The Talking Trail: Stewart history as told by those who lived it

When Stewart Indian School was started in 1890, its purpose was to Americanize the children of area tribes.

They were not allowed to visit their families, speak their native languages, or practice their customs. They were forced to wear uniforms.

According to Sherry Rupert, executive director of the Nevada Indian Commission, “early on, there were terrible stories of punishment.”

“The main goal of the federal government at that time was to assimilate these children into American society,” she said. “They didn’t have mothers and fathers,” she said. “They had dorm matrons.”

But over the years, she said “it became a place where Native Americans wanted to come.”

Many of the students were brought to Stewart at age 4. They didn’t leave until graduation at 18.

She and more than 100 tribal members from around the state along with state officials and First Lady Dawn Gibbons gathered at Stewart Friday to celebrate the opening of the school’s “Talking Trail” — a 20-stop, self-guided tour of the most historic buildings and sites at Stewart along Carson City’s southern border. At each stop, visitors use their cellphone to listen to stories told by former students who attended the school and longtime former employees.

Rupert said most of the stories the remaining alumni tell are positive.

The story of the carpentry shop, for example, was recorded by Hilman Tobey. Now 93, Tobey graduated from the school in 1937 and went on to a career in carpentry and construction.

“I have good memories, I sure do,” he said. “1926 was my first year.”

He said that over his career, he helped build a lot of things he can still look at in the Carson area.

Everett Chucko Williams wore the mahogany, silver and abalone shell bolo tie he made in lapidary class sometime in the late 1940s. He said he attended from 1946 through 1950.

“It was beautiful here,” he said. “I was always glad to come back.”

Stewart was the only off-reservation boarding school for Indians from 1890 until 1980 when it was finally closed. Now state property, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Washoe Tribe Chairman Waldo Walker said his mother was among those who attended the school because her mother was an alcoholic and unable to care for her.

“They were kind to her, but they could not give her what she really wanted — the love of her mother,” he told the audience.

Nevada Historic Preservation Officer Ron James said Stewart is “one of the most remarkable reservation schools because the students built this campus.”

“The (historic) importance of this school should not be underestimated,” he said adding that federal officials are discussing whether it should be a national historic site.

It was the students who built the stone buildings now considered the most important and historic at Stewart.

The event was held on National American Indian Day, also declared Nevada Native American Day by Gov. Jim Gibbons. Rupert said the purpose of the “Talking Trail” is to preserve Stewart’s history for all visitors. The cellphone audio system, she said, is being paid for by the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority. The Nevada Tourism Commission provided grants for the trail’s signs, brochures and rack cards to guide people.

Gibbons said it wasn’t just members of the Washoe and Paiute tribes of Nevada who attended but Indians from a dozen different Western states tribes.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.

See the photo galleryhttp://nevadaappeal.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=602059&;CategoryID=22589&ListSubAlbums=0photo gallery.

See video shot by the Travel Nevada blog on the Stewart Indian School Talking Trail.