Some found opportunity.

Some experienced alienation.

Some used the education strategically.

Many carried both benefit and trauma.

Susan excelled academically.

She learned to function inside institutions designed by people who often viewed Native culture as something to be replaced.

Yet she did not simply disappear into those institutions.

She began to imagine a professional role that could take her back to the Omaha community.

Medicine offered a particularly powerful possibility.

A teacher could educate children.