What is the legacy of Federal Indian Boarding Schools in Illinois?

On the side of a busy road in suburban Cook County, an old gate pokes out of the trees. A rusty sign reads “St. Mary’s Cemetery” with a cross extending up on top. The little cemetery sits on the far corner of Maryville Academy’s campus. It’s a Catholic child care organization and residential school.

Back in the 1880s, it was known as the St. Mary’s Training School for Boys. It was one of two Federal Indian Boarding Schools in Illinois. Last year, the United States Department of the Interior released an investigative report about Federal Indian Boarding School policies that took Native children from their parents and communities in the 1800s.

More than 50 Native American boys were sent to St. Mary’s. Several of those children died at the school and, according to a dissertation on the history of the school, are still buried in that small cemetery.

Dave Beck is a history professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He’s been studying federal Indian policy for over 30 years. There are no federally-recognized tribal lands in Illinois. Beck says the Native kids at St. Mary’s were from South and North Dakota -- 900 miles away from home. Newspapers at the time chronicled parts of their journey, detailing the Native kids dancing together, racing local kids and drawing pictures of horses.