Prior to 1979 the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation did not have a tribal school, so Native American students generally attended Onamia Public Schools. Tom Callinan of the Daily Times of St. Cloud, Minnesota stated that in that period the Native American dropout rate was 66% and there was prejudice against Natives in the school system. Native students did a walkout in 1975 which resulted in an arrangement where Natives spent half of the day in Onamia and the other half doing cultural classes on the reservation, but they moved to establish their own school, Nay Ah Shing School, circa 1979 after the time of the latter decreased. John Liapis became the Onamia superintendent in 1978. In 1983 the school system had five Native American students.[4]
