National Register Listing

Employees' New Dormitory and Club

a.k.a. Building 232,Albuquerque Indian School,Bureau Of Indian Affa

Albuquerque Indian School Campus, Albuquerque, NM

The primary significance of the Employees' New Dormitory and Club Building is that it, along with four other structures (being nominated separately), is one of the few remaining relatively unaltered buildings on the campus of the Albuquerque Indian School, an institution important both in the record of Indian education in New Mexico and America and in the history of the city. The Employees' Building is a well-proportioned example of a Mission/Mediterranean style institutional building. It stands in contrast to the other buildings on the campus, being more detailed and less severe.

The Albuquerque Indian School is one of the oldest off-reservation industrial boarding schools in the country. It
is pre-dated by only two other such schools, the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania, founded in 1879, and the Forest Grove School (now called Chemawa) in Oregon which was begun in 1880.

Founded in 1881, the AIS was first run under contract to the federal government by the Presbyterian Home Mission Board. Its initial home was an old adobe house in Duranes, a farming community just north of old Albuquerque. In 1882' the school moved to its present location some 2 1/2 miles northwest of the New Town of Albuquerque on land donated by Albuquerque citizens. The first buildings on this new campus were inspected by the Territory's Indian Agent, Major Pedro Sanchez and two prominent Albuquerque citizens and accepted by the government in 1884. The school was sometimes called the Fisk Institute after the Hon. Clinton B. Fisk, Chairman of the Congressional committee which visited the campus in 1884. The management of the school was entirely transferred to the U.S. government in 1886.

Like other off-reservation schools modeled on the Carlisle School, the Albuquerque Indian School was run on militaristic lines. One student remembered the "Sunday dress parade" "when each student carried a 'dummy rifle' and was 'dressed up like a regular army." The curriculum stressed basic literacy and vocational training. A 1908 Albuquerque promotional booklet noted that among its facilities:

there are complete blacksmith and carpenter shops machine shop, plumbing, steam fitting, electrical and
engineering shops.... The girls are taught housework and domestic science, sewing, cutting and cooking.... The boys are given regular drilling exercises and maintain a brass band and other organizations.

The school early adopted the "outing system," under which girl students were sent to do domestic work in various homes in the city and the boys were sent to work on farms, usually the sugar beet fields in Colorado, or on the railroad. This system had been used successfully, i.e., it immersed Indian students in Anglo customs and expectations, first at the Carlisle Indian School and then at many off-reservation schools throughout the country. Since the goal of Indian education was assimilation of the Indians into Anglo culture, all teaching was in English and students were discouraged from retention of any of their tribal customs.

The school had several superintendents from 1884 to 1908 and each new superintendent had to start again the process of lobbying for better facilities and increased staff. The attendance rose from around 150 in the 1880's to 357 in 1906. In this year there were 219 Pueblo children in the school, 127 Navajos, eight Apaches and one Papago, one Shawnee and one Wyandotte. Pueblo children always constituted the majority of the students. Parents were often reluctant to send their children and were often supported by the Catholic priests in the pueblos who distrusted the school, at least in part for its Protestant origins. Other problems confronted the school: access to the city and the poor condition of the soil. In 1903 Superintendent James Allen persuaded the citizens of Albuquerque and the commercial club to donate funds for purchase of a road to the school from Fourth Street. Indian School Road, although now partially obliterated by Interstate 40, still serves as access to the school from the west. Allen also began work on reclaiming the alkali soil surrounding the school so it could be productively farmed.

In 1907, the school was chosen for an experiment in broadening the religious offerings at government Indian
boarding schools. Commissioner Frances Leupp requested that Catholic services and instruction be offered on a regular basis and the program was successfully carried out; Catholic nuns came to the school every Saturday and Sunday afternoon to give instruction. Ministers from various local churches conducted services on Sunday evenings and students who were affiliated with denominations attended their respective churches on Sunday
morning. Rules guaranteeing religious rights of the students at the Albuquerque Indian school were urged as a model for other government Indian schools with large Catholic populations. In 1908 Reuben Perry, a man with fourteen years experience in working with the Indians, was appointed Superintendent, a position he was to hold until 1933. Under his guidance the Indian School grew: its enrollment by 1929 was 927 students and Mr. Perry successfully lobbied for a building program to keep pace with the increasing number of students under his administration, all of the buildings being nominated to the National Register were built as well as many which have been demolished. Lillie Mckinney, who served at the Indian School for many years and who wrote a history of the school summed up Mr. Perry's work thus:

The old administration (Mr. Perry's) can look back upon a magnificent school plant, a fully developed four year high school course, an organized and perfected system of trades best suited to the Indians of the Southwest, the best band organization in the state, a reclaimed school farm, an increased enrollment and per capita cost, a splendid native arts and crafts department, an expert athletic organization, the installation of a completely new sewerage, heating and water system, the finest Indian school hospital, clubhouse, gymnasium and barn in the Indian service, the perpetuation of those traditions and legends most dear to Indian boys and girls, and a friendly
relationship with churches, schools, and the Universtiy of New Mexico.'

Mr. Perry weathered the criticisms leveled at the government's entire Indian education program by the Meriam Report issued in 1928 and by a magazine article entitled "The cry of a Broken People" (one of several attacking Indian education). The Meriam Report stressed the need for a home environment for Indian children and advocated use of on-reservation day schools. It also descried the standard content of the curriculum at the Indian schools and argued that young Indians did not belong in a boarding school. The magazine article accused the Indian boarding schools of mistreatment of their students. It generated a local investigation of the Albuquerque school which cleared the school of all charges.

Under the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, (Commissioner from 1933-1945) the boarding schools, AIS among them, increased their extra-curricular programs and in particular added more training in traditional Indian crafts. The AIS already offered weaving and pottery; silversmithing, Indian embroidery, wood carving and Indian art were added in the early 1930's. By 1935 many of the military routines were abolished. The school underwent more change in curriculum and student body in the 1950's when the Bureau of Indian Affairs
determined that the boarding schools were to be used for students with special needs or those with no access to public schools or on-reservation day schools. In particular, the AIS enrolled many hundreds of Navajo 'overaged' students as part of the Navajo Special Education Program.

Following the trend in increased Indian control of Indian education, in 1976 the New Mexico All-Indian Pueblo Council assumed operating responsibility of the school, renting the buildings from the BIA. In a preliminary report on the feasibility of this move, the authors note that "the physical plant and grounds are a disaster in many portions of the site.

The buildings are old. They are in poor repair. The atmosphere is one of an educational yesterday.' This is hardly
conducive to meeting the needs of the students or the staff in positive ways." This year the school moved to the campus of the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, which began life as an Indian Boarding School in 1890.
The school's departure reduces to one the three historic institutions located on the northern edge of the city that offered accommodation and academic and vocational training to Indian and Spanish-American children. St. Anthony's orphanage, founded in 1914, was closed in 1965. Still thriving is Menaul School, which had its origins in the same small Presbyterian school' from which the Indian School grew. When the government took over the operation of the Indian School, the Presbyterians founded the Menaul School as an elementary school for boys of Spanish-American background from northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. By 1906 it had expanded to include a high school and became co-educational in 1934.

Beginning with the donation of land by several local citizens, the Indian School has a long history of local pride and support. The 1908 Albuquerque promotional booklet quoted above states with satisfaction that the school "is one of the largest and most successful Indian schools conducted by the government." In the same year, the Albuquerque Morning Journal proudly reported that the school's trades program "showed ... that the government is striving to give the Indian practical working education, both literary and industrial, and those advocating more manual training in the schools, would do well to pay a visit to the Albuquerque Indian School."

The schools' athletic teams have always participated in city tournaments and have won several state championships in its division. Its band often furnished music for various city and state functions; a newspaper story of a performance for the New Mexico Education Association reported that "the military uniforms and soldierly bearing of the A.I.S. players presented a striking picture on the stage and their playing was one of
the big hits of the convention." Exhibits of the Indian students' handiwork.at the State Fairs were equally well received. And, as noted above, local businessmen gave financial support when the school needed a road for access to the city.

All the buildings still standing on the AIS campus post-date 1906. Many of the important post-1906 buildings have been demolished, including the 1935 stuccoed brick main school building, the 1919 Mess Hall, several large brick dormitories an imposing superintendent's residence, and the Mission Style central heating plant. Most of these buildings fronted on the old central plaza of the school, a flat grassy square shaded by tall elm, locust, and cottonwood trees and crossed by several paths which converge on a center circular area which once held a
bandstand.

The New Employees' Dormitory and Club Building stands apart from the main campus, separated by Indian School Road from the plaza. The architect is unknown, but its style clearly reflects the growing interest in Southwestern styles which crested in Albuquerque during the late 1920's and 1930's. Built after the BIA decided to offer a more home-like atmosphere on its school campuses this building is less formal and more welcoming than most of the buildings on the campus with its warm pink stucco, generous fenestration and definite yet simple entrances. It is the only building on the campus which encloses some private outdoor space for the users of the building. This marked difference from the rest of the campus buildings may reflect not only the new direction ordered in the design of campus buildings but also its different use since it was designed for faculty living, not for use as a classroom or a student dormitory. it is in excellent condition and its landscaping is being carefully maintained. At present it is the headquarters for the BIA Southern Region offices.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.