Otoe-Missouria Tribe
Education - Stories
Grace Kiheaga: "Grandpa White Horse.... was a great doctor in Otoe. My grandma (Sallie Whitehorse) was a great woman. She too, was a real Indian doctor. She worked with grandpa. He cured many of his people in the Indian way.... I follow them, but I don't go in when grandpa is doctoring. I keep out. But my grandma works with him. If it's a woman, my grandma doctor the lady. A woman gets sick, grandma takes care of her. Then my grandpa, he takes care of the man if he sick, but my grandma still works with him. They both work together..." (Otoe-Missouria Tribe, p. 37)
 "Photograph of George and Truman Dailey")
Truman Dailey: "In older times, there were four categories
boys might strive to achieve. The highest rank was to be a leader. He could be
a leader for his people. If he couldn't do this, then the second rank would be
a warrior. Protect the village. Get him to sacrafice his life for the people.
Now, if the boy couldn't make any one of these, the next he could be a hunter.
He could provide food for the village as well as himself. The next one he might
do was to study medicine, or to become an apprentice by attaching himself to an
old man who had this knowledge. It took him ten to fifteen years. The medicine
people are in charge of the health of the tribe. There are also some medicine
women." (Otoe-Missouria Tribe, p. 30)
 "Photograph of Otoe Agency School")
John Childs: "I went to school over here... I would say that I was about seven
or eight and there were about eight kids that went to school here, who lived in
the dorm. All government schools are strick with the children. Lots of them
used to run away. They would say, 'Let's run away and go on home.' School just
went half a day. The rest of the day, we did painting, carpentry or farming. We
had cattle and grew our own food... At that time we had a watchman whose job
was to walk around the school and so forth. If anybody ran away, well he went
after them. We also had an interpreter." (Otoe-Missouria Elder, p. 28)
 "Photograph of the Red Rock Longbranch School")
Truman Dailey: "My parents told me to go to school. What my
parents said, I followed it. My grandma said, 'You must always try to be an
Indian, in your heart and thinking, although you are going to live like a white
man.'" (Otoe-Missouria Elders, p. 33)