Whirlwind School: A Case Study of Church-State Relationships in Native American Education

Abstract

Whirlwind School, which had been established as a government day school on Cheyenne-Arapaho land in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), was ordered closed in 1901 because a Cheyenne community camped around the school instead of living on their individual and allotments. The Episcopal Church reopened the day school in 1904, and its missionary teachers fought to keep the school operating despite Indian agents' attempts to close it in order to transfer the children to residential schools. The former Cheyenne warrior, then Episcopal deacon Oker- hater ("Making Medicine"), was at the school during its 20-year history but ap­ parently was not involved in the conflicts between government agents and missionary teachers that resulted, finally, in the closing of the school in 1917. It is suggested that the official reasons for the government's closing of the school (teaching in Cheyenne, the Cheyenne living around the school instead of on their assigned parcels, increasing peyote use, inadequate industrial training) masked a more basic reason: it had failed to promote the views of the government.