Lengths of Stay at the Lincoln Institution

In 1899, in response to complaints about the conditions at the Educational Home, Mary McHenry Cox responded with a list of 319 students who had been at the Lincoln Institution¹. The information on the students included when they left the Institution, together their location and employment in 1899.

Combining this information together with the date of their arrival (when available) allowed the creation of the following histogram of the length of stays:

Many of the shortest stays are from the Sioux party that were sent by their tribe in 1884 and are described in the 12th December 1884 Philadelphia Times article². Most of them left after less than 2 years at the Institution.

It is impossible to say why Indians left the Lincoln Institution. It could be ill-health, inability to master English, disciplinary problems, requests from family, or a host of other reasons. There are peaks in the length of stays at 5 and 3 years³. Some Indians stayed for a lot longer than 5 years, the longest staying person was David Black / Back who was at the Lincoln Institution for a little over 10 years.

References

1. NARA.

2. See doc798.html

3. These lengths of stay are confirmed in the Lincoln Institution Annual Report for 1898.

Document History

• Created by MB 2025-07-25