HASKELL CULTURAL CENTER & MUSEUM
VISITOR GUIDE
WELCOME
We're glad you're here! Since our establishment in 2002, it has been the focus of the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum to preserve and share our unique history with visitors from around the world.
As you view our exhibits, we invite you to step into the stories of our ancestors who were forcibly removed from their homelands and brought to these grounds.
Our museum is a place of remembrance, healing, and education, where we honor the resilience and strength of our communities who endured the trauma of boarding school erasure. As you explore, we ask that you approach with respect and humility, acknowledging the pain and suffering that occurred here. We also invite you to celebrate the revitalization of our languages, cultures, and traditions that continue to thrive today.
We hope that your visit will be a meaningful step towards understanding and reconciliation.
Travis Campbell Director Haskell Cultural Center & Museum
ABOUT
MISSION
Our mission is to enhance our visitors' understanding. It is our primary goal to preserve and share Haskell's unique history and to help visitors understand that tribal nations, their people, and their cultures, are not relegated to stories of the past, but are still here and thriving today. Haskell Indian Nations University stands as a part of the treaty obligations guaranteed to these tribal nations, and their citizens, by the United States of America.
VISION
Our vision is to share our history. It is our firmly held belief that history is taught accurately and honestly. Doing so allows our visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the past, its complexities, and its relevance to the present. Historical events shape our identity, inform our decisions, and influence our relationships with others. Accurate and honest teaching of history helps to promote critical thinking, empathy, and cultural awareness by presenting a nuanced and unbiased representation of the past. It also enables us to learn from past mistakes, build bridges between different cultures and communities, and develop a more informed perspective.
OUR HISTORY
The United States Indian Industrial Training School opened here on September 17, 1884. The school was originally established to forcibly assimilate tribal children into mainstream America. The United States wanted to solve the “Indian Problem” and viewed education as the fastest and most complete means of achieving that end. Twelve students were initially brought to Haskell by the US government as part of a feasibility test, where they were required to stay for a minimum of one four-year term. Most children ended up being required to remain for three or four terms. (12-16 years.) Early photographs of Haskell students show children as young as three or four having been removed from their families.
During their terms, the children were forbidden from returning home or having any family contact. Upon arrival children were removed from the train, and thus the beginning of their dramatically altered lives. Each was immediately stripped of all traditional clothing and belongings. Their hair, whether male or female, was cut into a short military-style crew cut. To these children, cutting ones’ hair would have been a mourning practice and a sign of significant trauma, such as the loss of a close relative.
Educational instruction was provided from grades one through five with special emphasis placed upon agricultural training. In an effort to provide income for the school, the crops raised by the students at the school were all sold with severe punishment administered to any child found to be stealing the produce meant for sale. They were strictly forbidden from speaking their tribal language, praying and practicing any spiritual beliefs or cultural norms, and were expected to attend church services and encouraged to convert to Christianity.
There were severe physical and emotional consequences applied to the children for failing to abide by these new rules. They were often subjected to inadequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Later, in the period from 1910-1933, they would have been incarcerated in the Haskell jail, but prior to its construction, fruit storage cellars were used to punish students.
In 1887, the school’s name was changed to Haskell Institute in honor of Dudley C. Haskell, who endeavored to bring the school to Lawrence. Dudley C. Haskell (1842-1883) was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1872, 1875 and 1876, serving as Speaker of the House in 1876. Haskell was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1876, serving from 1877 until his death in Washington, D.C. on December 16, 1883. He served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs from 1881 until his death.
Although the school was initially advertised as a specialized vocational school designed to provide domestic training and farm skills, due to underfunding, educational goals had become secondary by this point and the students spent a majority of their time laboring to keep the school operational. They did so in a number of ways, growing and selling produce, as previously described, wagon and harness making, shoe making, blacksmithing, dress making, tailoring. Additionally, student labor was used in construction projects around the campus and in the maintenance of the buildings.
By 1894 there were 606 Native students enrolled at Haskell representing 36 states. Around this time, an even stricter, military-like system was introduced and applied to all aspects of their daily lives to break any tribal associations that may have been forming.
At this time Haskell Institute expanded its academics to include education through high school and the Commercial Department taught the first typing class in Kansas, they were also beginning to train students to become teachers.
In 1904 the Haskell band and football team, football having been introduced in 1900, were progressing exceptionally well. The Haskell sports teams became renowned across the country, as did the Haskell
Institute band. Haskell Institute's band was exceptionally well-known having performed at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the 1905 World's Fair in St. Louis.
1926 saw the dedication of the football stadium which was the first lighted stadium in the Midwest. The money used to build both the stadium and the Arch was solely donated by American Indian people, among these being Charles Curtis, who later went on to become Vice President of the United States. This event, attracting over 200,000 visitors to the Haskell campus over the course of three days, remains the largest held in the history of Lawrence, Kansas.
In 1927 Haskell began to offer post-high school courses, although the military system was still in effect, the student seized any opportunity they could find to build inter-tribal alliances which provided them with the emotional, physical, and psychological support they needed to survive while at Haskell. For several years Haskell was the only governmentfunded school for Native Americans to offer a full four-year high school course of study.
In 1928, the Meriam Report noted that infectious disease was often widespread at residential schools due to insufficient funding for meals providing good nutrition, overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and students weakened by overwork. This report justified the complaints of the inhumane treatment of the students that Haskell was entrusted to care for, but fell upon deaf ears when it reached Washington.
A turning point for Haskell, and for Indian Education, came in 1933 when Dr. Henry Roe Cloud became the first Native American Superintendent of Haskell Institute. He was the first Native American graduate of Yale University and transformed Haskell’s environment from militaristic assimilation to one of re-organization, and finally to the emergence of an Indigenous voice. Students began to excel beyond the expectations of administration as did the school itself.
Dr. Henry Roe Cloud (1884-1950) was a Winnebago from Nebraska, orphaned at a young age, Cloud was educated in a series of government schools. He was the first full-blood Native American to attend Yale University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and
philosophy in 1910 and earned a Master of Arts degree in anthropology in 1914.
While an undergraduate, Cloud attended a lecture by the missionary, Mary Wickham Roe, a member of a prominent family involved in evangelical Christian mission work. He established a close relationship with her and her husband, Reverend Dr. Walter C. Roe. The couple adopted him, and he took their surname as his middle name.
His career with the Office of Indian Affairs focused on the efforts to establish modern schools for Native American youth. He became superintendent of the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1933. In 1947, he was appointed the Superintendent of the Umatilla Indian reservation. "In 1948, he was appointed regional representative for the Grande Ronde and Siletz Indian Agencies in Oregon. From 1910-1911 he studied sociology at Oberlin College. He attended Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1913. He returned to school and received a Doctor of Divinity from Emporia College, Kansas in 1932. In 1933 he was appointed Superintendent of Haskell Institute.
Under Dr. Cloud’s administration, Haskell began to stress the importance of teaching traditional forms of art and skills as early as 1934, changes begin to emerge within the vocational and technical training offered as part of its curriculum by 1935. Various clubs, activities, and societies began to form, and the students rapidly achieved academic excellence. Tribal students now attended Haskell willingly. During this period, the agricultural training program, which had existed since the school’s founding in 1884, was discontinued and the school’s farmland leased to local farmers.
This progressive change in administration allowed Haskell to begin to incorporate a trade school teaching students more advanced trades, such as: printing, nursing, business and other vocational trades like electrical work and refrigeration, in addition to receiving a high school diploma.
By 1942, just nine short years after Dr. Cloud’s appointment as superintendent, there was a marked increase in Haskell graduates using their education to return as staff and faculty.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s and a number of expansive building projects and at least one fire resulted in the unfortunate loss of some of Haskell’s oldest and most historic structures. Currently the Hiawatha Hall, Kiva Hall, and the Dairy Barn are the three oldest remaining structures.
In 1968, Haskell Institute graduated the last of its high school students.
In 1970, it was accredited as Haskell Indian Junior College, offering only college-level courses. As a junior college, Haskell offered associate’s degrees in the fields of: Business, Nursing, American Indian Studies, and Printing. Additionally, students had to option to pursue vocational training in eleven different fields.
Continuing with its educational progression, in 1993, Haskell Indian Junior College became accredited as a University and proudly changed its name to Haskell Indian Nations University.
In 1998, Haskell Indian Nations University graduated its first baccalaureate degree majors in Elementary Education and has expanded its degree offerings to include baccalaureate degree programs in Indigenous and American Indian Studies, Elementary Education, Business, and Environmental Science as well as associate’s degrees in Art, Creative Writing, Literature, Paraprofessional Education, Social Work, Speech Communications, Written Communications, Theatre, Community Health, Natural Resources, Natural Science, and Resource and Fitness Management.
The Haskell Cultural Center and Museum Opened on September 14, 2002. It is constructed of cypress logs donated by B. Keeton of Florida. For the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Cultural Center, Haskell was honored to host a delegation of Seminole elders who made the journey from Florida in order to bless the site as well as the donated lumber.
COLLECTIONS
ARCHIVAL COLLECTION
The Haskell Cultural Center and Museum’s archival collections consists of thousands of documents, photographs, and film footage related to the school’s history.
ART COLLECTION
Consisting of works by both well-known Native American artists and Haskell students, this collection stands as a beautiful testament to the cultural diversity of the tribal nations represented.
ARTIFACT COLLECTION
The collection ranges from priceless original objects to mass-produced replicas and are essential in preserving and sharing Haskell’s history.
FRANK RINEHART COLLECTION
The work of Frank Rinehart, while not as well known as that of Edward Curtis, is widely recognized as some of the most important pieces of Native American portraiture of the late 19th and early 20th century. These photographs, Rinehart and Muhr’s 1900 work at Crow Agency , Montana, in particular, is of great value to researchers, historians, and tribal people alike due to their candid nature and their representation of Native Americans of the time as diverse people encompassing hundreds of unique cultures spanning the continent.
GALLERIES
MAIN GALLERY
This gallery showcases the story of Haskell from its founding, its evolution, and the achievements of its students, alumni, and faculty over the decades. Through interactive displays, artifacts, and engaging narratives, explore the struggles and triumphs of Haskell’s Native American community, from its origins as a government boarding school to its current status as a premier institution of higher education for Native American students.
RINEHART GALLERY
Serving as our rotating exhibit gallery, the Rinehart Gallery also serves as the home of the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum’s unique collection of Frank Rinehart portraits.
VETERANS GALLERY
This poignant exhibit sheds light on the often-overlooked contributions of Native American veterans through photographs, artifacts, and personal stories.
OLYMPIANS GALLERY
Get inspired by the determination and excellence of these remarkable athletes and learn how their experiences at Haskell helped shape their journey to the Olympic Games.
HASKELL WETLANDS
The Haskell Wetlands, is a 20-acre natural area that serves as a vital wetland ecosystem. The site has a rich history dating back thousands of years, with evidence of human habitation by Native American tribes and early European settlers.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the wetlands were drained and used for agriculture in accordance with Haskell Institute’s farming program. By the cessation of the farming programs at Haskell in the 1930s, this land encompassed more than 600 acres. In the late 1950 the majority of this land was declared excess property by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and given away to various public entities with Haskell retaining less than 50 acres of the wetlands area.
In the 1970s, efforts were made to restore the site to its natural state. Today, the Haskell Wetlands is a thriving habitat for numerous plant and animal species, including rare and endangered species such as the bald eagle and the wood turtle. Visitors can explore the wetlands’ walking trails, birdwatching areas, and educational facilities to learn about the site’s history and importance to the local ecosystem.
MEDICINE WHEEL
The Haskell Medicine Wheel Earthwork is located south of the campus and was designed by Haskell professors, students, tribal elders, and crop artist Stan Herd. It was completed and dedicated in 1992 as a response to the 500th commemoration of the “Columbian Legacy.”
The Haskell Medicine Wheel Earthwork symbolizes the scope and richness of indigenous cultures, from the beginning of humankind to the present. The circle is symbolic of the perpetual and sacredness of the spirituality of native peoples. The spokes are the four directions. The circle marks the astrological locations of the Summer and Winter solstice and represent the death, rebirth, balance and healing in Mother Earth. The bear claw represents the strength needed for the survival of indigenous people. The thunderbird located to the east represents the spiritual traditions of tribal people and points to the sacred circle and sacred fire contained within the Medicine Wheel Teachings.
A stylized replica of the Medicine Wheel is inlaid in the floor at the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum as a way of balancing the campus with a medicine wheel on the north and south ends of campus.
