CNN update: School alters fund-raising

• St. Joseph's Indian School raised more than $50 million last year from donations


• South Dakota school sends waves of mailings across the country asking for help


• Official tells CNN the school has "revisited" the use of the "letters attributed to our students"


• Officials didn't elaborate on whether letters would stop or wording would be changed

(CNN) -- A South Dakota boarding school that sends out more than 30 million pieces of mail every year pleading for money to help its Native American students now says it is changing the way it raises money after a CNN investigation.

CNN reported that seemingly handwritten letters from a student called "Josh Little Bear" were signed by a student who was fictitious.

U.S. Indian school's fund-raising letters sent to millions signed by fictitious kids

The marketing director for St. Joseph's Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota told CNN that the stories were broadly true but not specific to any single student.

Those letters, in part, read:

"Like other kids here, my home on the reservation isn't a safe place for me to be. My dad sometimes drinks and hits me. My mom ... didn't want me anymore. She chose drugs over me."

A black-and-white photograph at the top of the letter was said to be "Josh Little Bear," even though the school said his name was "changed" to "protect his privacy."

The school's president, Mike Tyrell, wrote CNN that the school has "revisited" the use of the "letters attributed to our students."

"While the stories in the letters were based on actual situations that some of our students have experienced," he wrote, "using such letters may not be the best way to convey our students' challenges to our benefactors."

St. Joseph's publicly reported raising more than $51 million last year, nearly all of that money generated by the direct-mail appeals, which include "DreamCatchers" (made in China), stickers, notepads, address labels and calendars.

This year, the school said it had more than $122 million in "assets" on hand.

Native American leaders who live near St. Joseph's scoffed at the letters.

"I knew this was going on for a long time," said Leonard Pease, vice chairman of the Crow Creek Lakota Sioux reservation, which is a half-hour drive away from St. Joseph's. "That's how they get their money. To me, it makes the Indians look bad."

In his email to CNN, the school's president said: "Even the best of intentions can be misrepresented; we want to make sure that we do not misrepresent the people we serve, the Lakota Sioux of South Dakota."

School officials did not elaborate on whether they would discontinue the letters or would change the language.

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