Est. 1893 · Indian Boarding School History · Catholic Seminary · Oneida Nation Self-Determination · Indigenous Land Recovery
The campus at N7210 Seminary Road in Oneida has carried at least four institutional identities over 130 years. The Oneida Boarding School opened in 1893, operating as a federal Indian boarding school under the era's assimilationist policy until its closure in 1918. These institutions systematically separated Indigenous children from their families, languages, and cultural practices — a history that is institutional rather than incidental to the campus's character.
In 1924, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay purchased the property and reopened it as Guardian Angel Boarding School for boys and girls. In 1954, the campus was repurposed as Sacred Heart Seminary for the training of Catholic priests, a function it served for two decades.
The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 changed the calculus for tribal land management across the country. In 1976, the Oneida Nation leased the space from the Diocese and opened their own education offices. In 1984, the Oneida purchased the campus outright from the Diocese of Green Bay and renamed it the Norbert Hill Center in honor of Norbert Hill Sr., a community elder. The facility now serves as the headquarters of the Oneida Nation and includes Oneida High School and the tribal Pow Wow grounds.
Sources
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schools_in_Wisconsin
- https://oneida-nsn.gov/event-locations/norbert-hill-center-2/
ApparitionsPhantom voicesDoors opening/closingLights flickering
The apparitions reported at the Norbert Hill Center are specific in their appearance: women in religious habit, moving through the corridors of the second and third floors in what witnesses describe as a purposeful pattern. Janitors have been the primary source of these reports, working in hours when administrative staff are absent.
Additional phenomena include disembodied voices in empty corridors, doors slamming without draft or physical cause, and lights activating without switches being touched. These reports emerged after the Oneida Nation took occupancy of the building and have been attributed to the Catholic era — specifically the decades when nuns and priests occupied the same corridors.
The building's history layers create an unusual context. A campus that began as an instrument of cultural erasure for the Oneida people, then served the Catholic religious order that purchased it, now belongs once again to the Oneida Nation. The apparitions of nuns, reported to Oneida-employed maintenance staff in a building the Oneida Nation now owns, represent a particular convergence of institutional histories.
Notable Entities
The Nun Apparitions