From the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries, American Indian boarding schools began popping up across the United States. The goal was simple, albeit wrong, a plan to civilize or assimilate Native American children into European American culture, the dominant White society that had driven them from their ancestral homes. The story of Indian Boarding Schools is complex, filled with resistance. Many of these schools denigrated Native American culture while simultaneously providing a basic Western education. Over the course of a few decades, boarding schools were established by Christian missionaries of various denominations, often under the direction and funding of the federal government. Additionally, the Bureau of Indian Affairs launched off-reservation boarding schools, which also were based on the assimilation model.

In North Dakota, dozens of such boarding schools had been established, including several on or near the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. Many students were sent to the Fort Totten Indian Board School, which had opened in January of 1891. Sioux children were the first students at the boarding school, but were later joined by Chippewa children from the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, as well as many others.

Around 1908, the Bismarck Indian School opened in the capital city. Like many boarding schools, it had a rocky history. It closed for a short time in 1917, partly due to World War I. The school reopened two years later and became an all-girl institution in 1922. Many Turtle Mountain Chippewa girls attended the Bismarck Indian School where the curriculum was focused primarily on domestic skills like sewing, cooking, and cleaning. The school closed permanently in 1939, marred with a history filled with resistance as many students and their families greatly disagreed with the school’s forced assimilation into Euro-American society.