Most Up-to-date List of Genoa Indian Boarding School Attendees Released
The Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and History Nebraska on Thursday released a list of known, named students who attended the Genoa Indian Industrial School, The school was located in Genoa, Nebraska, some 100 miles from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Completed in 1884, the Genoa Indian Industrial School operated for 50 years until 1934. Thousands of Native Americans from various tribal commuiteis and states attended the school in its half century of operation.
The 177-page list of names and the sources listed were compiled through research efforts of the Genoa U.S. Indian School Foundation and the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project. In the document, information collected from the GIS Foundation is in black, and information collected from the Genoa Digital Reconciliation Project is in purple and blue.
The list is derived from a variety of sources—school newspapers, graduation documents, student records, and more—and only shows the name, listed tribal affiliation (when known), and the source naming the student. As such, the list does not necessarily show the full years of each student’s attendance, nor dates the student entered or left the School.
“As I understand, there are still names from census records from 1885, 1900, and 1910 that need to be added to the list, with an additional approximately 500 children appearing on the 1885 and 1900 census lists alone,” Judi M. gaiashkibos of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs said in a statement about the release of the list of names.
Researchers at the Foundation and Digital Reconciliation Project are actively working on updating these lists with those names, and any others that turn up through their continued research. It is our hope that the NCIA and HN can be a better bridge between these two separate but interconnected research projects to allow for more regular, complete progress updates on all of the efforts surrounding the search for the children lost at Genoa.
Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and History Nebraska are continuously updating the list. Anyone with additional information or records should contact the Commission or History Nebraska.
CLICK to go to the student list.
About the Author: "Levi \"Calm Before the Storm\" Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print\/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net."
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