The Coldfeet School

Located across the Two Medicine River, the Coldfeet School opened in 1933 and for the next 24 years Blackfeet students received a practical education that stressed the community in the one-room schoolhouse. The school was a result of the 1928 Merriam Report that stressed the importance of Indian culture and the home in educating Indian children. The average number of students that attended the school was around twenty and ranged in ages from “little guys” in the first grade up to the seventh grade. At its height in 1953, 47 children attended the school. For a time, it fielded a track team, which practiced on a track near the school. A horse pasture, coal shed and outhouses for boys and girls were located behind the school. Classes began at 8 a.m. and run until 4 p.m. Some kids rode a bus to school, while others walked. One sixth grader walked eleven miles round trip to go to the school. The school was more than just a center of education. It was also a community gathering place that hosted everything from political rallies to dances. By the late 1950s, the school had fallen into disrepair and it closed in 1957. For a time afterwards, families lived in the building before they, too, left it.