This Page Last Updated September 2006
The Abenaki of Moor's Charity School & Dartmouth College
Ne-Do-Ba received copies of two articles from the 'Dartmouth Alumni Magazine' concerning the Native students of these two institutions. The first was titled 'The Dartmouth Indians' published Dec-1929 and written by Eric P. Kelly. The second was titled 'The Dartmouth Indians; 1800-1893' published Jun-1930 and written by Leon B. Richardson.
We have included some of the text of the two articles and compiled a list of the ABENAKI students along with the notes about them from the two articles. You will also find a few notes of our own which will appear below each student listed. There are some errors in both articles and some differences in the names given in the two lists. The second article generally gives more information about the individuals. There are also many other Native Americans that are named in the two articles, but not listed here.
We have also included the text of a letter dated November 11, 1777 from Rev. Eleazar Wheelock to Chief Joseph Louis Gill at St. Francis, concerning the progress of and problems with the Abenaki students.
Please remember to keep things in perspective when reading the sometimes derogatory notes made by school officials. Being so far from home and family is often a traumatic experience, even for the brightest of people. These young men were probably just as intelligent as their white counterparts, but perhaps not motivated to 'book learning' or comfortable with the religious environment of the school. We also have no way of knowing how these boys were treated by the regular students or faculty - but suspect they were looked down upon by both.
P.S. St. Francis & Odanak are the Abenaki Village located at St. Francois-du-Lac, Yamaska, PQ, across the St. Francois Riviere from Pierreville.
extracted from: Dartmouth Alumni Magazine 22:2 (Dec 1929) Pg. 122-125
The Dartmouth Indians
By ERIC P. KELLY
That characteristic of Dartmouth history which has ever remained one of its most picturesque and romantic traditions is the story of the Dartmouth Indian. Frederick Chase and John K. Lord exhausted all the supply of general information in their excellent histories, but there remains to be written a detailed history of the individuals of the race that sent so many students to Moor's Charity School and to the college itself. There is hardly a Dartmouth gathering anywhere at which some reference is not made to the Dartmouth Indian, but who that Indian was and what he did have had but little special attention. And yet it was probably the efforts of Samson Occom, an Indian, in England, when he raised a sum equivalent to about $66,000, that determined the success of the Moor School and Dartmouth College.
Indians are mentioned in nearly every book written about the college, yet outside the names of Occom, Joseph Brant, Charles G. Eastman and more lately John Meyers of baseball fame, there is little familiarity among the alumni with the names of the Indians who have attended Dartmouth and the Moor School since 1743. Yet that unwritten history of the Dartmouth Indians fairly sparkles with romance. Some of the early Moor School men were engaged in the Brothertown enterprise in New York where an attempt was made to settle a colony of Indians who would live as white men did. ...
There were Indians from Dartmouth who blazed trails into the West. There were Dartmouth Indians who led scouting parties in the Revolution and engaged in the war on both American and British sides. One Indian in Hanover thought himself the Lost Dauphin, or Louis 17th of France; another was at the age of 14 elected King of a tribe of Indians in Canada; another went back to Canada a hundred years ago and founded a church and a school that have continued until this day. And this is but the beginning. The records are scattered over so many books, letters, diaries, and manuscripts that it will require years of patient effort to collect them all. ...
extracted from: Dartmouth Alumni Magazine 22:8 (June 1930) Pg. 524-527
The Dartmouth Indians; 1800 - 1893
By LEON B. RICHARDSON
... in 1770 the elder Wheelock had established Moor's School, dissociated from the College, as a convenience in drawing foreign funds. This school had been from the start a going institution, serving as a preparatory school for white children as well as for a training school for Indians.
... Despite the fact that no special funds were available for the purpose, Indians were maintained in this school until 1755.
...in 1800 John Wheelock determined to receive once again Indian pupils upon the foundation. He accepted two boys, and began to draw upon the Scotch society for their support. ... After all, the money was given for the support of Indians in Moor's School, and could be applied to no other purpose as long as that institution should exist. ... It was finally agreed that John Wheelock should be permitted to draw 90 pounds per annum, although the application of the money was hedged with the most exacting conditions of examination and approval by the Boston correspondents of the society. This arrangement continued until 1817. ... In 1827 the annual grant was fixed at 130 pounds, increased in 1840 to 140 pounds. From this time until 1893, Indians were continually maintained on the fund.
Moor's School was suspended in 1829, in order that its income might accumulate to pay debts owed to the estate of John Wheelock, and long overdue. Indians continued to be cared for, in other ways, during the interregnum. It was reopened in a new building (the nucleus of Chandler Hall) in 1837. About 1850 the school was finally closed. From that time some of the Indian students were accommodated in the Chandler Scientific Department, some were sent to Kimball Union and other academies, while a few, in later years, were placed in the Agricultural College, then located in Hanover. The fund in 1863 amounted to 4124 pounds. During this period (1827-1893) the number in attendance at any one time varied from one to five.
