May 17 Event to Salute Eleazar's Starting Point

THE first of the many programs and ceremonies marking Dartmouth's Bicentennial will take place Saturday, May 17, at Columbia, Conn., commemorating the establishment of Moor's Indian Charity School by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock in 1754. The College on the Hanover Plain was a direct outgrowth of Moor's School.

While Wheelock was the pastor of the church at Lebanon, Conn., he began teaching boys in his own home to prepare them for college. When Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian, came to him for instruction and proved to be an apt pupil, Wheelock was encouraged to establish a school for Indian youth. He was supported in this endeavor by his neighbor Joshua Moor, who donated a piece of land including a building. Wheelock was able to open his Indian school in that building, which still stands. Within a few years he was looking for a new site, closer to Indian tribes, where he could expand his educational work. Eventually he selected Hanover, but until 1770 Moor's School remained the center of his efforts to educate Indian youth.

Sponsored by the Dartmouth Club of Hartford and under the chairmanship of Edwin T. Rice '52, the Moor's Charity School Bicentennial Commemoration Pro. gram begins at 10 a.m. when exhibition; will be opened to visitors. These exhibtions, arranged by the Columbia, Mansfield, and Lebanon Historical Societies will include Indian artifacts and period pieces on display in the original Moon School and adjacent buildings. The sister of Mohegan Chief Tantaquidgeon will be present to display some Indian relics Movies of Dartmouth will be shown beginning at 10 a.m., and Dartmouth Outing Club contests in woodsmanship will get underway at 11.

An ample area will be available for picnicking at lunch time. For those who do hot wish to bring their own lunches, sandwiches and cold drinks will be prepared and sold by the Women's Guild of the Columbia Congregational Church. At 1 p.m. a concert will be presented by the Dartmouth College Band.

Following the concert, the ceremonial portion of the program will take place. President Dickey will present a plaque, delivered downriver from Hanover by the Ledyard Canoe Club, officially recognizing Columbia and the Moor's School as the birthplace of Dartmouth.

The main speaker of the afternoon will be Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior. Born on the Oneida Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, he was graduated from Haskell Institute in Lawrence. Kansas, and received his law degree from Southeastern University, Washington, D. C. In 1933 he began his long association with the Bureau of Indian Affairs by serving at the Ute Reservation in Utah. His work with the Bureau was interrupted by wartime service in the Marine Corps, after which he was with the Veterans Administration training Indian veterans. In 1949 he rejoined the Bureau of Indian Affairs, serving in various capacities in South Dakota, Colorado, and Alaska until 1966 when he was appointed to his present position as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

His comments on "The Educational Needs of the American Indian" will provide a meaningful conclusion to the Moor's School commemoration program

All Dartmouth men and their families within traveling distance of Columbia are invited to make the May 17 event a day's outing and to be present as guests of the Connecticut alumni. In addition to the students taking part in the program, a large representation from the College & expected to make the trip to the place where Dartmouth had its genesis.