Pictures and Brief History of Umonhon Nation School
The main building at Umonhon Nation was built in 1973. For many years
prior to that time, there was no high school at Macy after the school
burned in a fire. At the completion of 8th
grade, students went to Walthill, Winnebago or a boarding school of
their choice to finish their high school education. Over the
years, a series of portable classrooms, a five-classroom brick
outbuilding and a metal classroom building were used for high school
classes.
In 1999, the high school moved to the main building and minor
renovations were made to the building originally designed as an
elementary.
A major addition of 11 classroooms, a distance learning lab, the
Cultural Language Center Huthuga (designed with elements of an earth lodge) and a commons
area/cafeteria was completed in the Spring of 2003. This addition
has made it possible for grade levels to be separated. After 30
years of being used in the morning and at noon as a cafeteria, the gym
is now available throughout the day for physical education.


The 'Big Building', Macy Public School
 A photograph, sent to me by Orville Aldrich.
Mr. Aldrich wrote, You can see the school in the back ground, it was basically where
the gymnasium now stands. I am going to do a painting of the building it
seems there are not many who took a picture of it. You can imagine how Macy
grew up around the school. Back when I was a kid near where the horse is
standing there was a water spring that ran all the time. Someone built a
water tank out of cement to water animals and also a spiget for people to get
water. As most of us had no running water until the late 60‚s early
seventy‚s a lot of people would fill up there water cans there. I know
Dennis Hastings real well he has done some good work with writing down our
history. The photo is only partial but you can see it was red brick building
and remained the same until it was torn down in 1971 or 72. The first high
school classes were in double wide trailers south of the tribal office. Well
when I get the painting of the school done I will send you a copy. I have
lived in Arizona since 1973, left Macy when I was very young. I graduated
from University of Arizona and got my Master degree at the University of
Phoenix, had a 25 year teaching career with the BIA. I am now a counselor
with the Tohono O‚odham Community College. My family still lives there
or close by. Ima Jean Aldrich is my sister she was a teacher for many years
around Macy and Winnebago.
 Aerial Photography at TerraServerMicrosoft shows an aerial view of the town and school campus.
Use the navigator to the left to find your own town, or zoom in and out
and pan using the buttons, or simply click the picture. HIGHLY
ADDICTIVE mapping tool! This is an photograph of Macy,
Nebraska. The (old) school is to the right of main street which
cuts the photo almost in half vertically. The new addition (not
pictured) wraps around the existing west and north walls of the
building.
Administrative History of Umonhon Nation Public School
Listings of the high school principals and superintendents who have
served Umonhon Nation Public School. Thank you to Jo Meyer and
John Mangan for their research and submissions
How Public Education Started on the Omaha Reservation
The first (white man's) school on the Omaha Reservation was the
Blackbird Presbyterian Mission which stood approximately 2 miles north
of the current town of Macy on the bluff overlooking the Missouri
River. The readers cannot see it from this small photograph, but in the
print hanging in Omaha Way commons area of the new addition, close
inspection will reveal tiny faces in the windows of the mission house.

One review of the boarding school movement, the philosophy and the results is available here.
An overview of the Omaha Tribe with a short segment on the Blackbird Mission School is found in here. This information was gathered and compiled with assistance from Dennis Hastings, Omaha Tribal historian
This Page was last update: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 11:21:22 AM
This page was originally posted: 3/29/05; 3:03:59 PM.
Copyright 2010 David Friedli
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