... shown on Map 10. They were totally dependent on the Government for survival. The Indians were surrounded and protected by the U.S. Army. The Indians were held against their will, forbidden to leave, much as slaves are held. The Indians had no tools to build shelters.
The Indians had lost everything - lost a war, and their homes. They were homesick and many died of depression. Food stocks were uncertain and the crowding of so many people into such a small area meant game quickly became scarce. Only treaty Indians were eligible for government food rations. Even the Government food supply was not guaranteed. The majority, non-Treaty Indians, were faced with starvation.
Education on the reservation was intended to destroy the Indian's old way of life, to indoctrinate them into the ways of the non-Indian. Agent Benjamin Simpson likened educating "a mind that inhabits a savage body" to "putting new wine into old bottles."
"Mind and body must be civilized at the same time, and while the one is being stored with useful knowledge the other must be taught sober, steady, industrious habits; under such a system, not only will the pupils benefit, but they will contribute largely by their influence and example toward the elevation of their races from its barbarous condition."
Many starving, homesick Indians, desperate for their homelands, escaped from the Reservation and tried to go home. Most were tracked down and returned to the reservation.
