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Students and staff/Roberts’ Mission
9. Students and staff in front of Roberts’
Mission, ca. 1890 (Beatrice Crofts)
 John
Roberts worked closely with the Arapahoe clergyman, Sherman Coolidge,
in both his education and missionary work. Roberts’ family
also worked with him to make a success of the school, struggling
continually from a lack of funds. Rev. Roberts laid out the schools
irrigation ditches, planted the orchards, taught Bible studies and
led evening prayers. His daughter Gwen was the principal teacher
and his wife Laura helped in all aspects of the work while raising
her own family of four. The child in the kilts is Roberts’
son Edward. In addition to holding services at the Fort and surrounding
communities, as far as Thermopolis and Dubois, Rev. Roberts acted
for a number of years as Superintendent of the Government School
where he also held services for the students.
Robert’s mission, like all reservation schools, had to follow
government policy in enforcing English as the primary language.
Like the other reservation schools, the mission was almost entirely
self-supporting, with a large garden and its own cattle and chickens.
But there were significant differences. Students might line up in
an orderly fashion for classes and chapel but the girls at Roberts’
Mission did not drill as they did at the Government School or even
St. Michael’s and St. Steven’s. More significant, discipline
was less strict and punishments less severe, factors which Pansey
St. Clair remembers as the reason her father originally sent her
to Robert’s Mission rather than to the Government School:
My Dad used to talk about it. It was really strict. “They
went by the whip.” I think that’s what he said, that’s
the way he put it. Some of the them [the parents] didn’t
want to send their kids down to the boarding school. They would
rather have them at the mission because they thought that they
would be more adapted to their religious life. A little every
day good old religion don’t hurt anybody....I’d say
the government schools were kind of belligerent. They always wanted
to fight each other. (Dolly Rowan)
While no English was permitted at all at the Government School
and students might get whipped with rubber hoses if caught, girls
at Roberts’ Mission were allowed to use their native tongue
while playing together or when not in class and punishment was usually
a matter of sitting on the bench or standing in the corner during
recess:
When we went with Gwen, we didn’t talk too much the language
(Indian). She said that we would always be in White society, which
is true. We always had to speak English—you could talk she
wouldn’t punish you, but you couldn’t talk to her. If
I talked Indian to you, you might punish me, but they got over
that. They decided it was their native tongue. Why not use it?
(Dolly Rowan)
Mrs. Rowan recalls that she put her time “on the bench”
to good use, by memorizing to multiplication tables.
The schools also differed in the work their students performed.
Girls at Roberts’ mission learned to peel potatoes and to gather
eggs. Older ones helped younger ones bath, And all learned to hem,
darn, and embroider tea towels out of flour sacks. But while homemaking
skills were emphasized, most of the cooking and heavy farmwork were
done by hired help. The larger schools which enrolled both boys
and girls emphasized vocational training and skills such as carpentry,
farming or baking and student labor was essential to their economy.
Despite these differences, life at the Mission was primitive and
students—especially the older girls, worked hard.
My Dad used to talk about it. It was really strict. “They
went by the whip.” I think that’s what he said, that’s
the way he put it. Some of the them [the parents] didn’t
want to send their kids down to the boarding school. They would
rather have them at the mission because they thought that they
would be more adapted to their religious life. A little every
day good old religion don’t hurt anybody....I’d say
the government schools were kind of belligerent. They always wanted
to fight each other. (Dolly Rowan)
While no English was permitted at all at the Government School
and students might get whipped with rubber hoses if caught, girls
at Roberts’ Mission were allowed to use their native tongue
while playing together or when not in class and punishment was usually
a matter of sitting on the bench or standing in the corner during
recess:
When we went with Gwen, we didn’t talk too much the language
(Indian). She said that we would always be in White society, which
is true. We always had to speak English—you could talk she
wouldn’t punish you, but you couldn’t talk to her. If
I talked Indian to you, you might punish me, but they got over
that. They decided it was their native tongue. Why not use it?
(Dolly Rowan)
Mrs. Rowan recalls that she put her time “on the bench”
to good use, by memorizing to multiplication tables.
The schools also differed in the work their students performed.
Girls at Roberts’ mission learned to peel potatoes and to
gather eggs. Older ones helped younger ones bath, And all learned
to hem, darn, and embroider tea towels out of flour sacks. But
while homemaking skills were emphasized, most of the cooking and
heavy farmwork were done by hired help. The larger schools which
enrolled both boys and girls emphasized vocational training and
skills such as carpentry, farming or baking and student labor
was essential to their economy. Despite these differences, life
at the Mission was primitive and students—especially the
older girls, worked hard.
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