The Ojibway Tribe is one of the biggest and spread out bands of Indians in North American, with over 150 bands, mostly in the Northeast and Canada (Editors). They are known by a variety of names, as one historian note, "The various tribal names in use include Chippewa, Ojibway, Ojibwa, Ojibwe, Anishinabe, and Anishinaabe" (Child 117)
Students at these schools did make lifelong friends, often with members of other Tribes who were also boarding at the school. Another writer states, "Considering the centuries of intertribal antagonisms, or merely the linguistic and cultural differences among many pupils, the school did provide an environment in which young Indians from a great number of tribes learned to adjust to each other in a remarkably short time" (Coleman 142)
Another author notes, "[D]uring the six years they had attended reservation boarding school and resolved to reacquaint them with Anishinaabe ways. Having been separated from their mother for six years, only the oldest daughter retained any knowledge of the Anishinaabe language and translated conversation for all the others" (Meyer 117)
She writes, "There are several explanations for the derivation of the word 'Ojibwa.' Some say it is related to the word 'puckered' and that it refers to a distinctive type of moccasin that high cuffs and a puckered seam" (Roy)
The Native American boarding schools may have meant well, but they forced families apart, they abolished Native language and traditions, and they eliminated Native culture and religion. One young boy says, "But as he grew older, he says, he began to understand the implications of his schooling and to recognize the equally important value of the Chippewa education: 'Nothing the white man could teach me would take the place of what I was learning from the forest, the lakes, and the river'" (Spack 135)
Another author notes, "Truancy, a direct result of population movements, emerged as a contributing factor to the creation of Indian boarding schools in the twentieth century. Clearly, Ojibway families were inclined to let nothing stand in the way of traditional harvests" (Vennum 155)
Captain Richard Henry Pratt was one of the leading proponents of this movement, believing that he could "kill the Indian and save the man." (Marr)
They tied their legs up, tied their hands behind their backs, put them in the middle of the hallway so that if they fell, fell asleep or something, the matron would hear them and she'd get out there and whip them and make them stand up again." Joyce Burr, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa/Oglala Sioux who lived at Wahpeton Indian school from 1952 to 1959 also reports beatings for offences ranging from climbing trees, to not making her bed quickly (Kelley)