Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions
Record Group 1
Scope and Content: Series 2-1 School Reports

BCIM Series 2-1 School Reports: The pupil attendance reports comprise the bulk of the documentation, which were submitted quarterly as documentation for funding dispensed to Catholic schools by the Bureau of Indian Affairs through the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions (101 total schools from 14 states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) whereas the statistical summaries were submitted annually to the BCIM by Catholic schools in the United States that served primarily Native American pupils (112 total schools from 19 states: 14 above plus Alaska, Maine, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania). The reports are arranged alphabetically by state, there under by locality and mission school, and chronologically within each folder. 

Attendance Reports

Before 1904, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) dispensed funding to Catholic schools from federal sources via the BCIM. The amounts dispensed were calculated according to the enrollment of eligible tribally enrolled pupils listed on quarterly attendance reports submitted by the schools. From 1877 to the 1890s, school officials submitted simple handwritten reports without forms that listed the names and ages of pupils displayed on one or more pages.

During the 1890s, schools switched to reports that followed a standardized multi-page format required by the BIA. In most instances, school officials accomplished this by using government-issued forms. Initially, it requested statistical summaries about the school and its pupils, the names and duties of school staff, specific information about each pupil, and certification by both a school principal and the local Indian agent. The content and completeness of pupil information varied widely, and not all pupils were included. 

The 1890s also saw a decline of federal funding for private church-sponsored schools serving Native American pupils, which stopped entirely by 1900 and caused the closure of many of these schools. Following discussions between Monsignor William Ketchum and President Theodore Roosevelt, the government began a pilot program with a few private schools, in which pupils’ tuition payments would be financed by their tribes’ trust fund accounts. To be eligible, the pupils’ parents were required annually to sign petitions that documented their permission for their children to attend that private school. This practice began as a limited pilot program in 1904, which expanded to all interested schools after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Quickbear v. Leupp, in 1908. Thereafter, it continued until a tribe’s account became depleted. By state, all accounts were depleted as follows: California: 1930s; Oklahoma, Oregon, Wyoming: 1960s; and Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wisconsin: 1976. Thereafter, many Catholic schools closed.

Statistical Reports

The intermittent but annual statistical summaries were solicited and compiled by the BCIM. They note whether the school was a boarding and/or day facility during the reporting period, the numbers of its lay and religious employees, the names of affiliated religious communities (orders), the amounts and sources of financial support, the number of total pupils with breakdowns by gender and average attendance, the numbers by religious and ethnic affiliations, and the number of times various sacraments were administered.

Access to the Records

Catholic school administrators created their attendance reports in triplicate. They retained the first copy and forwarded the second and third copies to the BCIM, which retained the second copy and forwarded the third to the BIA. Today, Marquette University holds the BCIM record copies within the Series 2-1 School Reports and the regional branch repositories of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) hold the BIA record copies, which are interfiled among the respective BIA agency records as non-restricted records that are available only through on-site research.

About Related Correspondence

All related BCIM correspondence, such as school contracts, funding transmittals, parent petitions, and related BIA correspondence with BCIM is interfiled in the BCIM Series 1-1 Correspondence. Both BCIM Series 1-1 and NARA records contain such administrative correspondence. However, most parental petitions are found in NARA records only.

Reformatted Records: The microfilm version of the Series 2-1 School Records is not available via interlibrary loan.