Wichita was once home to a thriving Indian school just north of Wichita State University at the present site of the University United Methodist Church. In 1915, Henry Roe Cloud founded the only Native American-run college preparatory in the U.S.
Researcher Lyndon Sequoya Drew, a Cherokee, studied the school and its leader.
The Roe Indian Institute opened in Wichita as one of the first college preparatory schools for Indian boys in the country. Drew says the school was founded in 1915 by Henry Roe Cloud, an educator and minister from the Ho-Chunk Nation of Nebraska.
"He was a Winnebago Indian and he was especially interested in higher education for American Indians, so he did a number of things in that field including this American Indian Institute here in Wichita."
The school, formally named the Roe Indian Institute, eventually was renamed the American Indian Institute in 1920. Cloud went to schools on and off the reservations and eventually, a private school in Massachusetts. Drew says Cloud was very smart…
"He went to Yale University which of course is still a respected university but back then it was part of the elite."
Cloud was the first Indian to receive his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Yale and was an advocate for Indians. He was orphaned at the age of 13. While in college, he befriended a missionary couple Walter C. Roe and Mary Wickman Roe. They adopted Cloud who took on their name. Cloud eventually came back to the Midwest.
"He chose Wichita because we are in the center of the county and also it's an agricultural area, and of course he focused initially on that and so he put it here even though he was not from Wichita," Drew says.
Cloud was intentional about what students would learn.
"He wanted to make sure it reflected the culture of Native Americans as well as promoting higher education, so it was important that it promoted culture not just taught kids," Drew says.
Many of the students went on to become community leaders.
"Jay Hunter, for one, because he helped found the Mid-America All- Indian Center way back in the 70s and Hunter Health Center is named after him," Drew says. "He was a coach at Plainview High School back in the 40s so he had a long career in education himself and part of the community here in Wichita."
Another student was artist Woody Crumbo, who was well-known in the Indian community.
"The Mid-America All-Indian Museum has a garden dedicated to ... Crumbo," Drew says. "It's located behind the Mid-America All-Indian Museum between it and the Keeper of the Plains."
Drew says enrollment grew at the American Indian Institute long into the 1920s.
"…from a few people at the beginning to 100s of students after that. It only diminished during the 30s, of course — everybody was having a hard time during the 30s, so that's when it eventually closed."
Afterward, Cloud went on to work on Indian policy at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, followed by a return to Kansas.
"He went to Haskell Institute up in Lawrence, also an Indian school, so that's another important part of his life," Drew says.
Cloud died in Oregon in 1950. Four years later, Cloud Elementary School opened in Wichita, named in his honor. Also, Yale University has a dissertation fellowship named for him. Drew says Cloud was a Native American with deep influence.
"It's really a great piece of Wichita History that more people need to know about."
To learn more about Henry Roe Cloud and the American Indian Institute click here.
