These schools were put in place by the government for two main reasons: to require the mastery of English and to "civilize" the Indians. Three reservations were close enough to the school to enroll students: the Pine Ridge , Rosebud , and Cheyenne River reservations. Collins, made controversy with reservation officials by travelling around to different reservations to recruit children to the school then forcing them all to travel by wagon to Rapid City, taking away students from the on-reservation schools.
Leupp , to ban recruiters going to reservations in Rapid City ran a very strict program. Their techniques stemmed from military drills and discipline, requiring students to walk in straight lines, walk in an orderly fashion, be at their dormitories during certain times of the day, and only allowing rowdiness during recess.
However, teachers were able to enforce their power over the students through verbal abuse and humiliation, fueling students to run away as a way to enforce their own power over the administration.
Regarding student health, nutrition at the school increased after World War I, while health care was never adequate in checking for or in preventing diseases and illnesses. Some believed the children learning more hygienic habits would result in a decline of sickness, yet many children passed different forms of the flu and colds between each and brought them home to the reservations. The Rapid City school required uniforms like other federal off-reservation schools. Students received dress clothes, school clothes, and working clothes, and, with money the students earned and under strict regulation, could occasionally purchase their own clothes.
The curriculum at the school focused on English, as all Indian boarding schools did. Other focuses in the curriculum included vocational jobs, such as blacksmiths and the dairy industry for boys, and classroom work. The school was closed in to become a tuberculosis sanatorium, named Sioux Sanatorium or "Sioux San," splitting up the families within the school by taking younger students to a different boarding school and the older students to another.
