The dormitory is the only remaining building of the former Morris Industrial School for Indians. Built in 1899, it was added with a classroom building, a superintendent's residence, a laundry, a bath house, and a barn to the Indian mission school originally established by Mother Mary Joseph Lynch and the Sisters of Mercy in 1887. The Sisters of Mercy mission school at Morris housed Chippewa Indians from Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota and Dakota Indians from Sisseton Reservation in South Dakota. The mission school operated under a contract with the federal government, whose policy before 1887 had been to isolate Indians on reservations. After 1887, the Dawes Severalty Act emphasized assimilation into mainstream culture, and mission boarding schools were established to meet the need for an education system. In Minnesota, many of these boarding schools, including the Morris school, were administered by the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions. In 1896 federal policy changed again, and administration of the Morris Indian mission school was transferred to the federal government. The Indian Industrial School at nearby Clontarf closed and its students were transferred to Morris, where they were offered both industrial and academic classes. The combined school at Morris continued to operate until 1909. As opposition to Indian boarding schools grew, the federal government changed its policies again and abandoned the concept. The Morris Industrial School for Indians became one of the first five federal Indian schools transferred to state governments for use in their general education systems. In 1909 the school was renamed the West Central School of Agriculture, and in 1960 it became the University of Minnesota, Morris.