In the 1640s, Harvard faced a financial crisis, which it attempted to resolve by obtaining funds to educate and convert local Native Americans. As a result, Harvard's charter of 1650 called for "the Education of the English and Indian Youth of the Country." Harvard obtained funds from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, which agreed to build a two-story brick building in Harvard Yard. This building, the College, was completed in 1656.
However, no Native American students attended it at that time, and the building was used for English students instead.
The building was also used to house a printing press, which printed John Eliot's translation of the Bible into Massachusett between 1659 and 1663.
At least four Native American students attended the college:
Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck and Joel Hiacoomes were classmates. Members of the Wampanoag tribe from Martha's Vineyard, they attended a preparatory school in Roxbury and were admitted to Harvard for a scheduled graduation of 1665. A few months prior to graduation, Hiacoomes returned to Martha's Vineyard to visit his relatives, but was shipwrecked on Nantucket on the return trip and not seen again. Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck successfully graduated, but died a few months later in Watertown, probably from tuberculosis. His Latin address to the Society, beginning "Honoratissimi benefactores" (English: Most honored benefactors), has been preserved.
John Wampus entered in 1666, but left the next year.
A student named Eleazar entered in 1675, but died of smallpox shortly thereafter.
Owing to the ill-health of Native American students, the building was little-used for its intended purpose. The press was disused by 1680, and when Harvard Hall was completed in 1677, English students moved out of Indian College. Harvard officially closed the press in 1692 and in 1693 asked the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England for permission to tear down the building, intending to use the bricks to make a new building. The Society's response was only to ask that Native American students "should enjoy their Studies rent free in said building." By 1698 the building had been torn down.
