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08-06-11

This was our first trip to the Sherman Indian School Cemetery, and we did it along with Riverside, Ca based Paranormal Events Research Team's Phillip and John. At all times we were respectful of the people buried here. Do not tresspass!
 This school was founded by the United States Government to assimilate Native Americans into the mainstream society. Because of Bureau policies, students did not return home for several years, many of whom died and were buried in the school cemetery. May 3rd marks an old tradition amongst the local tribes where many local reservations decorate their cemeteries with flowers and replace old crosses. Sherman Indian High School designates this as Indian Flower Day.
This cemetery was used from about 1901, when the school itself moved from Perris to Riverside, until about 1955.
We ask that you do not enter the cemetery, and respect those who are buried there! They suffered enough, the children buried here having been separated from their families, many perishing far from home.

This is a very small cemetery, and the tiny size of the headstones is touching tribute to the children buried there.

When we were there the cemetery was badly overgrown with brush, inside and out, and decorated with artificial flowers on many of the graves from the previous May 5th flower Day.

One of the objectives the US Government had in founding these schools was to "Kill the Indian, not the man," in other words, to make them white. This was actually progressive for the time these schools were founded, as up to then the general directive of many of the US Generals was to annihilate the native Americans, but in retrospect from today's society and viewpoint, the behavior, the concept is repugnant.

Most of the students in the early days were taught menial work items. The boys learned about agriculture, the girls, housekeeping. My research revealed that very few learned things like arithmetic or language arts aside from how to speak properly. That's not the case today, but a sign of those times, and yes, the Sherman school, unlike most of the schools like it still exists.

Originally founded in 1895 in Perris, California, the Sherman school was moved to Riverside, CA in order to better supply the school with a reliable source of water.

The cemetery is a result of student deaths from accidents, possibly homicides, and exposure to non native disease. I also read that even after schooling the former students, by law, could not return to their people for a period, and that some of them who had left the school were interred in the school's cemetery.