Indian College

In the 17th century, Harvard University established the Indian College in order toeducate Native Americans, but it was not a success and disappeared by 1693.

History

In the 1640s, Harvard faced a financial crisis, which it attempted to resolve by obtaining funds toeducate and convert local Native Americans. As a result,Harvard's charter of 1650 called for "the Education of the English and Indian Youth of the Country."Harvard obtained funds from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England,which agreed to build a two-story brick building in Harvard Yard. This building, the College, wascompleted in 1656. However, no Native American students attended it at that time, and it wassuggested that the building be used for English students instead. The building was also used tohouse a printing press, which printed John Eliot's translation ofthe Bible into Massachusett between 1659and 1663.

At least four Native American students attended the college:
* Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck and Joel Iacoomes were classmates. Members of the Wampanoag tribe from Martha's Vineyard, they attended a preparatory school in Roxbury and were admitted to Harvard for a scheduled graduation of 1665. A few months prior to graduation, Iacoomes returned to Martha's Vineyard to visit his relatives, but was shipwrecked on Nantucket on the return trip and not seen again. Cheeshahteaumuck successfully graduated but died a few months afterwards in Watertown, probably from tuberculosis.
* John Wampus entered in 1666, but left the next year.
* A student named Eleazar entered in 1675, but died of smallpox shortly thereafter.

Owing to the ill-health of Native American students,the building was little-used for its intended purpose. The press was disused by 1680,and when Harvard Hall was completed in1677, English students moved out of Indian College. Harvard officially closed the press in 1692 and tore down the building in 1693,intending to use the bricks to construct a new building. The Society for the Propagation of theGospel in New England, by then known as the New England Company, asked that Native American students"should enjoy their Studies rent free in said building."

References

* Web page at Harvard University on the history of the Indian College.
* Book chapter from The Other Islanders at the Nantucket Historical Association.
* Ceremony Honors Early Indian Students, in Mass Moments, a newsletter of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.
* John Eliot and America's First Bible, web page at Sola Scriptura.