The Thomas Indian School was founded by Presbyterian missionaries on the Cattaraugus Seneca Reservation in the state of New York. Parents send their kids out of desperation, seeing the school as an alternative to the poverty and disease many people lived in. Despite leaving bleak living situations, the students at Thomas encountered a new set of challenges such as forced assimilation and mistreatment.

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Source: Burich, Keith R. The Thomas Indian School and the “Irredeemable” Children of New York (The Iroquois and their Neighbors). Syracuse: NY: Syracuse University Press, 2016.