United States Indian Industrial Training School (Haskell)

Haskell opened in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1884 as an off-reservation boarding school called the United States Indian Industrial Training School. Haskell originally followed Carlisle’s model in providing agricultural and vocational education for Indian youth from grades one to five. Like other Indian boarding schools, early trades for boys were tailoring, wagon making, blacksmithing, harness making, painting, shoemaking, and farming. Trades for girls were cooking, sewing, and homemaking. Early education at Haskell was meant to prepare Indian youth for life in white-American society as laborers, farmers, and domestic workers, and to erase Indian identity, language, and culture.

Early Pawnee students that went to Haskell endured the same hardship as their counterparts that were sent to other off-reservation boarding schools elsewhere. Children were separated from their families and were forced to conform to a militaristic system of education and punishment.

Haskell underwent many changes throughout its history. In 1927, Haskell offered accredited classes, various post-high school courses, and most popularly, athletics, by the state of Kansas.

In 1970, Haskell became Haskell Indian Junior College. In 1993, Haskell once again changed its name to reflect the school's focus on being a place for Indian education, research, and cultural preservation and is now known as Haskell Indian Nations University.