Teacher Elaine Goodall Eastman, who described herself as a Sister to the Sioux, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Many talented and dedicated educators have devoted themselves to working for disenfranchised groups of students. One of these was Elaine Goodale Eastman, who often described herself as a “Sister to the Sioux.”

When she was just a young woman, Elaine, originally from Massachusetts, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Contrary to prevailing opinion of her day, she believed very strongly that it was best to keep Native American children at home rather than transport them far away from their families to Indian boarding schools. She hadn’t taught on the reservation very long when she was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Indian Education for the Two Dakotas. In this capacity, she travelled throughout the five Dakota reservations, visiting the more than 60 government and missionary schools within her jurisdiction, and writing detailed evaluation reports on each school she visited.

It was because of her work that Elaine just happened to be visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation when the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre took place. As a result of this tragedy, more than 200 men, women, and children from the Lakota tribe were killed, and another 51 were wounded. In addition, 25 government soldiers were also killed, most by “friendly fire,” and another 39 were wounded. Following the massacre, Elaine and her fiance,  physician Charles Eastman of the Santee Sioux tribe, cared for the survivors and wrote detailed government reports to accurately describe what happened.

In her later years, when America was experiencing a back-to-nature revival, Elaine and her husband operated Indian-themed summer camps in New Hampshire. Read more of the life story of this fascinating educator in Theodore D. Sargent’s biography The Life of Elaine Goodale Eastman, or an encapsulated version in my book,  Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, both available on amazon.

Pioneer and author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the popular Little Houseseries, once worked as a teacher in a rural one-room schoolhouse. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Most Americans have heard of famous author and pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder. They have either read her Little House books, or they have watched the syndicated television series called Little House on the Prairie, which was based on her books and was popular in the 1970s. But did you know that Laura was once a rural school teacher?

When Laura was a child, her family relocated frequently to wilderness areas, because her father wanted to indulge his desire to settle land in unknown territory. The Ingalls family traveled into thick woods, across vast prairies, through raging rivers, and over icy waters in their covered wagon. Their journeys included settlements in Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa. Finally, the family settled in De Smet, South Dakota, where her father claimed a homestead. These pioneer experiences became the source material for Laura’s children’s books, which have been read by millions over the 60 years they have been in print.

Laura was only 16 years old in Dec., 1883, when she took an examination with the county school superintendent and was granted her teaching certificate. She taught her first term at the Bouchie school, a rural one-room schoolhouse, that winter. She taught her second term in the spring of 1884, and her final term in the spring of 1885.

Laura’s first teaching job was a difficult one fort her. Her school was located in a small settlement 12 miles away from her family’s home, and she boarded in the home of a family who was always arguing. The students she was expected to teach were nearly her own age, and Laura felt that she had little control over her class. Laura was also very homesick.

After Laura married her husband, Almonzo Wilder, she left the teaching profession. But she continued her work as an educator by home-schooling her one surviving child, Rose Wilder.