History :

The Santee Normal Training School was founded by Alfred L. Riggs, an American Board member, in an attempt to train native teachers. As a boarding school, established in the winter of 1870-1871, it had an enrollment of 111 and an average attendance of 69. From 1870-1923, the school had 2,398 pupils on the roll. After 67 years, the school closed in 1937.
The Santee Normal Training School reached its high point in the 1890's, when it became in reality what its founder had envisioned it as being: a center of education for all the Sioux. Financial support from the government and religious societies were a mixed blessing. Besides its financial support the government tried to control what was taught at the school. For example, Riggs was constantly defending usage of the Dakota language while teaching. In 1886-7, he was ordered by the government to teach only in the English language. In Riggs' official report he pointed out that in the normal department of the school the use of Dakota was "indispensable to the best instruction." "Things, not names," he said, "are what the true teacher must grasp; then names come afterwards." He went on to further point out that the Santee Normal Training School represents "the high water mark of Indian advance more than any other school in the country." He reviewed its history and described its impressive physical plant, concluding: "And now this is to be dismembered and eviscerated by the order of the government.