American Indian Culture and Research Journal

On July 1, 1904, the new school year began at Sherman Institute, a nonreservation Indian boarding school in Riverside, California, with an enrollment of 722 students. By November 14, 1904, nine of these students were dead. Seven of the children died from an epidemic of typhoid fever between October 29 and November 14, and at least thirty-five other students were stricken with the disease. Yet in his annual report to the commissioner of Indian Affairs, Sherman Institute Superintendent Harwood Hall did not mention the deaths of these students. Instead, he stated only that in the fall of the year they had been troubled with some sickness. By most accounts, Hall was a man dedicated to the health and well-being of his young Indian charges, yet he chose not only to dismiss the deaths of the seven children killed by typhoid fever in the fall of 1904, but the deaths of four children earlier in the year as well. This exclusion was particularly relevant because the 1904 mortality rate at Sherman Institute exceeded that of all previous years combined, including those at its predecessor, the Perris Indian School. The death of eleven children, seven of which were from typhoid fever, was clearly an uncommon occurrence. In his official report, however, Hall did not acknowledge that anything out of the ordinary had transpired, apparently deciding that the deaths of these children were irrelevant to his report. Prior to becoming superintendent of Sherman Institute, Hall had been superintendent of the Phoenix Industrial Boarding School (hereafter, the Phoenix Indian School) near Phoenix, Arizona. The school had been established in September 1891 for the specific purpose of preparing Native American children for assimilation. By the time Hall arrived at the Phoenix Indian School in 1893, the school had already experienced considerable growth and was on its way to becoming a major component in the federal assimilation program. During his tenure at the school, Hall fostered this growth, equating it with progress and accomplishment.