Ruins of Old Rainy Mountain Boarding School

Gotebo, OK 73041, USA
GPS Coordinates: 34.994649, -98.844931

In 1893, the Rainy Mountain Boarding School opened south of Gotebo at the Kiowa-Companche-Apache Reservation. This was a typical reservation boarding school as part of the government's initiative to "assimilate" Native Americans into the white man's culture through education by separating children from their native customs, langauge, and even families, while giving them a rudimentary education.

There were specific stipulations put into treaties made with the Plains tribes relocated to Oklahoma in the 1860s. These treaties required the federal government to build schools and provide teachers for at least 20 years. In 1867, the Kiowas signed the treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek, however it wasn't until more than 25 years later that they got their promised school when Rainy Mountain Indian School opened up.

The school operated until 1920 when it was closed down and abandoned.
Unlike some of the well known schools, such as Carlisle or Phoenix, where students were taken far away from their reservation lands, Rainy Mountain Boarding School was close by and therefore mostly had the support of the Kiowa people. By the turn of the twentieth century annual enrollment averaged 130, exceeding the school's capacity.

Rainy Mountain had a very strict environment -- boys and girls were kept almost totally separated, hair cuts were forced upon arrival (removing traditional long braids), uniforms were provided, new English names were assigned, and the Kiowa language was strictly forbidden at all times.
Rainy Mountain provided a basic education through the sixth grade divided between academic instruction and practical skills. Girls were trained in domestic arts; boys worked in the school's various farming and industrial departments.

(See image Rainy Mountain Boarding School Zoomed)
The Classroom Building was erected in 1915 and was the last structure built at the school. Directly above it, you can just make out the foundations of the superintendent’s home and cellar. The home stood until the late 1990s when it was either hit by lightning or burned by vandals. Directly across from the 1915 building are the last remains of the boys’ dormitory – a 2-story stone building built from a quarry on the other side of the campus. When the school closed in 1920, members of the RM Church used stones from that building to build their current fellowship hall. Then, directly below the remains of the boys’ dorm you can just make out the corners of the original barn – a couple of brick corners are still standing.

(See image Rainy Mounta Boarding School Area)
Just a bit south of the peak of Rainy Mountain, there is a circle of cedars growing in the concrete tank that was built around 1900 as part of the school's gravity-fed water system. You can also just see some of the scars from where the pipes were laid to the right of the tank. If you stand in the center of the campus and look at the mountain in profile, you can still easily see a notch on the south flank where the tank was dug and then poured with concrete.

For further reading:
* "To Change Them Forever: Indian Education at the Rainy Mountain Boarding School, 1893–1920" by Clyde Ellis.

Sources:
* Wikipedia contributors. (2019, January 26). American Indian boarding schools. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:44, January 31, 2019, from en.wikipedia.org
* Ellis, C. (n.d.). Rainy Mountain Boarding School | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. [online] Okhistory.org. Available at: www.okhistory.org [Accessed 31 Jan. 2019].