Meyer, Estelle Reel, 1862-1959

Educator Estelle Reel fought hard to obtain the Republican nomination for Wyoming superintendent of public instruction in 1894, after which she became the first woman Wyoming voters ever elected to a statewide office. When she left her Wyoming office after three years to become the national superintendent of Indian schools, Reel became the first woman to be confirmed for a federal office by the Senate. Reel was born in Illinois in 1862, and came to Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1886 after being educated in Boston, St. Louis and Chicago. Her employment as a teacher in Cheyenne was threatened by criticism from some school board members, but she emphatically let them know that they had no right to dictate where she went to church, bought her clothes or boarded.

The public defense of herself played well with voters, who elected her school superintendent of Laramie County, where Cheyenne is located, by a wide margin in 1890. She was re-elected two years later, and then set her sights on becoming the state superintendent.

Reel was the only Republican candidate for statewide office in 1894 to carry every county in Wyoming. Her complaints about her workload may make it seem logical that she applied for another job three years into her term, when she successfully parlayed her work as Wyoming campaign coordinator for President William McKinley into a federal appointment as national superintendent of Indian schools. Reel –who had earned an annual salary of $2,000 as Wyoming's school superintendent—raised eyebrows when she attended McKinley's inauguration wearing a $1,000 Parisian gown and a $50 hat. In her new federal position, Reel's salary was $3,000 per year.

However, the job turned out to be even more taxing than her days in Wyoming. Based in Washington, D.C., she nevertheless spent 17 of her first 26 months in the field, traveling more than 41,000 miles to visit 49 Indian schools. About 2,000 miles of those travels were by wagon, packhorse or on foot. She was in charge of 250 Indian schools in the U.S., with a combined enrollment of about 20,000 students, and administered a budget of $3 million.

Like many officials in her time, Reel considered Indians to be "a lesser race," inferior to whites in both physiological and intellectual development, which she believed limited what they could learn and the tasks they could perform. She wrote a textbook, “A Course of Study for the Indian Schools of the United States—Industrial and Literary" that focused on the "dignity of labor," which was one of her favorite phrases. Reel thought Indian students who were going to be servants or agricultural laborers required a practical education that didn't raise their standards or expectations to what she believed were unreasonable levels.

While the superintendent did not give Indians any credit for being creative—she told the New York Mail in 1899 they were merely "wonderful imitators”—Reel recognized the skills of Indian women in the fields of basketry, sewing, netting, reed work and weaving and their importance to the Indians' economy. White intervention was considered necessary to revive and preserve these skills. “The basketry as woven by Indians for generations past is fast becoming a lost art and must be revived by the children of the present generation,” Reel wrote.Reel never again ran for public office, and she died in 1959 at the age of 97.

Estelle Reel (Mrs. Cort Meyer) was born in 1862 in the State of Illinois. In 1895 she was elected state
superintendent of public instruction, the first woman in Wyoming ever elected to a state office.
From her obituary (prepared by herself several years before her death):
"The office of superintendent carried with it the duties of Registrar of the Land Board and secretary of
Charities and Reforms, which included the penitentiaries and insane asylums of the state. Miss Reel was
required to inspect, visit and report on these institutions to the State Board of Control at Cheyenne. In her
work in the penitentiary she became convinced of the necessity of indeterminate sentences for prisoners and
later addressed the Prison Congress in New York City in which she advocated this measure and received in
recognition a bronze medal. As Registrar of the Land Board, she made many innovations, some of which
brought increased revenues for the schools."
Clearly, this was a woman of considerable administrative ability. In 1898 she was appointed by the president
to the position of superintendent of Indian schools and special disbursing officer. In this position she served
for twelve years. She was an indefatigable investigator of conditions in the Indian schools all over the United
States. She traveled extensively by train, buckboard and on horseback when necessary.
Reel prepared a text book for Indian schools, which received the commendation of many educational
publications. The background material for this work is in the collection.
While on a visit to the Yakima reservation she met and later married Cort F. Meyer. The couple became
partners in a sheep raising business with the Kays Brothers.
Estelle Reel Meyer passed away on August 2, 1959.