Thomas Jefferson Morgan, appointed commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1889, vigorously supported the educational agenda created through the Dawes Act. Upon appointment as commissioner of Indian Affairs, he announced: "When we speak of education of the Indians, we mean that comprehensive system of training and instruction which will convert them into American citizens, put within their reach the blessings which the rest of us enjoy, and enable them to compete successfully with the white man on his own ground and with his own methods." Deaths among students were not uncommon. A policy to not share information with parents about "minor" illnesses could lead to stunning consequences. One can only imagine the reaction of the father who, unaware that his daughter was ill, received in the mail this letter: Dear Sir: It is with a feeling of sorrow that I write you telling of the death of your daughter Lizzie. She was not sick but a short time and we did not think her so near her end. On the evening of March 30th, I was at the girls building and the matron informed me that Lizzie had gone to bed not feeling well. I went up to her room and with the matron and found her in bed with what seemed a bad cold. ... She had quite a fever for several days and then seemed to improve, but did not rally as she ought to have done, and the doctor made a careful examination and said that she was without doubt going into quick consumption. ... Last Wednesday I was called away to Minneapolis and... I was very much surprised upon my return Saturday evening to find she was dad, as the doctor had given us no information except she might live for a number of months." The superintendent closed his letter by expressing his sympathy and noting, "Had we known that she was not going to live but so short a time, we would have made a great effort to have gotten you here before she died..." Merely being diagnosed as dying was insufficient in itself to justify a letter to Lizzie's parents. Her death needed to be imminent.