Employees and Students Fort Sill Indian School Lawton Okla. Dec. 5 1932. [Caption title] Native American

8" x 28¾". Good plus: staining along borders, with a few spots impacting the image; a few small chips and insignificant creases. According The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry? entry=FO039) The Fort Sill Indian School was founded in 1871 with 24 students and two employees. Within ten years, the school had many more students and 75 employees to manage the facility. "Because the school was located near Lawton, before World War II Fort Sill's student body was made up largely of Indians from western Oklahoma Comanche, Apache, Caddo, Kiowa, Delaware, and Wichita. This changed dramatically in the postwar era, however, as Navajo from New Mexico and Arizona began to be admitted. Within a few years they comprised 80 percent of the student population. The influx of out-ofstate Native students gradually declined, and by 1970 more than two hundred of the school's three hundred pupils hailed from Oklahoma. Until the 1950s the curriculum for males consisted of vocational and agricultural training, and females received instruction in homemaking. Thereafter, Fort Sill emphasized more of an academic curriculum, although vocational trades remained important. Students who attended Fort Sill came away from the boarding school with impressions that ranged from downright hatred of the school to enduring fondness for it. For some, the strict discipline and harsh punishment meted out at the institution made it feel more like a prison than a place of learning. Being away from family and tribal communities made the experience even more alienating. Others, however, enjoyed their time there, making lifelong friends, participating in extracurricular activities, and remaining Indian despite attempts by the government's educational machinery to grind it out of them." The school closed in 1980. This photo shows several dozen Native American students, along with some faculty, in December 1932.