Tuesday February 9, 2010    6:09 PM

Fort Spokane was an old soldiers fort at one time, situated near where the Spokane River empties into the Columbia. It was a beautiful place during the years around 1898 while the government boarding school was in progress there. Usually there were about 200 children enrolled, sometimes more, but seldom less during the school term, although the place was never completely deserted, even during summer vacation, since the Colville Indian Agency was also situated there. So if some of the children were so unfortunate as to have no home to go to, they could remain there indefinitely.

The buildings were old but had been well built and were clean and comfortable, with all the conveniences available at this time and place. There was a wide and roomy campus which was almost completely surrounded by the buildings and which provided space for many of the good times enjoyed there.

Before the school had been established there the Indian Agency had been located on the other side of the Spokane River in some old buildings which had been used for accommodating the officers of the fort. A narrow foot bridge extended across the Spokane River was used by the officers when going to and from headquarters. But after the Army had vacated the fort to participate in the Spanish-American War, the Indian Agency was established there and later removed to where the soldiers' quarters had been located on the south side of the river.

The employees of the Indian Agency consisted of the Indian Agent, a clerk or two, a farmer for handling all the farm questions, and a doctor. There were always more or less Indian families from the Spokane or Colville Reservation either living or visiting around the agency. Many of them were there on business and some merely to settle either neighborly or family squabbles. For the Indian Agent had many chores, from the marrying of a couple to being chief advisor to all Indians from both the Spokane and Colville Reservations,

When school started in September the Indian children from' several reservations gathered there, even some from Alaska. But when collected there at Fort Spokane, they became one large family, for they all worked under one head and that head was the school superintendent whose Uncle Sam.

They had school, or classes, only half of every school day, and they learned how to work, the other half, which was just as important to these children, many of whom still had been living in a very primitive way at home. Once a week the boys and girls lined up and were detailed to work, the girls in the kitchen where they learned cooking on a large scale, where wash boilers instead of stew pans were used, and how to set tables making them look neat and inviting.

The girls were also detailed to work in the laundry where they learned to wash clothes, also on a large scale, but where ironing became something individual and more to their size, for there were many dresses, pillow cases, aprons and beautiful, shiny tablecloths to be ironed in the right way.

Then there was the sewing room, where many of the girls received their first lessons in sewing. Everything, even straight seams, were carefully basted and made as nearly perfect as possible by dint of much ripping and rebasting, to the satisfaction of the seamstress in charge.

Some of the girls worked in the dormitory, where they learned to make beds well and to see that the pillows were placed just so, with not a wrinkle showing anywhere. Here they learned to sweep and dust, after which there must not be a speck of dust anywhere for, woe to the one on whose shelf or desk the inspector could write his or her name.

Across the campus the boys were also being detailed to their places of work for the week. Some were sent to the garden, if at the right time of the year, where potatoes, corn, tomatoes and other vegetables grew. Others were detailed to milk and care for the cows, feed the pigs and chickens and look after the horses, besides doing other chores. There was a large barn on the place, and the boys learned a lot about farming on a small scale. Most of the boys lived on small farms at home, so this training would not come amiss: but for boys who had ambition to become something else, Fort Spokane was far from being adequate, for it was only a grade school,

The children were well cared for, both physically and mentally. School sessions were started with the singing of hymns, scripture reading and a word of prayer. Children of every denomination were respected for their beliefs, and there was no distinction made as to which was the best. The school was definitely interdenominational. Catholics and Protestants were in constant association with each other and the religious training never wavered from the solid foundation of a school, when the love of God was remembered and taught to be remembered long after school days were over.

Sometimes the steady routine and strict discipline, which were a necessity in such a school, became irksome to some of the boys and occasionally to girls also, and they would run away, afoot and flat broke but happy to be headed home, no matter how far away their homes were, These escapes were foolish and nearly always resulted in complete; failure, for if the four Indian policemen did not catch them before they reached their home, they were sure to be waiting patiently for them when they got home, and in a very short time the unhappy children would be on their way back to school, on horseback this time; sometimes the one horse carried both captor and captive.

Then at the end of the trail, the very weary youngster would soon be placed in a guardhouse where he could have a few days to meditate on the age old problem of whether "it paid or not."

This must have been the guardhouse which had been used by the Army in days gone by, for it was made of brick and was as near escape-proof as a strong, well-built guardhouse could be, with iron bars across the 2' x 1 1/2' windows. On the gray, dingy walls of one dark and dreary sveldt was the inscription, "Give me liberty or give me death." Who wrote these tragic words? We never knew.

Dan Sherwood, San Brown, Tom Flett and Jerome Pascal were the policemen. These men were always on guard night and day to catch the young folks before they had gone very far. For in this way they had a lot less riding to do and the children were not, 50 tired. But occasionally some of the youngsters managed to get away in spite of their watchfulness. The foot bridge the soldiers had used in days gone by came in very handy here. For it was easy to cross the river afoot and find accommodations among the Indian homes on the Reservation. The men could not take their: horses across on the bridge and were obliged to go about three miles downriver and cross on the regular, bridge which took valuable time, for while they were doing that the runaway could be well on his way.

Sam Brown often told of two girls for whom he was searching so diligently that, while with his hand shading his eyes, he sat on his horse scanning the distant hills. He missed finding them, lying beside a log right under his nose. The two girls grew up and never ceased to remind him of the fun they had watching him trying to find them.

Two other girls escaped and got home a way up in Montana. This was too far for the police never did get them back. The main reason for most of these runaways is because it helped a lot to keep the school from becoming so monotonous.

It was hard for the Indian children to become adjusted to a new way of life, because if they could not speak English they were greatly handicapped at the beginning as they had to learn a new language even before they could understand why they were brought there in the first place. And while they had always lived in teepees or small cabins with their own people, they were now placed in large, very strange-looking homes. among people who were perfect strangers to them in every way. But they learned fast, and were speaking in this strange language as soon, or I should say, much sooner than the same number of white people could have learned to speak the Indian language, because the Indian language is a very difficult one to learn and almost impossible to write, since the sounds cannot be spelled and pronounced to sound anything like the original language.

There was one boy, about 16 or 18, who could not, and did not take it. He was a full blood Indian boy who seemed to have a grudge against school from the first moment, so he ran away. They caught him and brought him back, and he ran away again at the first opportunity. Then they locked him up in one of their strongest cells with heavy iron bars across the small windows. The next morning the boy was gone. They looked at the badly bent bars and shook their heads. He was a small boy for that age, and what he had apparently done seemed an utter impossibility.

The Indian police took out after him on horseback. That afternoon they spied the boy. He was still running, but he had reached the foot of a steep, rock cliff, which looked to the men like a good place to catch up with him. But the fleet-footed boy had made up his mind that he was not going back to school so he started clambering up the rock cliff which was almost straight up. The men just stood and watched him, almost afraid to breathe, for it seemed that any moment he would fall to the sharp rocks below. Up and up he went, until he reached the top and quickly disappeared, still running. The men heaved a sigh of relief. This boy was desperate they would not trouble him any more, for he was from Yakima and that would have meant a long horseback ride. just for the chance that a runaway boy should decide that he wanted an education. For it was one thing to give a child an education when he wanted it, and another thing to force it onto one who was so much against it.

One day the school children who were becoming lonesome for home and loved ones got a never-to-be forgotten break. A stranger was placed in the guardhouse for safekeeping, or for some misdemeanor, and later was suspected of having smallpox. Immediately the alarm was sounded and someone, very much frightened and feeling the heavy responsibility of so many children at such a time, decided that the best way to prevent the spread of the dreadful disease, was to let them leave the contaminated school grounds and head for home.

No sooner was the word given than the children began scattering in every direction, downriver, upriver and through the thick pine trees that almost surrounded the school. The whole school was in a panic, and children of every size began taking full advantage of the wild state of affairs. No rule of the school was more strict than the one against smoking, but a little boy of about ten, went strutting dawn the sidewalk with a cigarette between his lips, a look of complete satisfaction on his grinning little face. Those who saw him were shocked, but at heart they admired his courage, while they regretted his foolishness, for he was a very likeable boy and one who had many friends, friends who were to remember the smiling little face just as it was at that time, for many years to come.

But to return to my story: The employees were helpless to stop the children, for the news had spread like wildfire, and people everywhere opened their doors to let the happy, but a little bit frightened children in, for it had not been many years since smallpox had swept through the country and had taken the lives of hundreds of helpless members of the northwest Indian tribes. After many of the children had found their way home, it was decided that the smallpox scare was just a false alarm. What a disappointment! It was a whole month before school would be out, so the superintendent sent out word for all the children to come back. Mast of them returned because there was no way out of it. But some, who could muster up a reasonable excuse, managed to stay at home. I was one of the lucky ones for I had injured my knee in a fall and was not compelled to return to school. I was quite contented at the turn of events and I congratulated myself, although in September I was wild to reach Fort Spokane in time far the opening day, and rode horseback a whole day to get there. But that year they decided that we should all be vaccinated for smallpox. It was a new experience for me and I was very much ashamed of myself, because of all the school, I was the only one who was a poor sport. I almost fainted and had them all rushing around for a chair and a drink for me.

The children were always glad when school started in September but then after being away from home all winter, with not even a Christmas or Easter vacation or a single holiday at home to ease the terrible loneliness, they grew very weary and school days ceased to be happy days although they grew more exciting each day, until the time just seemed to grow longer instead of shorter, they were so anxious to get started toward home and their loved ones.

One year, when there were only two more weeks of school, some girls felt that they could contain themselves no longer; two weeks seemed more like two months, so thinking that school was so nearly out, they might try enjoying a little liberty by way of breaking same of the small, but not too important rules. This was a lot of fun at first, as no one seemed to mind, or else no one seemed to have caught them at it. Rules such as standing correctly in line, or doing our work well, being polite and respectful toward our teachers, and never grumbling when receiving our orders.

So as the days went slowly by the girls tried to make the days a bit livelier by breaking some of these rules, growing a little bolder each time, till one day, just a couple of days before school was out, they became possessed with the idea of crawling out through an upstairs window and out onto the porch roof. This was really silly, for the only pleasure they got out of doing it was the satisfaction an unruly child gets out of doing something that would be forbidden.

Of course they were almost instantly spied, sitting up there so impudently, and were ordered to go to the superintendent's office immediately.

This they did, still glorifying in the fact that no matter that happened, they would soon be on their way home anyway, and that no punishment they received could last more than two days, and could not possibly be too severe. What was their surprise and grief when they heard their sentence, "Two more weeks of school, beginning the day school is out!" For after all, rules were made for a purpose, and the school employees were paid to see that they were kept, as far as it was in their power to do so.

All in all, the teachers, matrons, supervisors and other employees were grand people, and old Fort Spokane was a wonderful school. If we did not learn anything it was simply because we were not interested.

Then there were the fire drills, which were always thrilling as you never knew when the fire bell was going to ring, or If it was telling the truth when it did. It would order us to line up, if it rang during the daytime, or to get up, if it was at night. We put on some sort of a wrap as we lined up or grabbed our clothes as we ran. Very quickly we were in line, and quietly, with hearts thumping wildly, marching downstairs and out on the sidewalk, where we soon found out whether it was a really and truly fire, or just make believe. In either case the boys who were an fire duty would grab a fire hose or water bucket or ladder and in double quick time, get to work, whether it was an imaginary fire or otherwise.

Most of the time it was just a bit too welcome excitement, which soon died down, but twice while I was there it was the real thing. Once it was the agency building. It did not take the fire boys long to get there; but the building was so old and dry, that it burned like kindling. Everybody was excited, especially the agency men who were in charge and giving orders. 111 giving orders at the same time, orders so badly mixed up that no one heeded any of them. One agency clerk attempted to remove a 1000 pound safe from its place. Being too heavy for him to manage alone, he called far help. A man grabbed hold of the safe and tried to help him. When suddenly the clerk, who was acting like a wildman, remembered something. Grabbing the door, he jerked it off its hinges and threw it down to save marking, up their nice floor. Needless to say the safe crushed the door into splinters, while the men laughed at his "thoughtfulness" In a few moments the building, floor and all went up in smoke.

The other fire was in what was called the big girls' building, and the fire drilling proved to be a lifesaver, for this was also a large, wooden building which had been partitioned off into many small rooms, and it had been used by the soldiers at one time. It was just right for the large girls of the school, who were divided into groups of three or four and each group given a room to care for and to enjoy as their own.

One night I awoke with a sore throat. Right away I realized that smoke was the cause of it, and springing from my bed I saw that my door was partly ajar and a thin cloud of smoke was floating in. I ran out into the hallway. It was full of smoke. First waking the matron, I then ran to the door leading to the basement and threw it open. The smoke came pouring out. Slamming the door shut again, I told some of the girls to take some pitchers and run for water, while the matron and some of the girls who were on the first floor tore upstairs to waken the other girls, who were all sleeping soundly.

In the meantime, other girls ran to ring the firebell, while still others kept busy carrying water in gallon pitchers and pouring it in a spot in an old place from which most of the smoke was coming, for the fire had evidently started from the fireplace and was still centered there.

It was about midnight, but it seemed no time at all until the boys were right on the job with all the fire equipment. By this time the fire had become pretty well advanced and was almost to the roof, but was still between the walls. So by cutting holes in the walls and turning the hose into the openings, the blaze was soon under control.

One man became so excited that he scampered up a tall ladder and peered anxiously into one of these holes just as someone on the other side thrust in the water hose. The force of the water struck him squarely in the face, knocking him off the ladder and to the ground. He happened to be one of the employees and was a very strict one; consequently some of the boys got quite a kick out of watching him pick himself up out of the mud. He was not hurt in the least. In fact, he was so excited that he seemed scarcely to realize what had happened to him.

Fort Spokane was not unlike many other boarding schools or places where cooking was done on a large scale; it was not like home cooking, although strange as it may seem, most complaints came from the children. who had very little food at home and where some of the home cooking had been done over an open fire.

The food at Fort Spokane was good; nevertheless, as is often the case where food is cooked in large quantities, some of it was cooked too much and some not enough. Also there was sometimes too much of one kind, and not enough of another. Never was there enough time for some of us to eat what we wanted, unless we were able to eat a meal in 15 or 20 minutes and be satisfied. He were told to eat very slowly and to be very polite at the table, but some of us would often forget these orders in our almost frantic efforts to clean our plates before the bell rang.

One thing seemed to bother some of the boys at all of the meals. There was never enough sweets to satisfy them. The cakes and cookies, what little they got, were very good, but the pies, so often made of dried apples, were not always good and the blueberry tarts almost all of the children liked, and syrup they could never get enough of. To remedy this deficiency some of them got their heads together and worked out a secret plan. In some way the secret leaked out and another group of boys decided to play Secret Service men.

The bread, cookies and pies were made in the school bakery, where a small, nervous and over-worked baker worked patiently and constantly to teach some of the boys the trade, in hopes that he might thereby get some help from them in return, He was a very good baker, but teaching those boys to bake anything was more work than doing it by himself. They were always scheming to mix pleasure with their work, which often resulted in more pleasure than work for them, and more work than pleasure for him.

To put a few slices of bread or hardtack in their pockets at mealtime was easy. There was very little objection to this breech of etiquette. It was not hard for the boys who worked in the bakery to sneak out a few dozen cookies every time they wanted to, for either the baker was too busy to watch them, or he did not care. The secret plan was to get into the commissary while the others were all at dinner, and carry away a five-gallon can of syrup. This they took out into the small pine trees and there they proceeded to enjoy their' private picnic, which usually lasted as long as the bread and cookies held out. It had never been very uncommon for some of the boys to miss dinner, for it was considered their own hard luck.

After their sweet lunch, they very carefully hid the syrup, and after washing all signs of the syrup off their faces, they returned to the dormitory happy in anticipation of the many picnics to be enjoyed with that can of syrup. What they did not know, was that eager eyes had been spying on them all this time, and another group of boys "the Secret Service men," were already enjoying the can of syrup and when they had eaten all they could hold, they would hide it in another place, where the first boys would probably never see it again unless they were lucky enough to find it.

One day some of the big boys decided to have a chicken dinner. The windows of the chicken house were broken already, but they were so small they were unable to crawl through, so talking a small boy into cooperating with them, they let him crawl in with instructions to pick out the best and biggest. Then to their horror they spied the superintendent coming toward them. They ran, leaving the small boy in the chicken house. He had just caught a chicken and was passing it out the window, with the excited remark, "Here's a nice big one," He almost fell over when instead of his partners in crime, he beheld the superintendent. Of course the little fellow was compelled to turn state's evidence and all of the boys received their just dues, which either meant a few days or weeks in the guardhouse or a whipping with switches which stung sharply and were held in dread by any boy.

There was a small store about two miles from the school, where children lucky enough to have a nickel could spend it. Here they could buy candy, gum and cigarettes.

The road to the store ran down along the river, and was a lovely walk for the children to take on a Saturday afternoon, after the floors were all scrubbed and everything set in order at the school. For the next day being Sunday, the place must be spic and span, without even a speck of dust to be found anywhere in the living quarters or dining room and kitchen.

While walking along the dusty road, which wended its narrow, winding way through the pine trees, we could watch the river flowing swiftly below us. Across the river we could see the distant hills, green and beautiful. These hills seemed always beckoning to our lonely, young hearts, for back there in the hills was....home. Below us, too, could be seen an old, tumbled down shanty; the remains of what was once a Chinese camp. To the boys it was a place of never-ending explorations, for a fellow could dig up things he had never heard of before, Relies of bygone days and curiosities of every sort. Many of them were very strange to these little Indian children who knew nothing of how the rest of the world lived.

It was here that our first real tragedy was enacted. But if this old camp could have told us stories which may have originated and ended there they probably could have told of many more tragedies. This was the tragedy of three little school boys. One of them was the little boy who smoked the cigarette during the smallpox scare. I can still remember him as on that day, for he was a dear little fellow.

They had wandered too far from the school grounds, and went down to the tumble-down shanty and there, finding boards and poles, had built themselves a raft. There were four of them and they were filled with the spirit of adventure. When they were ready to push out into the water, three of them climbed onto the raft, but the other one demurred. He was not as adventuresome as the others, so remained an shore. It was he who carried the news of the tragedy back to the people at the school. He said the raft held together until it reached about the middle of the river, then it just seemed to fall apart, and one by one, the boys disappeared from sight. A sad, but beautiful memorial service was held for them at the school. The bodies were all recovered later. This was a terrible tragedy, and one which we never forgot.

The holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years were always celebrated. Thanksgiving meant turkey with all the trimmings, and many other things to go with it. At Christmas we always had a Christmas program, and I must say, they were really good, far the children were good actors and memorized their parts well.

Like all schools, a little competition was good for the children so occasionally we would have a debate. This was always exciting and we were very eager to join in whenever chosen; and how we did study to win! We usually had the subject in question pretty well thrashed out long before it was time, and at times the arguments became rather personal.

Ono debate I remember well, was whether or not we should allow the boys to play baseball on Sundays. The negative side won, but that did not stop Sunday baseball. Another question was whether women should work. It was decided that woman’s place was in the home. But again the decision did not prevent the women from working just as usual. We joined in the debate of the nation, over Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft, presidential candidates, and we wore their campaign buttons to prove our loyalty to our party. No adults ever took their politics any more seriously than we did. This was a very lively debate, and whether or not it had any influence on the outcome of the election is anybody's guess, but anyway, the winning side had been for Teddy Roosevelt, and we were quite happy about it. Then we debated on another question which to this day has not been settled and that is "Preparedness." We decided that we should prepare for war, in times of peace. We are still debating that same question.....

And I will never forget the terrible shock we received on hearing of President McKinley's assassination.

For recreation the girls played games such as London Bridge, Blind Man's Buff, Drop the Handkerchief, Button Button, and many others such as Fruit Basket Upset and Hopscotch.

We sang songs and told stories, wrote letters and did many other things that make life interesting to girls.

The boys played baseball, broad jump and ran footraces, they played Mumbledepeg and marbles, spun tops and a lot of other things for entertainment. They were allowed more liberty than were the girls, consequently they got into much more mischief, which led to more excitement and often to punishment, the punishment sometimes being a large handful of switches laid by the strong arm of our school superintendent, onto the bare backs of any who may have been too eagerly seeking excitement.

On certain days the big boys got really busy cleaning up. After they were all dolled up they went calling on the big girls. Here they played games such as Skip To My Lou, Farmer In The Deli, Drop The Handkerchief and Flying Dutchman, and had a good time until 10:00 o'clock, when it was time to go home.

Romance? Oh, yes! Fort Spokane was just like any other place where Young people are concerned, and besides, what would any school be like without romance?

BIOGRAPHY SKETCH

Frances Elizabeth Wynecoop LeBret of the Spokane Indians was born December 7, 1884 on Walker's (Tshimakain Prairie). She was the oldest child of Christine and John Curtis Wynecoop. From 1894 until the school opened at Fort Spokane in 1900 she attended the Ward Mission School near the old town of Kettle Falls.

At the age of eighteen she became the matron of the "little boys" at the Fort Spokane boarding school for the Indian children of the Spokane, Colville and Coeur d'Alene Indians.

On New Year's Day in 1904 at the age of nineteen she was married to James V. LeBret in Spokane, Washington. At that time she was a seamstress at the Fort Spokane School.

Her family included Mary (Tinnell), Millie (Lyons), Esther (Brown) and twin brothers Jim and John.

Last Updated
December 21, 2004