Boarding school memories

[riverotter]

As I write my speech to Phoenix Indian School Alumni, I am filled with my own memories. I left for Sherman Indian High School when I was 11. Home sickness was one of the hardest thing to cope with. I remember one lady wrote and to me her story. She said that at night she could here the young men, gathered in the dark between the buildings, singing their songs of home. It was the sadness of the moment that struck her most.

Someone once said that it is your role in the family that dictates you role in life. I was the oldest and I had to watch my siblings. At Sherman we had many little ones who would cry themselves to sleep at night. I would go to their rooms and sit with them till they fell asleep. I got punished alot for this, because I was not in my bed at bedcheck time. It did not stop me. Sometimes the kids would come to my room and fall asleep on my bed. One night I heard a niose and it was the night matron.She motioned me to be quite, then, one by one she carried the kids to their own beds.

I never got in trouble after that. My last thought as I fell to sleep was that we made it though another night and will let tomorrow take care of itself.