[Six Scarce Issues of] The Indian Leader.] together with [28 Pieces of Ephemera Related to the Haskell Institute]

Lawrence, Kansas: Haskell Institute, 1938. Very good. 10¾" x 7¾". Stapled wrappers. Pp. 32-55. Publication sequence: Commencement Numbers: Vol. 37, No. 40 (Jun 8 1934); Vol. 38, No. 37-38 (May 24 1935); Vol. 40, No. 37 (Jun 18 1937); Vol. 41, No. 36 (Jun 17 1938); Fiftieth Anniversary Homecoming Souvenir Program (Nov 10-12 1934); Fiftieth Anniversary Number: Vol. 38, No. 11-12 (Nov 23 1934). Generally very good or better: some light spotting and staining to wrappers, two with inked name of former owner; a few small stains, scattered light spotting and creases.

Together with:

[28 Pieces of Ephemera Related to the Haskell Institute]. Lawrence, Kansas: [circa 1930]-1938. Items range from 5" x 2" to 7¾" x 10¾". Generally very good.

This is a collection of rare printed ephemera documenting the Haskell Indian boarding school, as well as six scarce issues of its official news publication, The Indian Leader. The issues also function as heavily photographically illustrated programs for four years' commencements as well as the school's 50th anniversary celebration.

Haskell Institute was founded in 1884 as a residential boarding school for Native American children in Lawrence, Kansas. It is now a college serving members of federally recognized Native tribes known as Haskell Indian Nations University, and is the oldest continually operating federal school for American Indians. The Indian Leader is the world's oldest Native American school newspaper, and students from Haskell's print shop were responsible for its printing from the start. In the 1930s, Dr. Henry Roe Cloud, a Yale graduate and the school's first Native American Superintendent, named himself the paper's editor-in-chief. The Leader of those years, and the ones on offer here, was known for its high quality of reporting, focusing on global current events, general happenings around Haskell and within the United States government, sports and student life, and social news regarding the school's alumni, faculty and staff.

The present issues of The Indian Leader are significant not just for their scarcity and physical condition, but also for their vivid documentation of specific and important school events. Four of the issues are deemed a special "Commencement Number," and serve as a combination newspaper, yearbook and graduation program for the years of 1934, '35, '37 and '38, respectively. Also present is the "Fiftieth Anniversary Number" of 1934 and that same year's "Fiftieth Anniversary Homecoming Souvenir Program."

The books are rich with photographic images and detailed narrative, providing histories of the school, faculty and staff reports, commencement addresses, news of former students and of other Native schools and agencies. There are group portraits and lists of "Commercial," "Vocational" and "High School" graduates, identifying hometowns, tribal affiliations and placements into new fields of work. Each issue reveals student clubs and activities with a large focus on sports, including shots of teams and individual athletes, rosters, schedules and scores. There are dozens of great images of students training for new trades such as child care, cooking, carpentry, gardening, plumbing, printing and "arts and crafts." We meet the winner of "Posture Queen" three years running, the students voted "Campus Brave" and "Campus Queen," and the 1938 book has a full-page aerial shot of the campus.

The "Fiftieth Anniversary Homecoming Souvenir Program" ran a summary of the "Pageant of the Wa-ka-rusa" as well as the game's starting line-up, "Band Concert Program and Line of March For Parade." There were photos and bios of coaches and athletes, one page introducing the South Dakota competition, updates on "Former Haskell Football Stars," a few ads and lists of contributors. The "Fiftieth Anniversary Number" reported that Haskell had won the game, and there is a shot of the team in Indian headdresses. It also covered the "Throng at Haskell's Golden Jubilee," the "Potawatomi Celebration" and an Armistice Day address by Kansas State Senator Arthur Capper. Nearly every book ended with a colophon noting that it had been "put into type and printed by students in the Haskell Print Shop."

This collection also documents day-today life at the school, with a number of printed invitations, programs and ephemera. These include a list of "Worth While Books For High School Students" and a grammar card, "Compliments of the English Department," as well as programs for musical performances, graduation exercises, religious services and a student awards ceremony. Five items announced the school's upcoming 50th anniversary, including a flyer of "Interesting Facts About Haskell." Several of the items (and at least two of the issues of the Leader) belonged to a teacher in Haskell's Home Economics department, Lora Mendenhall. Mendenhall had previously taught at Chilocco, and left Haskell to become head of Home Ec at the Concho school near El Reno, Oklahoma in 1939.

While The Indian Leader is generally well-represented in institutions, exact OCLC holdings are difficult to ascertain. We conducted a thorough search and determined that the present issues are likely to be held at fewer than ten institutions. OCLC shows two additional entries for holdings of Commencement Number issues, but none with the ones here, and we found no entries for either of the Fiftieth Anniversary issues. Similarly, we found only one holding of any of the present ephemera: a "Haskell Institute Celebrates Fiftieth Anniversary" announcement, at the Kansas City Public Library. A detailed inventory is available.