade the girls to remain in the school till they married" (p. 45). The Standing Rock agent concluded,

McLaughlin indicated that the first marriage arranged in this manner at Devils Lake occurred in 1877 and that when he left in 1881, there were fifteen such couples, with the number increasing (p. 45).

School officials were concerned that tribal traditions respecting marriage would counteract Hampton's assimilationist training. Cora Mae Folsom, who became the faculty member with the longest tenure in Hampton's American Indian program, wrote: "The first, and generally the severest test of character the returned student has to meet is in regard to marriage and the public sentiment of the less advanced Indians in regard to it" (Folsom, 1918, p. 136). She further commented:

Folsom pointed out that a determination not to follow the tribal way and "a hesitation to accept the more binding obligations of the civilized method, results too often in an elopement, or, as the Indians call it, 'stealing a girl,' which, from any standpoint, is unworthy." She further commented that the young man is more apt to be drawn into such an arrangement than the girl,

Folsom concluded: "Truth also compels me to add that the result is usually a happy one-an Indian marriage being one of convenience rather than of sentiment, in spite of the few exceptions that make Indian love stories so thrillingly romantic" (pp. 137-138).

Hampton officials promoted church and state-sanctioned customs regarding marriage, expressing approval, for example, when returned students adopted formal invitations announcing Christian ceremonies. Citizenship acquired through allotment policies required adherence to new laws, with marriages recognized as legal by Euro-American authorities becoming necessary. Folsom stated that the school eventually received "announcements of engagements, wedding cards and newspaper accounts of church weddings as minutely described as are those of the more advanced race" (1918, p. 138). She also described her first experience attending such a wedding of a returned student:

Folsom, who was "inexpressibly shocked" by the proceedings, found herself "quite alone in such a sentiment; to everyone else it seemed a great step in civilization" (p. 138).
Running away was the most popular form of protest used by boarding school students, but certainly not the only kind of rebellion. In 1912, the Haskell students sent a petition to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, asking him to close their school. The embarrassed Haskell superintendent, J. R. Wise, dismissed the petition as a hoax by students who "did not appreciate their opportunity" to attend Haskell, but he nonetheless interrogated students whose names appeared on the list and worked hard for several weeks to discover the identity of those who had devised the scheme. Wise later speculated that the petition had been started by students from "the five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma" or perhaps by a student "who was held here against his own personal wishes" (see Note 22).

At a meeting of Hampton's teachers on March 12, 1883, which Alice Fletcher attended, it was announced that two women, Mrs. Pinchot and Mrs. William Walter Phelps, had offered support to build two cottages on campus to house the two Omaha couples:

The cottages were intended to be object lessons for the students, teaching them "how comfortable and attractive a house can be put up at small expense." School officials also hoped that they would give insight "into true home-keeping" (Southern Workman, June 1884, p. 68).

A year later, when the Omaha cottages at Hampton were nearly completed, they were described by "E.G." [Elaine Goodale, a faculty member at the school]:

Another faculty member, Josephine Richards, reported on "the finishing touches" made by Lucy and her helpers to prepare the "bright, cozy rooms" for a house warming:

In the afternoon, the La Flesche couple received guests, including one of the women who had contributed funds to build the cottages. According to Richards, Lucy "regaled them with lemonade and cake of her own manufacture, so tempting as to augur well for her success as a housekeeper, when a cooking stove is added to their present menage" (p. 43). Richards continued:

Goodale described the house warming held for the second cottage, a "sumptuous little 'tea"' held by the Stablers for "a select circle of friends" in June 1884:

By December 1884, friends among the teachers had presented Lucy La Flesche with a small cooking stove. The Omaha wives then prepared breakfast and supper for their families "at a cost of $1.50 per week" (Southern Workman, December 1884, p. 128). The Counsellors, who returned home in May 1884 at the end of their term of study, lived in Winona Lodge, rather than a cottage, during their tenure at the school (see Note 10).

The Bear Birds, Bucks, and Lees were recruited by the Reverend and Mrs. John J. Gravatt and Hampton faculty member Cora Mae Folsom, who had been sent to Dakota Territory by school officials to recruit new students. During that trip, the recruiters had visited Minniconjou leader Hump's community, where a "large tipiful of fine looking old men" met in council to consider the purpose of their visit (see Note 12)--(Folsom, 1918, p. 116). The Reverend Gravatt, the newly married chaplain at Hampton, and an interpreter sought to persuade the tribal leaders "that the time had come to prepare their children to cope with the white man by using the white man's weapons." The councilmen, however, responded: "They have taken away our tobacco and we will give up our rations; we will not give up our children." Folsom stated:

The Gravatts and Folsom then visited other Dakota Territory communities, eventually recruiting students from Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Lower Brule, and Yankton agencies on that trip.

From Gaston's perspective, however, boarding school had changed little. This was his last correspondence to the Flandreau school, addressed to the school superintendent:

Enroute to Hampton, the new recruits reportedly sang, played games, or slept. Folsom stated:

A short time after the group's arrival at Hampton, the Southern Workman reported the establishment of an advanced class in the Indian Department, composed of males, including four who were married, and females "who are in earnest, and are fitting themselves for teachers or for the ministry" (January 1885, p. 8).

The five married couples recruited in 1884 were followed by the arrival of another five families at Hampton in 1885 (one in April, two in July, and two in August), of whom three were Sioux and two Omaha. Daniel and Emma Fire Cloud, who joined two sons already enrolled at the institute, were accompanied by two younger sons when they arrived at the school from Crow Creek in April. A Southern Workman article noted of the family:

The publication described the Fire Clouds as "a [Sioux] family of four whose magnet at Hampton has been the two little sons who have been doing well in the school for the last two years" (May 1885, p. 50). Daniel had "for some time been sexton and lay reader in the Episcopal church" at Crow Creek (Southern Workman, July 1886, p. 81). The group was escorted by student John Archambeau, who had already completed a three-year term of schooling at Hampton, and returned for additional study "at his own request" (Southern Workman, May 1885, p. 50). The Fire Clouds, who were to occupy "one of the lately vacated cottages" and represented the largest family in the program, also had a child born to them at the school (see Note 13).

The largest number of participants recruited for the model family program arrived at Hampton in 1884 and 1885. The program was small, with only 23 couples participating between 1882 and 1891, the duration of its existence. Families arrived at the school in 1882 (three), 1884 (five), 1885 (five), 1886 (three), 1887 (three), 1888 (two), 1889 (one), and 1891 (one). The majority, 15 families, were Sioux, from Cheyenne River (Highbird and Paypay), Crow Creek (Buck, Fire Cloud, Little Eagle, and Pamani), Lower Brule (Bear Bird, Counsellor, DeSheuquette, and Lee), Sisseton (Robertson), Standing Rock (All Yellow, Phelps, and Tiaokasin), and Yankton (Ellis)-(see Note 14). Six Omaha families (Hamilton, La Flesche, Leming, Levering, Miller, and Stabler), the next largest group and the largest from any one agency, reflect the influence of Alice Fletcher among their people. The remaining two families were Winnebago (Bear) and Oneida (Powless), the latter couple remaining at the school for only a few months (see Note 15).

The families tended to arrive at Hampton in the company of single students, at times including other relatives, from their home communities. A number of the couples were drawn from missionary ranks. Edwin and Ellen Phelps, for example, had been missionary helpers at Cheyenne River Agency through the American Missionary Association. They were recruited to Hampton to assist in the Indian department, but school officials determined "that they were better qualified for pupils than instructors and were regularly enrolled as such" (Ludlow et al., 1893, p. 456). As indicated earlier, Daniel Fire Cloud served as an Episcopal lay reader before attending Hampton.

Hampton officials also recruited married couples from among their alumni. Seven of the spouses had previously enrolled at the school as single students, initially arriving on campus in the following years: Frank Pamani and Rosa Pleets in 1878, Baptiste Bear Bird, Henry Little Eagle, and John Tiaokasin in 1881, John Bear in 1885, and Lyman Powless in 1888. Two of the students, Rosa Pleets and John Tiaokasin, had each completed two previous terms at Hampton before marrying and enrolling in the model family program.

The Omaha cottages "formed a centre for those from that tribe, as the Sioux, now building, will for theirs" (Southern Workman, June 1885, p. 72)-(see Note 16).

Eventually six cottages were built at Hampton for the model family program, forming an area on campus that became known as "The Reservation." These dwellings and the families who lived in them attracted the attention of tourists and other visitors. As reported in the Southern Workman:

The outside area included a "modest lawn" in front, which was separated from a road by a low fence. The fence was intended to discourage, "however vainly," the "very enterprising" little children within from "perilous voyages of discovery to the Steam Laundry, the Gas House, and other points of interest" (HUA Annual Report, 1887-1888, p. 25). The cottage occupants laid out "tiny gardens" to grow vegetables for their meals and the men also planted potatoes in the larger school garden (p. 26).

Besides serving as a model to other Indian students at Hampton, the homes represented the family life they missed. A poem, entitled "A Hampton Home," signed "By the lonesome student," was published in Talks and Thoughts, the Indian student newspaper at the school:

Over on the reservation
Is a happy little home,
And I wander in that direction
When I'm lonsesome.
I tap upon the window glass
To a little boy within,
He quickly answers with a laugh,
Which welcomes me to come in.
Then in I go, we have such fun,
I take him on my knee.
And long before our play is done
I'm as happy as can be. (May 1887, p. 1)

Folsom commented that "The care and training of single boys and girls has its problems but it's the witches' song of, 'Double, double care and trouble' for married children" (1918, p. 91). The cares for faculty members included settling marital disputes that sometimes broke out. "Naturally," Folsom stated,

Most of the faculty members associated with Hampton's American Indian program were single, Euro-American females. The unmarried state of these teachers "never ceased to interest" the Indian students, who often asked the women in question why they had not married. The students also speculated about a teacher's marriage prospects or offered sympathy with comments such as: "Never mind . . . perhaps you [will get a husband] by and by," "[You're al pretty girl, I think somebody [will] have you after [a] while" or ". . . pray [to] God, He [will] get you one," that is, a husband (Folsom, 1918, p. 68).

At least five couples separated or divorced after returning home. One of them, Milton and Nancy Levering, parted once they reached the the Omaha Reservation. Hampton school records indicated that the dissolution of the marriage was "the first case of an Indian divorce" under laws newly extended to the Omahas who "had not long before been declared citizens of Nebraska." Mrs. Levering, who petitioned for divorce on the grounds of desertion, had to wait a considerable period of time for the action to be resolved. As the first such case, the divorce of the Indian couple "was slow in being considered and granted." After obtaining her legal freedom in 1889, Mrs. Levering, who was "allowed to take another name," left her position as a school employee and traveled to the Lincoln Institute in Philadelphia for further schooling. Her husband eloped with a former Carlisle student he had met and they joined a show "traveling through the Western States." Fearing the law would be after him if he returned to Omaha Agency, he remained away until after the divorce was granted then went back to take up farming (Ludlow et al., 1893, p. 417).

Many of the newborns were named after school officials, as in Armstrong Fire Cloud, Isabel Eustis Leming, Martha Waldron Little Eagle, and Richard Tiaokasin. The Bear family, whose son was born at the time of a visit to Hampton from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, was given his name, Thomas Morgan. Harrison Paypay, born on election day, was named after Benjamin Harrison. Alice Miller may have been named in honor of Alice Fletcher, while other newborns were given Biblical names.

Six of the Indian children associated with the model family program at Hampton died at the school, including four of the infants born there: Benjamin Bear Bird (August 4, 1885), Armstrong Fire Cloud (August 6, 1886), Obed Phelps (winter, 1887), and Gamaliel Robertson (May 10, 1889)-(see Note 19). Two of these babies were born to women who were pregnant on their arrival at the school. The evidence indicates that Ellen Phelps had her child, "which lived only a few days," in the winter some time after the family arrived at the school in November 1886. The Phelps family returned home the following spring, in June 1887, for unspecified "special reasons" (HUA student file: E. Phelps). Elizabeth and Gabriel Robertson, the parents of Gamaliel, were at Hampton from November 1888 to July 1889. The date of birth for the child, who died at six weeks in May 1889, is not cited. The reason identified in Hampton records for the Robertson's return home is Elizabeth's ill health (HUA student file: G. Robertson). It is likely that the strain of a long, grueling trip from Dakota Territory to the school would have been a contributing factor in the deaths of the Phelps and Robertson children.

One year old Eddie Buck, who arrived at the institute with his parents in November 1884, died the following month. The Southern Workman published an account of his death, noting: "It is always one of the saddest things in the world-a baby's-and where our work all hangs upon the future, it comes home to us with peculiar force, as the loss of a possibility." The report continued:

The sixth child, Daniel Fire Cloud, Jr., who was nine years old when he arrived at Hampton in September, 1883 (prior to his parents' arrival), died there three years later of "accidental poisoning," on September 3, 1886 (see Note 21).

Besides deaths, the Southern Workman reported on activities such as baptisms and schooling for the children. In 1885, four of the smallest Indian boys on the campus were reportedly attending the Butler School, which enrolled African-American youngsters. The publication noted:

The following year, in April 1886, the publication indicated that a "class of 'babies' carried out on Kindergarten principles" was underway as "a new and successful feature of the [Indian] Department" (p. 44).

By the time the Stablers left Hampton for home, plans had been made to extend the assimilationist housing of married couples to the reservation level. In an address at the Lake Mohonk Conference in September 1884, Alice Fletcher had spoken of the need for "civilized" homes for Indians (see Note 22). She criticized the educational system for instructing Indian students in Euro-American ways then sending them home, where tribal traditions held fast. "We educate them for civilization," Fletcher stated, "and expect three years to overcome centuries of a fixed order of things." She advocated that additional young Indian couples be trained in the East so that "after their return they might make civilized homes to be the centres of civilization among the tribes" (see Note 23). Fletcher also suggested that such families be provided with support "to start civilized homes" on their return to tribal communities (Second Annual Address, 1884, pp. 27-28).

Fletcher's scheme of building assimilationist reservation homes found support among "Friends of the Indian," particularly members of the Women's National Indian Association (WNIA)-(see Note 24). Moved to action by Fletcher's Lake Mohonk address, Sara T. Kinney, President of the Connecticut auxiliary of the WNIA, worked to build support for the plan (see Note 25). She wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hiram Price, to obtain his support and advice, impressing upon him that home building would greatly enhance the effort to "civilize" and Christianize Indian people. Armed with approval from the Commissioner's office for the plan, Kinney presented the idea to members of the Connecticut Indian Association and other reformers. She stated: ". . . these suggestions of Miss Fletcher's did not chance to fall by the wayside, nor among thorns, nor yet upon stony places; but they did fall between the stones, into rich soil, where they took root, and flourished, and brought forth fruit" (Kinney, 1889a, p. 6). The scheme, with its emphasis on women's spheres of home and family, found enthusiastic support within the WNIA.

To Kinney and other reformers, the idea of home conveyed "the picture of one roof sheltering father and mother, and their children, secure in the sharing and inheritance of the property resulting from the toil of the family." They believed that tribal kinship organization, communal ownership of land, and rights of inheritance had to be dismantled. Kinney stated:

She emphasized that this kinship organization, which constituted the true "tribal relation," could "only be broken by giving to the members of the tribe individual ownership of land and homes, and extending over these lands and homes our laws of property and legal descent" (p. 4). Wherever this was done through the allotment of lands in severalty, according to Kinney, "the grip of the 'tribal relation' has been loosened, and the way opened for the founding of the family and the upbuilding of the home" (p. 4).

The Connecticut Indian Association intended that home building be an effort in self-help for young American Indian families. A publication of the organization stated: "It is not proposed that these houses be given outright to the future occupants. It would be the height of folly to destroy their self-respect by making them feel themselves objects of charity" (The Connecticut Indian Association, 1885, n.p.). Instead, the plan was to lend money to couples, without interest, to be repaid in installments.

Efforts to raise money and build the first house under the home building plan were soon under way. Fletcher, who remained active in planning and implementing the scheme, wrote Kinney advising her not to connect the work with reservation agents, stating, "the Indians would think it some government affair & not strictly connected with sympathy & help given to an effort toward education & civilized living & a matter calling forth individual exertion." The ethnographer further commented:

She advised Kinney not to "fix on Philip just yet," but to select either him or Noah La Flesche as the first participant in the home building plan. Fletcher indicated that Philip was considering studying longer at Hampton, with the possibility that he would not be ready to participate in the project by summer. She cautioned Kinney: "Don't be shaken from the work by that for I think it likely Noah will return [,]" and if he remained for additional schooling, to "Still hold on for the work must be done shortly" (Ibid.). On November 13, 1884, before Fletcher's letter arrived, the Connecticut Indian Association formally voted to assist Philip Stabler in building a home on the Omaha Reservation. The women reasoned:

According to the minutes for that meeting, the home building plan had been approved by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hampton's General Armstrong, and Alice Fletcher. A committee, under the leadership of Sara Kinney, was then named to oversee the work.

A short time later, on November 21, 1884, Armstrong and some of his students appeared in Connecticut to address an audience of "about fifty ladies" to urge support for the home building plan and Hampton's work. Although the women had hoped to meet Philip Stabler, whom the Connecticut Indian Association had voted to assist, he was not among the visitors. Instead, Noah La Flesche and George Bushotter, a Sioux student, accompanied Armstrong and African-American students. The Indian and black students "sang several of their characteristic songs-then La Flesche who is a carpenter & works now at his trade in the day and studies at night so as to fit himself to teach among his people on his return, made a very good and manly speech, which he repeated in the evening to a large audience." Armstrong indicated to the women that "he would not know which of the two young men [Philip Stabler or Noah La Flesche] to choose for this benefit, as one was as worthy as the other" (CSA, Connecticut Indian Association Meeting Minutes).

The Connecticut Indian Association, anxious about the success of the initial home constructed under the plan, maintained tight control over the actual construction of the pioneering Stabler house. All purchases of building materials required an itemized statement, sent from the lumberyard to the auxiliary, with both Stabler's signature and that of another person attesting to the document's accuracy. On the Omaha Reservation, Kinney relied on Edward and Rosalie Farley and the Reverend John Copley, missionary to the Omaha, to oversee the project. Rosalie, the daughter of Joseph La Flesche, and her Euro-American husband assisted the Stablers with business transactions, insurance, and other details. Although publicly lauding the Stablers, Kinney privately expressed concerns about their business abilities. Copley, who managed a small account set up at a bank in Bancroft, Nebraska to cover the final bills of the cottage, commented: "I believe [Philip] has had too many advisors, and for that reason he has not acted so quickly as you had expected" (see Note 26)-(CSA, Letter to Mrs. J.C. Kinney, October 12, 1885). The final cost of Connecticut Cottage, which was reduced by Philip's labor and the elimination of a brick cellar, was as follows:

A chattel mortgage was placed upon the property to make it possible for the Connecticut Indian Association to sell it at auction if the debt was not repaid. Kinney stated, "Of course, the Association is very well aware that the note of an Indian, who is himself but a chattel and not a citizen, not a man among men, is worth the paper on which it is written-simply that, and nothing more" (Kinney, 1889a, p. 8). Kinney also saw to it that the cottage, which was completed in March 1886, was insured against windstorms, cyclones, or tornados (see Note 27).

The female reformers of the Connecticut Indian Association and the WNIA promoted Euro-American gender roles in property ownership, legal responsibility, and position in the family. Business was transacted with the husband, in this case, Philip, and documents such as the chattel mortgage were placed in his name. This practice represented the reverse of customs in many tribal cultures. In a study of 19th century Omaha and Pawnee gender status and roles, for example, Wishart points out that the women in these cultures (and others) owned the lodge, tipi, and other property such as contents of the home, planting fields, supplies and implements. Euro-American married women, on the other hand, did not obtain rights of property ownership until much later (1995, p. 513; see also Woodsum, 1995).

Reformers visited "Connecticut Cottage," contrasting it with Omaha earth lodges. A before and after photograph appeared of the two dwellings in various WNIA and Hampton publications, demonstrating the transformation to "civilized" Euro-American housing. The WNIA's Indian Bulletin later included a description of an Omaha earth lodge written by tribal member Susan La Flesche, a Hampton graduate and protege of the Connecticut Indian Association who had completed medical school with the organization's support:

La Flesche recalled how she and other children used to climb the lodges and pick sunflowers and grasses growing on top of them. She commented:

Kinney reported receiving 17 applications for loans between November 1886 and November 1887. Two homes were built and nine applicants were assisted in enlarging or completing houses under construction. The Home Building and Loan Department provided loans ranging from $200 to $500 to enable applicants to build homes for themselves and smaller sums, from $5 to $ 100, for the purchase of items such as farm implements, horses, harnesses, window glass, doors, and cooking utensils (Kinney, 1889a, pp. 5-7). The loan beneficiaries were very carefully selected, with Kinney and her committee members seeking the advice and approval of missionaries, teachers, and agents before providing assistance.

Among the WNIA loan recipients were Alaskan natives, who did not hold land in severalty, but whose homes were constructed on lands granted to the Presbyterian Board of Mssions by the government. The Alaskan loan recipients had all been students at the mission school in Sitka. Their mortgages included stringent regulations, including prohibitions against "any gambling, drinking of intoxicating liquors (including beer) or the giving away of property for display, commonly called Potlatching." The Alaskan cottagers could not "call in a Shaman, or Indian doctor, when sick, or allow him to practice his arts" on the premises or "practice or allow to be practiced on the property any heathen rites or ceremonies." Besides prohibitions against native cultural and religious practices, the mortgagee had to agree to obey the Sabbath, attend [Christian] religious instructions, send his children to school, practice "cleanliness and industry," "keep his lot well drained and attractive," and keep his house "well painted on the outside, and neat and tidy on the inside." Finally, he could not allow another family to live on the premises with him without permission or "permit the property to be used for any immoral purpose calculated to injure the reputation of the premises or neighborhood or impair the value of the surrounding property" (Kinney, 1889b, pp. 5-6). Kinney commented:

Kinney reported that from November 1887 to November 1888, 27 applications for home loans were received, with five homes built and 10 Indians assisted by the Home Building and Loan Department in other ways. From November 1888 to November 1889, 34 applications were received, with 14 loans granted. She stated that assistance had been provided to "Omahas, Winnebagoes, Kiowas, Sioux, Dakotas, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Hoopas, Nooksachks, and Alaskans" (Kinney, 1889a, p. 7). Kinney indicated that payments from loan recipients had been received in the amount of $122 in 1887, $177.50 in 1888, and $553 in 1889 (p. 9). She cautioned:

Although the Home Building Department made loans from 1891 through 1894 comparable to those of earlier years and the repayment rates continued to increase, these figures were destined to decline. At the end of 1894, a severe drought in the Midwest and a cyclone in the Dakotas prevented many loan recipients from making payments on their loans. The following year, a combination of drought conditions and low grain prices again prevented many Indian farmers from sending money on their debts. The loan applications and repayment rates continued to decline and by 1897, the amount lent fell to a low of $210. The number of new houses constructed with WNIA funds diminished to fewer than a dozen between 1895 and 1900. In 1900, the organization did not receive any applications for home building (Wanken, 1981, pp. 174-181).

Annie Beecher Scoville, who was named chair of the Home Building and Loan Department in 1898, recommended a new policy for the committee by the turn of the century. Her recommendations were adopted at a WNIA convention in November 1900, redirecting loans from home construction to the improvement of Indian communities and the establishment of home industries. At that time, the membership restricted such loans to a maximum amount of $350. With the new policy in place by 1901, the department provided $800 in loans, $250 of which was allocated for a house. A few years later, the Home Building and Loan Department was eliminated altogether by the organization (Wanken, 1981, pp. 177-181).

The first two recipients of loans, Philip Stabler and Noah La Flesche, initially satisfied the ideals of their assimilationist supporters. They made payments on their housing loans, farmed their allotments, and kept their cottages tidy. In 1894, however, Philip died, and a few years later Minnie "had to rent the home [they] worked so hard to complete" (RUA student file: M. Stabler). The couple's eldest child, Eddie, died in 1912. By then, Minnie had "sold some of her land and built a very good new house, two stories" (HUA student file: M. Stabler).

By 1895, the La Flesches had also moved out of their WNIA-built house. They "rented their nice home & were living in a neat, decent cabin of Lucy's on the old place at the agency." Contrary to the Euro-American agenda promulgated by the reformers, "Noah had become interested in the [Omaha] dance house nearby and Lucy was not keeping altogether out of that element." The La Flesches were reportedly "still doing well," but not as well as "when Philip was alive and Noah had someone to stand with him" (HUA student file: L. La Flesche). By 1908, Noah's activities included serving as "Headman" of the "Standing Hawk Lodge, [a] club keeping up [Omaha] songs & dances" (RUA student file: N. La Flesch). In 1912, a Hampton faculty member observed that the La Flesche place was nice, but a "white farmer however, apparently does all the work" (HUA student file: N. La Flesche) and that Lucy, "in spite of her education looks & acts like an old time Indian" (RUA student file: L. La Flesche). After selling portions of his family's allotments, Noah's land base diminished. In 1918, Lucy was "practically an invalid with rheumatism" and the following year Noah died, after catching cold and developing pneumonia following an Indian dance (HUA student file: L. and N. La Flesche).

The majority of the husbands, 17, were in their twenties when they arrived at Hampton to participate in the model family program. The youngest participants were wives, Nellie Lee (14), Nancy Levering (15), and Julia Bear Bird (16), and a couple, John and Irene High Bird, both 17. The majority of the wives, at least 12, were in their teen years on their arrival at the school. George Miller and Edwin Phelps, at 32, were the oldest participants in the program while Emma Fire Cloud and Ellen Phelps, both 30, were the oldest females of the model families.

Most of the participating couples had received little or no previous schooling, with the exception of those who had attended Hampton during previous terms along with husbands Joseph Ellis and Gabriel Robertson. As a result, the majority of the couples were placed in Hampton's Indian department, rather than the Normal School, for academic instruction. Consistent with the goals of the model family program, the husbands were placed primarily in carpentry or farming trades. Their training included work duties in the campus trade shops or on the school farm. The wives cared for their families, attended school "more or less regularly," and received training in housekeeping (HUA Annual Report, 1887-1888, p. 26). The couples in the cottages also kept "strict account" of the articles they purchased in connection with preparing breakfasts and suppers in their own households (p. 26).

Many of the early American Indian students at Hampton suffered from ill health, primarily consumption. The majority of the participating families, at least 24 adults in the program, left the school for that reason. As indicated earlier, six children associated with these families died at Hampton. Another, Eugene Buck, died shortly after returning home with his parents. Over half of the adults from the model family program died within a few years of their return home, including Baptiste and Julia Bear Bird, Hannah Buck, Kate Counsellor, Susan DeSheuquette, Emma Fire Cloud, John and Irene High Bird, Nellie Lee, Irish and Stella Leming, Nancy Levering, and Gabriel Robertson.

Two couples, Henry and Lucy Little Eagle in 1887 and John and Cora Bear in 1889, participated in Hampton's outing program. Students from the school were generally sent to New England during the summer months and placed with Euro-American families to work and to continue their exposure to Christianization and "civilization." The Little Eagles had a four month placement with a family in Monterey, Massachusetts. John Bear, and other participants who had attended Hampton as single students, were first involved with the outing system during previous terms of enrollment. John returned to the same placement he had been sent to earlier, at Deacon Townsend's in Monterey, with his wife Cora. With these exceptions, the majority of the model family participants did not participate in the school's outing program.

For many families, tenure in the model family program was very brief. Nearly half of the participants remained at Hampton for less than one year. Among this group were four families who were at the school for only two or three months (Buck, Ellis, Lee, and Powless). James and Minnie Hamilton (Omaha), who were in the model family program from July 1885 to July 1889, had the program's longest tenure (see Note 30). They were followed by Noah and Lucy La Flesche, who were participants for over three years. Individuals who had attended the school as single students during previous terms also spent more time at Hampton. The majority of the participants left because of ill health. Thirteen individuals (but only four couples) in the model family program were cited in school records as completing their term of study (i.e., remaining until their three or four year terms expired), five individuals reportedly left for undesignated "special reasons," one individual left because of "domestic trouble," one for conduct, and one for graduation. The sole graduate from the model family participants was Lucy La Flesche, who joined her sister Susan and Charles Picotte (Yankton Sioux) in graduating with Hampton's class of 1886 (see Note 31). Hampton's experiment in educating families at the school lasted for less than a decade. By 1889, a school report noted:

A short time later, one of the cottages on the campus "Indian Reservation" was turned into a housekeeping cottage to teach Indian girls lessons in "fire making, table setting, dish washing," and cooking (HUA Annual Report, 1892, p. 48). School reports noted that "a small three-roomed cottage on the grounds has been fitted up like a home with parlor, dining room, kitchen and storeroom. The girls are divided into companies of four, and each four uses the cottage for a week" (HUA Annual Report, 1893, p. 55):

At the time the model Indian family program operated, there was little understanding of Indian families or the role of the family in tribal cultures or communities. Indeed, most people working in Indian Affairs in the late 19th century held Indian family and community life in contempt and viewed Indian social customs as the enemy of the government's efforts to educate and assimilate Indians into American life. What Indian agents, educators and missionaries called "returning to the blanket," from an Indian point of view, was returning to normal family and community life. In fact, Indian family and community life has played a key role in the preservation of tribal languages and culture over time.

Most of the Indian families who took part in the Hampton model family program had already made commitments to adopt, American lifestyles and values either through boarding school or missionary influences. The program seems to have helped the families sustain their life choices either through their development or social adjustments to American family lifestyles. Follow-up data on the families shows that most returned to their home communities and joined the ranks of other Indian families, collectively called the "Progressive" faction by the Bureau of Indian Affairs because of their adoption of American lifestyles.

1. Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1938-1923) began her studies in the fall of 1881. Her work on The Omaha tribe, a comprehensive study coauthored with Omaha scholar Francis La Flesche, was first published as the Twenly-seventh annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1911. See also Mark (1988) and Green (1969) for more information on Fletcher and the Omaha.
2. Sioux is the tribal designation that appears in Hampton's archival sources. However, the preferred terms are Dakota or Lakota.
3. The following year, Pratt established the federally supported Carlisle Indian Industrial Training School in Carlisle Pennsylvania and most of the Fort Marion students at Hampton followed him there.
4. Based on Hampton's archival count, the largest tribal groups represented at the school between 1878 and 1923 were Sioux at 473, followed by Oneida, 194; Seneca, 112; Omaha, 64; Winnebago, 63; Cherokee, 61; and Chippewa, 51.
5. An act of August 7, 1882 (cited in Fletcher and La Flesche, 1911/1992, p. 624) provided for the granting of lands in severalty to Omaha tribal members. This act, which Alice C. Fletcher lobbied Congress to pass, included provisions for the individual allotment of land, secured by patents to be held in trust by the United States for 25 years. The legislation was a forerunner to the General Allotment Act, better known as the Dawes Act, of 1887. In March 1883 Fletcher was appointed Special Agent of the Office of Indian Affairs to carry out the allotment program among the Omaha. She was assisted by Francis La Flesche, the son of Joseph La Flesche, who served as her interpreter (Mark, 1988, pp. 88-89).
6. The Hampton University Archives (HUA) Annual Report for 1882 cited 89 Indian students (p. 15).
7. Sources cite Noah's surname before marriage as Stabler or Learning. Hampton school records indicate Stabler, while Green identifies Noah as the son of Mah-zhah-ke-da or Silas Learning. Green states that Noah's family was "considered of lower position than Joseph's (La Flesche], so he had taken Lucy's name" (1969, p. 165).
8. See works by Deloria (1979 and 1988) as well as works by Charles Alexander Eastman and Luther Standing Bear for further information on Dakota/Lakota family life. See also literature related to gender issues, including Albers and Medicine (1983); Maltz and Archambault (1995); and Woodsum (1995).
9. James McLaughlin (1842-1923) worked in the Indian service for 52 years, including nearly half that time in Dakota Territory, where he served as Indian agent at Devils Lake (1876 to 1881) and at Standing Rock (1881 to 1895). His efforts were enhanced by his wife Marie Louise Buisson, who was of Mdewakanton Sioux descent and knowledgeable in the language and culture of her people. See Pfaller (1978).
10. Incoming couples were often housed in Winona Lodge until school officials deemed them sufficiently prepared to live in a cottage, until construction of a new cottage was completed, or until a vacancy occurred in one of the existing cottages. By 1889, a school report noted:
    
    In bringing on a married couple from the West it seems very desirable that one at least should already have had some training and education. If neither husband nor wife understands English, or the ways of civilization, it is extremely difficult to make their Hampton life what it should be, cut off as they are in great measure, by living in a cottage, from the hourly supervision which can be given in the Wigwam or Winona. (J. E. Richards in HUA Annual Report, 1889, p. 33)
    
    
11. Celeste was reportedly "at Standing Rock Agency visiting relatives when she volunteered to go to Hampton School and was [later] returned to Crow Creek Agency where she formerly belonged" (HUA student file: C. Pamani).
12. Hump (1848-1908) was a Minniconjou Sioux warrior and leader who fought to preserve the rights of his people against military forces at Rosebud Creek, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and in other engagements. Continuing to adhere to tribal traditions, he served as chief of the Minniconjou at Cherry Creek in Dakota Territory. Hump, an opponent of assimilation, also opposed government efforts to obtain additional Lakota land (Paulson and Moses, 1988).
13. During the period, two women and their young daughters also arrived at Hampton. Louisa Banks, 20, traveled from Crow Creek Agency with her infant daughter Grace and the Fire Cloud family, reaching the school in April 1885. According to the Southern Workman, "The two babies of the party were welcomed with delight by the Indian girls who have greatly missed the 'Little Bear' and 'White Corn,' who returned to the West with their parents" (May 1885, p. 50). The medical doctor at Hampton found that Louisa did "not appear very robust" and her baby, four months old, improving after taking cold on the journey. Louisa died at Hampton of phthisis or consumption on June 23, 1886 and her child was returned home. The second mother and child, an Omaha widow named Lucy Mitchell, arrived at Hampton with her seven year old daughter, Ida, in 1887, and remained there until 1890.
14. According to school records, Ellen Ellis was from Lower Bride while her husband Joseph was from Yankton (HUA student files: Ellis).
15. John and Cora Bear were married in a Congregational church enroute to Hampton in 1888. A report of the wedding stated:
    
    . . . the bride and groom felt so much the truth of the idea that they were made for each other that marriage according to the ritual of their race was not binding enough, and yesterday they procured a marriage license and last night had Rev. Darling make them still more certainly man and wife. (HUA student file: J. Bear)
    
    Two other couples, Stella and Irish Leming and James and Jane All Yellow were cited as having marriage ceremonies, on March 23, 1886 and November 29, 1887 respectively, through St. John's Episcopal Church in the city of Hampton. The Reverend John J. Gravatt, who served as chaplain at Hampton during the period, officiated (Hayes, 1986, pp. 134 and 93, respectively).
    Lyman Powless enrolled at Hampton in July 1888, married during a visit home to New York in the summer of 1891 and returned to the school with his bride during the fall of that year. The couple remained at the school only a short time before returning home in December, 1891 (HUA student file: L. Powless). In effect, John and Irene High Bird from Cheyenne River in Dakota Territory were the last couple recruited to Hampton's model family program. They arrived at the school with other students from Dakota Territory under the escort of the Reverend C.W. Freeland on October 28, 1889. The High Birds left the school in 1890, as did John and Cora Bear, also one of the last couples in the program.
    
    
16. According to the HUA Annual Report (1885), funds to build two new cottages, at $200 each, were provided by "ladies in Utica, New York," while the one sought by Alice Fletcher at the New Orleans Exposition was pledged through the auspices of Christ Church in that city (p. 16).
17. Mary Miller, who arrived at Hampton with her husband George and two young sons Eddie and John in July 1887, indicated in a letter written at the school that she also had a "girl at home," who was being cared for by her family at the Omaha Agency in Nebraska. During her tenure at the school, Mary sought permission to return home to help her child and other family members, who were ill (HUA student file: M. Miller). George, who wrote from home some time after leaving Hampton, also referred to another child, his "oldest son Wallace," who attended the Lincoln Institute in Philadelphia and later the Carlisle Indian School (HUA student file: G. Miller). The Millers, who had a daughter born to them at Hampton, returned home with their three children in November 1888 (HUA student files: Miller).
18. A second couple, Henry and Lucy Little Eagle, may have also had two children born to them at Hampton. In Henry's file at the school, the following reference, dated May 1887, was uncovered: "Little Eagle's son died last week, and we had a Christian burial, and the whole family have made a departure from the old customs." However, other data concerning this child could not be found. The couple, who had a daughter born to them in 1888, were at the school from November 1886 to September 1888 (HUA student file: H. Little Eagle).
19. According to records compiled for burials through St. John's Episcopal Church in the city of Hampton, Armstrong Fire Cloud was one month old when he died. His date of death is cited in Hampton's archival records as August 6, 1886, while his burial date, through records compiled for Elizabeth City Parish (St. John's) is August 25, 1886 (Hayes, 1986, p. 188). As indicated, Obed Phelps lived only a few days and Gamaliel Robertson died at the age of six weeks. Benjamin Bear Bird's gravestone in the campus cemetery at Hampton identifies his age at death as two years old. However, the Bear Bird family was at the school for less than two years (from November 1884 to March or May of 1886-there is a discrepancy in the month of return cited) and Benjamin was born there.
20. Louis and Hannah Buck, who arrived at Hampton with their two sons, Eugene (3) and Eddie (1), in November 1884 remained at the school for only a few months. A short time after the family's February 1885 return home to Crow Creek because of ill health, two other family members died, Eugene in 1885 or 1886 and Hannah in 1889 (HUA student files: Buck).
21. Thirty-eight of the American Indians who died at Hampton are buried in the campus cemetery at present day Hampton University, including the young children associated with the model family program. The majority of these deaths occurred in the 1880s and were attributed to consumption. One of the men in the married family program wrote to General Armstrong: ". . . every time anybody dies they put them into one of the cottages[.] [We] do not like that very much[.] I think there [are] plenty of other buildings that they could be put into without putting them out here" (James Hamilton to General Armstrong, January 18, 1888, HUA student file: J. Hamilton).
22. Christian reformers who called themselves "Friends of the Indian," annually gathered at Lake Mohonk near New Paltz, New York, at a resort hotel owned by Albert K. Smiley, a Quaker member of the Board of Indian Commissioners, to discuss American Indian issues. These conferences, which began in 1883, greatly influenced the federal government in formulating Indian policy during the late nineteenth century (Prucha, 1973).
23. A resolution was also passed at the Lake Mohonk Conference in September 1884, conceming the model family program. It stated:
    The plan carried out to a small extent at Hampton and elsewhere, of bringing young men and their wives to industrial schools and there furnishing them with small houses so that may be instructed in work and a proper home life, has been successful and should be carried out more largely. (Second Annual Address, p. 29)
    
24. The Women's National Indian Association (WNIA), a reform organization of Christian women spearheaded by Amelia S. Quinton and Mary Lucinda Bonney, began in Philadelphia in 1879. The organization, which was instrumental in helping to shape Indian policy, promoted Americanization, Christianization, and "civilization" through its network of auxiliaries across the country. In 1901 the organization dropped the word "Women's" from the title and men were accepted as full fledged members. Its influence and programs in decline for many years, the association finally disbanded in 1951. See Wanken (1981) and Mathes (1990).
25. The Connecticut Committee of the WNIA, which began in 1881, reorganized in 1883 as the Connecticut Indian Association with Sara T. Kinney (Mrs. John C. Kinney) as president. Mrs. Kinney (1842-1922), whose husband published the Hartford Courant, served as chairman of the Home Building and Loan committee until 1891. She retained her position as president of the Connecticut Indian Association for over thirty years.
26. According to Copley, Philip Stabler and Edward Farley were "not on the best of terms." He stated: "There is no enmity between them but Philip does not seem to like him very well." Philip, according to this account, preferred that Copley handle the loan funds (CSA, John T. Copley to Mrs. J. C. Kinney, August 21, 1885).
27. It is certain that the reformers were aware of the cyclone damage suffered by Philip Stabler's family the summer after their return home from Hampton.
28. At least one other couple from Hampton's model family program, James and Minnie Hamilton from Omaha Agency, also received a loan from the WNIA to build a house. The Hamiltons returned home in July 1889 and "James availed himself of a loan from the Home Building Association and has built a nice two-story frame cottage on his land near Bancroft" (Ludlow et al., 1893, p. 431).
29. Years later, between 1917 and 1918, another Omaha couple, George and Eunice Woodhull Stabler, arrived at Hampton with their seven year old nephew Freddie Merrick (an adopted son). George, a relative of Hampton's earlier Stabler participants, initially attended the institute between 1902 and 1904, leaving because of health reasons. In 1917, on his return, it was reported that he and his wife would "take up various school work" while Freddie attended Whittier, an elementary school affiliated with Hampton's program. George indicated in a letter that the family lived in a "little cottage just outside of school grounds." However, the evidence indicates that Eunice did not attend classes at Hampton. Pregnant on her arrival at the school, she gave birth to a son on February 9, 1918. By August 15, 1918, Mrs. Stabler, her son and a visiting niece, Elizabeth Lieb, were reportedly back home in Nebraska. The following month, George left Hampton because he was expecting to be drafted into the military (HUA student file: G. Stabler).
30. During that period, James Hamilton returned to Omaha Agency from July 1888 to November 1888 to look after his land (HUA student file: J. Hamilton).
31. Susan La Flesche continued her education at the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia with support from the Connecticut Indian Association and the federal government. At her graduation in 1889, she became the first American Indian woman to become a medical doctor (Bolton and Wilson, 1994; Mathes, 1985; Ferris, 1991; and Wanken, 1981).