The U.S. government paid the school and agents $167 per student per fiscal year toward the upkeep of the school. The students came from 40 different tribes. Many of the tribes were mortal enemies. Students ranged in age from 6 to late teens. The highest enrollment at the school was 599 students.

Upon arriving by train to the stile stone steps, they were herded to the school dormitories. Their long hair was cut off, they were deloused, given new white names and forbidden to speak their native language. The students were forced to give up their native dress for uniforms.

They were taught reading, writing, math and white man’s history. The girls were also taught cooking, sewing, laundering and housekeeping. The boys were taught farming, animal husbandry, blacksmithing, harness-making and painting.

The school was run as a military school. Students were taught to march as if in the army on the parade ground. Discipline was severe, including beatings, withholding food and jail for those who broke the rules.

The Indian school children hated the school. If they ran away, a warrant was issued for their arrest, and a bounty paid. From a loveable family life, the happy, free-roaming children were forced into a prison-like life, ruled with an iron hand.