![Carlisle pupils](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Carlisle_pupils.jpg)
The United States Indian Industrial School in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 census, the borough population was 20,118; ...
, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship
Indian boarding school
American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid 17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Na ...
in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic
Carlisle Barracks
Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and I ...
, which was transferred to the Department of Interior from the War Department. After the United States entry into World War I, the school was closed and this property was transferred back to the Department of Defense. All the property is now part of the
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officer ...
.
Founded in 1879 under U.S. governmental authority by Lieutenant
Richard Henry Pratt
Brigadier General Richard Henry Pratt (December 6, 1840 – March 15, 1924) was an American military officer who founded and was longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is associat ...
, Carlisle was the early federally funded off-reservation Indian boarding school initiated by the U.S. government. This was similar to the
Choctaw Academy Choctaw Academy was a historic Indian boarding school at Blue Spring in Scott County, Kentucky for Choctaw students. It existed from 1818 to 1842. History
Baptists started an academy for Choctaws in 1818 near Georgetown, Kentucky, but it quickly f ...
in
Scott County, Kentucky
Scott County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 57,155. Scott County is part of the Lexington–Fayette, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Native Amer ...
, which was the first boarding school, but was initiated by Choctaw leaders and then funded by the U.S. government through the 1819 Civilization Act. In his own words, Pratt's motto was, "Kill the Indian, save the man;" a mentality which was then applied to the
cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.
The different types of cultural ass ...
efforts of the larger American Indian boarding school system Pratt wrote that he believed that Native Americans were 'equal' to European-Americans, and that the School worked to immerse students into mainstream Euro-American culture, believing they might thus be able to advance and thrive in the dominant society, and be leaders to their people.
After the government assessed the initial success of older Indian students at
Hampton Normal and Agricultural School and some in upstate New York, who were former prisoners of war, Lieutenant Pratt was authorized to establish the first all-Indian school, Carlisle, in 1879 at the historic
Carlisle Barracks
Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and I ...
in central Pennsylvania. The property was transferred from the War Department to the Department of Interior for this purpose.
As at Hampton, arriving students were shorn of their long hair, and even their names were changed. However, "unlike Hampton, whose purpose was to return assimilated educated Indians to their people, Carlisle meant to turn the school into the ultimate Americanizer".
At Carlisle, Pratt established a highly structured, quasi-military regime. He was known to use corporal punishment (which was not uncommon in society at the time) on students who exhibited Native behavior, so that they would rely only on themselves.
Carlisle became the model for 26 off-reservation
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
boarding schools in 15 states and territories. Some private boarding schools were sponsored by religious denominations. It has been designated as a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...
. In addition, the government operated a total of more than 300 schools on reservations, many of which accepted boarding students from other tribes.
From 1879 until 1918, more than 10,000 Native American children from 140 tribes attended Carlisle. The school's 1911 Annual Report included the results of an employment survey of 532 graduates and 3619 other ex-students. Tribes with the largest number of students included the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
,
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
,
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
,
Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño a ...
,
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
,
Alaska Native
Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a num ...
, Iroquois
Seneca and
Oneida
Oneida may refer to:
Native American/First Nations
* Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy
* Oneida language
* Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York
* Oneida ...
. The Carlisle Indian School exemplified
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
values. Some believed Carlisle provided an excellent education.
![Carlisle Tobacco Cloth](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Carlisle_Tobacco_Cloth.1.png)
The policies of the government and practices of Carlisle and similar schools have been controversial since the late 20th century. Some have condemned Pratt's views on assimilation.
Founding
Richard Henry Pratt
![General Pratt and student](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/General_Pratt_and_student.png)
At
Fort Marion
The Castillo de San Marcos ( Spanish for "St. Mark's Castle") is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida.
It was designed by the Spanish ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
in the 1870s,
Pratt
Pratt is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:
A–F
* Abner Pratt (1801–1863), American diplomat, jurist, politician, lawyer
* Al Pratt (baseball) (1847–1937), American baseball player
* Andy Pratt (baseball) (born 19 ...
was assigned to supervise former warriors, several dozen Native American prisoners selected from among those who had surrendered in the
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
at the end of the
Red River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874 to displace the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains, and forcibly relocate the tribes to reservati ...
. He gradually introduced them to classes in the English language, art, guard duty, and craftsmanship.
![Captain Pratt Native Americans](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Captain_Pratt_Native_Americans.jpg)
The program became well-known. Distinguished visitors began to visit from all over the country, especially as St. Augustine had become a winter resort for the wealthy.
The U.S. Commissioner of Education came to see firsthand what Pratt was doing, as did the president of
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...
. Pratt's Fort Marion program convinced him that "distant education" was the only way to totally assimilate the Indian. He wrote, the Indian "is born a blank, like all the rest of us. Transfer the savage born infant to the surroundings of a civilization and he will grow to possess a civilized language and habit." Witmer writes,
Pratt wrote:
If all men are created equal, then why were blacks segregated in separate regiments and Indians segregated on separate tribal reservations? Why weren't all men given equal opportunities and allowed to assume their rightful place in society? Race became a meaningless abstraction in his mind.
Pratt believed an industrial school model similar to the Hampton Institute would be useful for educating and assimilating Native Americans.
Pratt and his supporters successfully lobbied Congress to establish the off-reservation boarding school for Native Americans at the historic
Carlisle Barracks
Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and I ...
in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 census, the borough population was 20,118; ...
.
[.]
Pratt founds Carlisle Indian Industrial School
By October 1879, Lieutenant Pratt had recruited the first students for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School; eighty-two boys and girls arrived one night at midnight at the railroad station. They were met by hundreds of local residents who escorted them to the "Old Barracks". The Carlisle Indian School formally opened on November 1, 1879, with an enrollment of 147 students. The youngest was six and the eldest twenty-five, but the majority were teenagers. Two-thirds were children of leaders of the Plains Indian tribes, with whom the US had recently been at war. The first class was made up of eighty-four Lakota, fifty-two Cheyenne, Kiowa and Pawnee; and eleven Apache. The class included a group of students, former prisoners from Fort Marion, who wanted to continue their education with Pratt at Carlisle.
Pratt believed Native Americans were the equal of whites, and founded Carlisle to immerse their children in white culture and teach them English, new skills and customs, in order to help them survive. After the end of
Great Sioux War in 1877, the Lakota people were impoverished, harassed and confined to reservations ... many believed that Native Americans were a vanishing race whose only hope for survival was rapid cultural transformation. Thus the U.S. government urgently sought a 'progressive' educational model to rapidly assimilate Indians into white culture. Whether this could be achieved and how rapidly it could be done was unknown. Pratt believed he could make use of the Carlisle facility. He thought its proximity to officials in Washington, D.C. would help him educate officials about the Indian capacity for learning.
Culture at Carlisle
As part of Pratt's curriculum in cultural and language immersion, the School's students were expected to learn English. School officials also required students to take new English names, either by choice or assignment. This was confusing, as the names from which they had to choose had no meaning for them.
Luther Standing Bear
Luther Standing Bear (Óta Kté or "Plenty Kill," also known as Matȟó Nážiŋ or "Standing Bear", 1868 - 1939) was a Sicangu and Oglala Lakota author, educator, philosopher, and actor. He worked to preserve Lakota culture and sovereignty, and ...
(
Sicangu-
Oglala
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...
) was one of the first students when Carlisle began operations in 1879. He was asked to choose a name from a list on the wall. He randomly pointed at the symbols on a wall, and was renamed as Luther. The school assigned his father's name, Standing Bear, as his surname.
The children were forced to change their manner of dress and to give up their traditional tribal ways. The boys' long hair, a strong tradition in their cultures, was cut short in Euro-American style. Students were required to wear school uniforms of American-style clothing, and girls were provided with uniform dresses.
Standing Bear later wrote of this period:
The civilizing process at Carlisle began with clothes. Whites believed the Indian children could not be civilized while wearing moccasins and blankets. Their hair was cut because in some mysterious way long hair stood in the path of our development. They were issued the clothes of white men. High collar stiff-bosomed shirts and suspenders fully three inches in width were uncomfortable. White leather boots caused actual suffering.[.]
Standing Bear said that red flannel underwear caused "actual torture." He remembered the red flannel underwear as "the worst thing about life at Carlisle."
Some children arrived at Carlisle able to speak some English; they were used by school officials as translators for other students. Officials sometimes took advantage of the children's traditional respect for their elders to get them to inform on peers' misbehaviors. This was consistent with accepted practice in the large families of the time, where older children were often required to care for and discipline their younger siblings.
School discipline was strict and consistent, according to the military tradition. Students faced 'courts-martial' for serious cases.
Elaine Goodale Eastman
Elaine Goodale Eastman
Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953) and Dora Read Goodale (1866–1953) were American poets and sisters from Massachusetts. They published their first poetry as children still living at home, and were included in Edmund Cl ...
, who had supervised government Indian education on reservations west of the Missouri River, later wrote of Carlisle that organizing Indian boys into squads and companies appealed to their warrior traditions. She believed they complied because they wanted to earn officers' ranks, recognition, and privileges. She also observed that there was 'genuine affection' between the Captain and the students.
Children who could not adjust at Carlisle eventually returned to their families and homes. Some ran away because of being homesick and unhappy. According to Eastman, several years after one young man ran away, he approached Pratt in the lobby of a New York hotel. He said that he had found a good job, was working hard, and had saved some money. "Hurrah!" the Captain exclaimed. "I wish all my boys would run away!"
Student recruitment
![Red Cloud at Carlisle, 1880](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Red_Cloud_at_Carlisle%2C_1880.jpg)
In November 1878, Pratt was ordered by the War Department to report to the Secretary of the Interior for 'Indian education' duty. He traveled to
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...
to recruit Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota students for the new school. These tribes were selected by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ezra Hayt, because they had resisted ceding more territory to the United States government. It was less than three years after Lakota warriors and their allies had defeated
Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...
and the
U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment at the
Little Big Horn.
The War Department ordered Pratt to go to Red Cloud (Oglala) and
Spotted Tail
Spotted Tail (Siŋté Glešká pronounced ''gleh-shka''; birth name T'at'aŋka Napsíca "Jumping Buffalo"Ingham (2013) uses 'c' to represent 'č'. ); born c. 1823 – died August 5, 1881) was a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. Although a great war ...
(Sicangu), to compel the chiefs to surrender their children. The government believed that by removing the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota children from their homes, the US would have leverage against the tribes in their continuing attempt to acquire tribal land. Pratt said that, "The children would be hostages for the good behavior of the people."
Pratt persuaded tribal elders and chiefs that the reason the ''"
Washichu"'' (Lakota word for white man, loosely translates to Takes the Fat) had been able to take their land was that the Indians were uneducated. He said that the Natives were disadvantaged by being unable to speak and write English and, if they had that knowledge, they might have been able to protect themselves. Pratt used this speech to convince chief Spotted Tail to send his children to the school. At first he had been reluctant to relinquish his children to the government that had stolen native land and violated their treaties.
Spotted Tail, you are a remarkable man. ..You are such an able man that you are the principal chief of these thousands of your people. But Spotted Tail, you cannot read or write. You claim that the government has tricked your people and placed the lines of your reservation a long way inside of where it was agreed that they should be. ..You signed that paper, knowing only what the interpreter told you it said. If anything happened when the paper was being made up that changed its order, if you had been educated and could read and write, you could have known about it and refused to put your name on it. Do you intend to let your children remain in the same condition of ignorance in which you have lived, which will compel them always to meet the whiter man at a great disadvantage through an interpreter, as you have to do? ..As your friend, Spotted Tail, I urge you to send your children with me to this Carlisle School and I will do everything I can to advance them in intelligence and industry in order that they may come back and help you.
Consent to send students to Carlisle was often gained with concessions, such as the promise to allow tribal leaders inspect the school soon after it opened. The first group of inspectors, some 40 Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota chiefs representing nine Missouri River agencies, visited Carlisle in June 1880. Others tribal leaders followed. Before tribal delegations returned home, they usually spent a few days in Washington where they received the plaudits of government officials for allowing their children to participate in the Carlisle experiment.
Some tribes initially consented to sending their children to off-reservation boarding schools, but many were skeptical of the school system and its intentions. Many tribes did not believe the promises of the schools, scarred by the genocidal tactics of the U.S. government. Once students were in school, communication with home was virtually cut off. Letters from parents were left unsent by Indian Agents, and parents were not notified promptly when their children died.
Although the
Civilization Fund Act of 1819 required parental consent for children to be sent to off-reservation boarding schools, in practice children were regularly forcibly removed. The practice of forceful removal was justified because native parenting practices were seen as inferior to mainstream white parenting styles. John S. Ward, a
United States Indian Agent, explained that "The parents of these Indian children are ignorant, and know nothing of the value of education... Parental authority is hardly known or exercised among the Indians in this agency. The agent should be endowed with some kind of authority to enforce attendance. The agent here has found that a threat to depose a captain if he does not make the children attend school has had a good effect."
Ward reiterated the United States government's self-appointed position as a patriarchal ward over natives. The government seemingly felt that they were a parent justifiably forcing a childlike nation to do what was best for them. The denial of native parental rights was finally legalized in 1891 and led to the mass forced removal of native children. It wasn't until the 1976
Indian Child Welfare Act
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) ((), codified at Indian Child Welfare Act, (, )) is a United States federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of American Indian children from their families in custody, foster care and ...
that the forceful removal of native children from their parents ended.
American Horse
![American Horse at Carlisle, 1882](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/American_Horse_at_Carlisle%2C_1882.png)
Oglala Lakota Chief
American Horse
American Horse ( lkt, Wašíčuŋ Tȟašúŋke) (a/k/a "American Horse the Younger") (1840 – December 16, 1908) was an Oglala Lakota chief, statesman, educator and historian. American Horse is notable in American history as a U.S. Army Indian S ...
was one of the earliest advocates of 'western' (Euro-immigrant) education for Native Americans. While recruiting at
Pine Ridge Reservation
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ( lkt, Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke), also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located entirely within the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Gr ...
, Pratt met strong opposition from Red Cloud, who distrusted white education yet had no school-age children himself. American Horse "took a lively interest" in what he had to say. He was a tribal leader and head of a large household with at least ten children. He believed that his children would have to deal with whites, and perhaps live with them, whether they liked it or not. He decided to send two sons and a daughter for the first class at Carlisle.
Model U.S. Indian Boarding School
![1890s Carlisle Boarding School Graduates PA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/1890s_Carlisle_Boarding_School_Graduates_PA.jpg)
Pratt was so successful in his correspondence and methods that many Western chiefs, suffering from cold and hunger on their reservations, begged him to bring more children East. The chiefs also wrote to Washington with a request to educate more of their children. News of the educational experiment spread rapidly and many came to Carlisle to volunteer services and professional talents. Pratt developed a photographic record of the school for publicity and documentation. The institution and the school were photographed during the school's existence by approximately a dozen professional photographers. The first and best known photographer of the Carlisle Indian School was
John Nicolas Choate. After Indian dress was replaced with military uniforms and their hair was cut in Anglo fashion, the Indians' physical appearance was transformed. Pratt, in an effort to convince doubters of his beliefs, hired photographers to present this evidence. Before and after "contrast" photos were sent to officials in Washington, friends of the new school, and back to reservations to recruit new students.
The minimum age for students was fourteen, and all students were required to be at least one-fourth Indian. The Carlisle term was five years, and the consent forms which the parents signed before the agent so stated. Pratt refused to return pupils earlier unless they were ill, unsuitable mentally or a menace to others.
Between 1899 and 1904, Carlisle issued thirty to forty-five degrees a year. In 1905, a survey of 296 Carlisle graduates showed that 124 had entered government service, and 47 were employed off the reservations. Anniversaries and other school events were magnets for persons of distinction. Senators, Indian commissioners, secretaries of the Interior, college presidents and noted clergymen were accustomed to presenting the diplomas or address the graduating class upon these occasions. The gymnasium held 3,000 persons and was generally filled with an audience of townspeople and distinguished visitors showing their support for aspiring Carlisle students.
Community
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
![Carlisle, Pennsylvania](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Carlisle%2C_Pennsylvania.jpg)
In 1880,
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 census, the borough population was 20,118; ...
, was a thriving town as a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
and
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...
of
Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to:
Australia
* Cumberland County, New South Wales
* the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia
Canada
*Cumberland County, Nova Scotia
United Kingdom
*Cumberland, historic county
*Cumberla ...
, west of the
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
, with a population of 6,209 people. The shoe factory in town employed over 800 residents. There were two railroads, three banks and ten hotels in Carlisle by the time Pratt established his school. By the late 19th century, there were 1,117 "colored residents" in Carlisle. Carlisle boasted a low unemployment rate and a high literacy rate at the time of the census. It was considered a good location, as it was not in a big city. It was not so far West that the students would be able to run away back to their families. The historic
Carlisle Barracks
Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and I ...
(established 1757, afterwards site of the
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officer ...
,
901
__NOTOC__
Year 901 ( CMI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* February – King Louis III (the Blind) is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by ...
and
U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
The United States Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, is the U.S. Army's primary historical research facility. Formed in 1999 and reorganized in 2013, the center consists of the Military History Institu ...
,
967
Year 967 ( CMLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Spring – Emperor Otto I (the Great) calls for a council at Rome, to present the ne ...
were vacant and available for use. The military site was less than two miles from an already well established educational institution,
Dickinson College
, mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning
, established =
, type = Private liberal arts college
, endowment = $645.5 million (2022)
, president = Jo ...
(founded 1773, chartered 1783). When the first Indian School students arrived in Carlisle on October 6, 1879, they were in tribal dress. "For the people of Carlisle it was a gala day and a great crowd gathered around the railroad. The older Indian boys sang songs aloud in order to keep their spirits up and remain courageous, even though they were frightened." "For years, it was a common event for the people of Carlisle to greet the Carlisle Indian football victors on their homecoming. Led by the Indian School Band, the
Carlisle Indians paraded in their nightshirts down the streets of Carlisle and on to the school on the edge of town." Residents of Carlisle stood on their doorsteps and cheered as the Carlisle Band led a snake dance from one end of town to the other.
Dickinson College
![Westcollege1810](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Westcollege1810.jpg)
Carlisle was also home to
Dickinson College
, mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning
, established =
, type = Private liberal arts college
, endowment = $645.5 million (2022)
, president = Jo ...
, less than two miles from the Carlisle Indian School, America's 16th oldest college. Dickinson College and the Carlisle Indian School collaboration began when Dr.
James Andrew McCauley, President of Dickinson College, led the first worship service at the Indian School in 1879. It was Mrs. Pratt who had initiated the contact between the Indian School and Dickinson. Upon Pratt's absence one Sunday, Mrs. Pratt wrote to President McCauley and requested his aid as a minister which he graciously accepted. The relationship did not stop there with Richard Pratt noting that, "from that time forward Dr. McCauley became an advisor and most valued friend to the school.". The collaborative effort between Dickinson College and the Carlisle Indian School lasted almost four decades, from the opening day to the closing of the school. Dr. McCauley helped Pratt to develop a Board of Trustees and a Board of Visitors composed of different heads of leading national educational institutions and wealthy donors. Dickinson College professors served as chaplains and special faculty to the Indian School, and college students volunteered services, observed teaching methods and participated in events. Dickinson College also provided Carlisle Indian School students with access to the Dickinson Preparatory School ("Conway Hall") and college level education. Thomas Marshall was one of the first Native American students at Dickinson. Carlisle is also home to the
Dickinson School of Law
Penn State Dickinson Law, formerly Dickinson School of Law, is a public law school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It is one of two separately accredited law schools of The Pennsylvania State University. According to Penn State Dickinson Law's 201 ...
, (1834) - now part of
The Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...
, and in the early 1900s a few Carlisle Indian School graduates attended the law school:
Albert A. Exendine,
Ernest Robitaille,
Hastings M. Robertson, Victor M. Kelley, and
William J. Gardner.
In 1889, Dr. George Edward Reed assumed the position of President of Dickinson College and continued the close relationship between the Indian School and Dickinson College through Pratt's departure in 1904. Reed told an audience at the Indian School that "we who live in Carlisle, who come in constant contact with the Indian School, and who know of its work, have occasion to be agreeably surprised with the advance we are able to see." In June 1911, Reed addressed the one hundred and twenty-eighth commencement of Dickinson College, where he presented an Honorary Degree of Master of Arts to Pratt's successor, Superintendent
Moses Friedman, for his work at the Carlisle Indian School.
Prof. Charles Francis Himes was a professor of natural science at Dickinson College for three decades and instrumental in expanding the science curriculum. Professor Hines took an interest in the Carlisle Indian School and his notable lectures on electricity ("Why Does It Burn"), "Lightning" and "Gunpowder" received a favorable reaction from parents and students. Himes lectured to Chiefs
Red Cloud
Red Cloud ( lkt, Maȟpíya Lúta, italic=no) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western ...
,
Roman Nose
Roman Nose ( – September 17, 1868), also known as Hook Nose ( chy, Vóhko'xénéhe, also spelled Woqini and Woquini), was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne. He is considered to be one of, if not the greatest and most influential war ...
and Yellow Tail, and brought Indian students to the Dickinson laboratory to give lectures. Himes also promoted Carlisle's success in national academic circles.
Luther Standing Bear recalled that one day an astronomer came to Carlisle and gave a talk. "The astronomer explained that there would be an eclipse of the moon the following Wednesday night at twelve o'clock. We did not believe it. When the moon eclipsed, we readily believed our teacher about geography and astronomy."
In addition to academic contact, the two institutes had contact in the public venue as well. The best known instances include the regular defeats of Dickinson College by the Carlisle Indian School football team and other athletic competitions.
Curricula and extracurricular programs
Carlisle curricula included subjects such as English, math, history, drawing and composition. Students also learned trade and work skills such as farming and manufacturing. Older students used their skills to help build new classrooms and dormitories. Carlisle students produced a variety of weekly and monthly newspapers and other publications that were considered part of their "industrial training," or preparing for work in the larger economy.
Marianne Moore
Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.
Early life
Moore was born in Kirkwood ...
was a teacher at Carlisle before she became one of America's leading poets. Music was a part of the program, and many students studied classical instruments. The Carlisle Indian Band earned an international reputation. Native American teachers eventually joined the faculty, such as
Ho-Chunk
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iow ...
artist
Angel DeCora, taught students about Native American art and heritage and fought harsh assimilation methods. Students were instructed in Christianity and expected to attend a local church, but had their choice among those in town. Carlisle students were required to attend a daily service and two services on Sundays. Students were expected to participate in various extracurricular activities. In addition to the
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
and
King's Daughters Circle, the girls could choose between the
Mercer Literary Society and the
Susan Longstreth Society. The boys had a choice of the
Standard Literary Society or the Invincible Debating Society.
A summer camp was established in the mountains at
Pine Grove Furnace State Park
Pine Grove Furnace State Park is a protected Pennsylvania area that includes Laurel and Fuller Lakes in Cooke Township of Cumberland County. The Park accommodates various outdoor recreation activities, protects the remains of the Pine Grove ...
, near a place called Tagg's Run. Students lived in tents and picked berries, hunted and fished. Luther Standing Bear recalled: "In 1881, after the school closed for the summer vacation, some of the boys and girls were placed out in farmers' homes to work throughout the summer. Those who remained at school were sent to the mountains for a vacation trip. I was among the number. When we reached our camping place, we pitched out tents like soldiers all in a row. Captain Pratt brought along a lot of feathers and some sinew, and we made bows and arrows. Many white people came to visit the Indian camp, and seeing us shooting with the bow and arrow, they would put nickels and dimes in a slot of wood and set them up for us to shoot at. If we knocked the money from the stick, it was ours. We enjoyed this sport very much, as it brought a real home thrill to us."
File:Carlisle Students in School Uniform Exercising Inside Gymnasium; Some with Indian Clubs, Others with Gymnastic Equipment; Non-Native Group Watching 1879.jpg, Carlisle Students in School Uniform Exercising Inside Gymnasium; Some with Indian Clubs, Others with Gymnastic Equipment; Non-Native Group Watching, 1879
File:He Carlisle arrow and Red Man Published by the U.S. Indian School at Carlisle, PA. 1918.jpg, ''The Carlisle Arrow and Red Man'', school publication
File:The Red Man, Carlisle Indian Press (1910).png, The Red Man, The Carlisle Indian Press (1910)
File:Group of Young Women Students in School Uniform at Gym Class; Some with Indian Clubs; Some on Parallel Bars, Others on Catwalk Above Gym Floor 1880.jpg, Young women students at gym class, 1880
File:Susan Longstreth Literary Society.png, Susan Longstreth Literary Society, 1895
The
Indian club or Pelhwan Meel is an exercise equipment tool of Persian origin introduced from India..
Carlisle Summer Outing Program
The Carlisle Summer
Outing Program arranged for students to work in homes as domestic servants or in farms or businesses during the summer. The program won praise from reformers and administrators alike and helped increase the public's faith that Indians could be educated and assimilated. The program gave students opportunities to interact and live in the white world and found jobs for students during the summer months with middle-class farm families where they earned their first wages. Many students worked in the homes and farms of
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
families in eastern Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Some were sent to farms in the
Pennsylvania Dutch Country
The Pennsylvania Dutch Country ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscherei'' Dutchery', also called Pennsylvania Dutchland ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Pennsylvania Deitschland'', german: Pennsylvania Deutschland), or simply the Dutch Country or Dutchland ( ...
of
Dauphin,
Lancaster, and
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...
counties and acquired what would be a lifelong Pennsylvania Dutch accent.
Students were required to write home at least every month, and as often as they chose. Nearly all the students lovingly inquired after absent brothers and sisters, and many sent money home ten or twenty dollars of their own earnings.
Maggie Stands Looking, a daughter of Oglala Lakota Chief American Horse, was among the first wave of children brought from Rosebud and one of Captain Pratt's model students. Maggie had difficulty adjusting to the demands of her new lifestyle at Carlisle, and once slapped Miss Hyde, the matron, when Hyde insisted that Maggie make her bed every day and keep her room clean. Instead of retaliating, Miss Hyde stood her ground and Maggie acquiesced. Like most of the Carlisle students, Maggie was enrolled in the Summer Outing Program. After her arrival to her country home, Maggie wrote a letter to Pratt. "Dear Captain Pratt: What shall I do? I have been here two weeks and I have not bathed. These folks have no bath place. Your school daughter, Maggie Stands Looking." Pratt advised her to do as he had done on the frontier and signed his letter "Your friend and school father. R.H. Pratt." Maggie replied, "After filling a wash basin with water and rubbing myself well, have had a bath that made me feel as good as jumping into a river."
The Outing Program continued throughout the Carlisle's history, and of the thousands who attended Carlisle for the first twenty-four years, a least half participated in the program. Around 1909, Superintendent Friedman expanded the Outing Program by placing boys in manufacturing corporations such as
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
. Over sixty of the boys from Carlisle were subsequently hired and worked steadily for Ford. During the later part of World War I, about forty had good jobs in the
Hog Island, Philadelphia
Hog Island is the historic name of an area southeast of Tinicum Township, Pennsylvania along the Delaware River, to the west of the mouth of the Schuylkill River. Philadelphia International Airport now sits on the land that was once Hog Island.
...
, shipyards.
Student internships
![John Wanamaker's Store](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/John_Wanamaker%27s_Store.png)
In 1883, Luther Standing Bear was sent to Philadelphia to work as an intern for
John Wanamaker
John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838December 12, 1922) was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing". He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a ...
.
Wanamaker's
John Wanamaker Department Store was one of the first department stores in the United States. Founded by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, it was influential in the development of the retail industry including as the first store to use price tags. ...
was the first department store in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, and one of the first department stores in the United States. Luther was told by Pratt: "My boy you are going away from us to work for this school. Go and do your best. The majority of white people think the Indian is a lazy good-for-nothing. They think he can neither work nor learn anything; that he is very dirty. Now you are going to prove that the red man can learn and work as well as the white man. If John Wanamaker gives you the job of blacking his shoes, see that you make them shine. Then he will give you a better job. If you are put into the office to clean, don't forget to sweep up under the chairs and in the corners. If you do this well, he will give you better work to do." While riding on street cars in Philadelphia, Luther did not care to listen to the vulgar language used by white boys on the way to work. At the end of his internship, the entire Carlisle school students and faculty traveled to a large meeting hall in Philadelphia where Pratt and Wanamaker spoke. Luther was asked to come to the stage, and Wanamaker told the students that Luther had been promoted from one department to another every month getting better work and better money and in spite of the fact that he employed over one thousand people, he never promoted anyone as rapidly as Luther.
The "Carlisle Indians" (sports teams)
During the early 20th century, the Carlisle Indian School was a national football powerhouse, and regularly competed against other major programs such as the Ivy League schools
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
,
Dartmouth,
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
,
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
,
Brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model ...
, and
Army (West Point) and
Navy (Annapolis). Coach
Pop Warner
Glenn Scobey Warner (April 5, 1871 – September 7, 1954), most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American college football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his inn ...
led a highly successful football team and athletic program at the Carlisle School, and went on to create other successful collegiate programs. He coached the exceptional athlete
Jim Thorpe
James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...
and his teammates, bringing national recognition to the small school. By 1907, the Carlisle Indians were the most dynamic team in college football. They had pioneered the forward pass, the overhand spiral and other trick plays that frustrated their opponents. The Carlisle Indians have been characterized as the "team that invented football."
In 1911, the Indians posted an 11–1 record, which included one of the greatest upsets in college football history. Legendary athlete Jim Thorpe and coach Pop Warner led the Carlisle Indians to an 18–15 upset of Harvard before 25,000 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Thorpe scored all the points for Carlisle, a touchdown, extra point and four field goals. During the program's 25 years, the Carlisle Indians compiled a 167–88–13 record and winning percentage (.647), which makes it the most successful defunct major college football program. The Carlisle Indians developed a rivalry with Harvard and loved to sarcastically mimic the Harvard accent. Even players who could barely speak English would drawl the broad Harvard "a" as in the Boston accent is non-rhotic, typically pronounced "pahk the cah in Hahvad Yahd". Carlisle students labeled any excellent performance, whether on the field or in the classroom, as "Harvard style".
On November 9, 1912, Carlisle was to meet the
U.S. Military Academy in a game at
West Point, New York
West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
, between two of the top teams in the country. Pop Warner spoke to his team: "Your fathers and your grandfathers," Warner began, "are the ones who fought their fathers. These men playing against you today are soldiers. They are the Long Knives. You are Indians. Tonight, we will know if you are warriors." That dramatic evening Carlisle routed Army 27–6. That game, played just 22 years after the last Army battle with the
Lakota/Sioux at the
Wounded Knee, featured not only Jim Thorpe, but nine future generals including a linebacker named
Dwight D. Eisenhower. "It was an exquisitely apt piece of national theater: a contest between Indians and soldiers."
Many Carlisle Indians, such
Frank Mount Pleasant,
Gus Welch
Gus is a masculine name, often a diminutive for Angus, August, Augustine, or Augustus, and other names (e.g. Aengus, Argus, Fergus, Ghassan, Gustav, Gustave, Gustafson, Gustavo, Gussie).
It can also be used as the adaptation into English of ...
,
Francis M. Cayou
Francis Mitchell Cayou (March 7, 1878 – May 7, 1948) an American football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head football coach at Wabash College from 1904 to 1907 and at Washington University in St. Louis ...
,
Joe Guyon
Joseph Napoleon "Big Chief" Guyon (Anishinaabe: ''O-Gee-Chidah'', translated as "Big Brave"; November 26, 1892 – November 27, 1971) was an American Indian from the Ojibwa tribe (Chippewa) who was an American football and baseball player and co ...
,
Pete Calac
Pedro "Pete" Calac (May 13, 1892 – January 30, 1968) was a professional football player who played in the Ohio League and during the early years of the National Football League. Over the course of his 10-year career he played for the Canton Bull ...
,
Bemus Pierce
Bemus Pierce (February 27, 1875 – February 15, 1957) was an American football player and coach. He played as a guard in the 1890s and 1900s. Pierce played college football for the Carlisle Indian School teams from 1894 to 1898 and played profe ...
,
Hawley Pierce
Hawley Pierce was an early professional football player for the Philadelphia Athletics of the first National Football League and later for the Syracuse Athletic Club during the 1902 and 1903 World Series of Football. In 1901, he began his profes ...
,
Frank Hudson,
William Jennings Gardner
William Jennings Gardner (January 23, 1884 – June 15, 1965) was an American football player, coach, and law-enforcement agent. While working as a Prohibition agent in Chicago, Illinois, Gardner served with Eliot Ness's " Untouchables," a gro ...
,
Martin Wheelock
Martin Frederick Wheelock (June 5, 1874 – May 25, 1937) was an American college football player who achieved a national reputation while playing for the Carlisle Indian School from 1894 to 1902. Captain of the 1899 Carlisle Indians football team, ...
,
Jimmy Johnson,
Isaac Seneca
Isaac Seneca, Jr. (October 7, 1874 – 1945) was an All-American football player for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. He was selected as an All-American halfback on the 1899 College Football All-America Team. He was the first Carlis ...
,
Artie Miller,
Bill Newashe,
Woodchuck Welmas,
Ted St. Germaine,
Bill Winneshiek, and
Albert Exendine
Albert Andrew "Ex" Exendine (January 7, 1884 – January 4, 1973) was an American football player, coach, and lawyer. He played college football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School where he was an All-American end. Exendine served as the he ...
became professional athletes, coaches, educators, and community leaders.
File:Jim Thorpe.jpg, Jim Thorpe in his "Carlisle Indians" football uniform. c. 1909
File:1911 Carlisle Indians FB team.jpg, The 1911 "Carlisle Indians" football team pose with a game ball from the upset of Harvard. Coach "Pop" Warner (standing, third from right) and Jim Thorpe (seated, third from right) are pictured.
File:Albert Exendine.1.png, Albert Exendine
Albert Andrew "Ex" Exendine (January 7, 1884 – January 4, 1973) was an American football player, coach, and lawyer. He played college football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School where he was an All-American end. Exendine served as the he ...
was a graduate of the Carlisle Indian School and the Dickinson School of Law. c. 1905
File:FPMtPleasant.jpg, Frank Mount Pleasant was the first Carlisle Indian School student to graduate from Dickinson College, 1912
File:Gus Welch.jpg, Gus Welch
Gus is a masculine name, often a diminutive for Angus, August, Augustine, or Augustus, and other names (e.g. Aengus, Argus, Fergus, Ghassan, Gustav, Gustave, Gustafson, Gustavo, Gussie).
It can also be used as the adaptation into English of ...
graduated from the Dickinson School of Law and served as a Second Lieutenant under Gen. John J. Pershing in the American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought along ...
in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
The Carlisle Indian Band
The Carlisle Indian Band earned an international reputation under a talented
Oneida
Oneida may refer to:
Native American/First Nations
* Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy
* Oneida language
* Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York
* Oneida ...
musician,
Dennison Wheelock, who became noted as its leader, composer and compiler of modified Native airs. Many students studied classical musical instruments. The Carlisle Indian Band performed at world fairs, expositions and every at national presidential inaugural celebration until the school closed. Luther Standing Bear was a bugler for military calls and educated as a classical musician. On May 24, 1883, Luther Standing Bear led the Carlisle Indian band of brass instruments as the first band to cross the
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East Rive ...
on its grand opening.
From 1897 to 1899,
Zitkala-Ša played violin with the
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on H ...
in Boston. In 1899, she took a position at the Carlisle Indian School where she taught music to the children and conducted debates on the treatment of Native Americans. In 1900, Zitkala-Ša played violin at the
Paris Exposition with the school's Carlisle Indian Band. In the same year, she began writing articles on Native American life which were published in such popular periodicals as ''
Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' and ''
Harper's Monthly
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
''. Also in 1900, Zitkala-Ša was sent by Captain Pratt back to the
Yankton Reservation for the first time in several years to recruit students. She was greatly dismayed to find there that her mother's house was in disrepair and her brother's family in poverty, and that white settlers were beginning to occupy the land promised to the
Yankton Dakota
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided int ...
by the
Dawes Act of 1877. Upon returning to Carlisle, she came into conflict with Pratt. She resented the rigid program of assimilation and argued that the curricula did not encourage Native American children to aspire to anything beyond lives spent in menial labor. In 1901 Zitkala-Ša was dismissed, likely for an article she had published in ''Harper's Monthly'' describing the profound loss of identity felt by a Native American boy after being given an assimilationist education at Carlisle. Concerned with her mother's advanced age and her family's struggles with poverty, she returned to the Yankton Reservation in 1901. Zitkala-Ša dedicated her life to Indian reform, voting rights and education.
File:Carlisle Indian School Band Seated on Steps of a School Building, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1915 - NARA - 518927.jpg, The Carlisle Indian Band performed at world fairs, expositions and at every national presidential inaugural celebration until the school closed - Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1915
File:Carlisle Indian Students at Parade, 1887.png, Carlisle Indian Students at the Centennial of the Constitution Parade - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1887
File:Carlisle Indian School Band and Battalion.png, The Carlisle Indian Band earned an international reputation. Carlisle Indian School Band and Battalion - Carlisle, Pennsylvania, c. 1911
Native American arts program
Francis E. Leupp,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
from 1904 to 1909, had a strong influence over the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Leupp encouraged promoting Indian culture by teaching native arts and craft. In 1905, Leupp wrote for the ''"Carlisle Arrow"'': "It seems to me that one of the errors good people fall into in dealing with the Indian is taking it for granted that their first duty is to make a white man out of him." He also stated, "The Indian is a natural warrior, a natural logician, a natural artist. We have room for all three in our highly organized social system. Let us not make the mistake, in the process, of absorbing them, of washing out of them whatever is distinctly Indian."
[ See also i]
epix.net
In 1906, Leupp appointed
Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...
ist
Angel De Cora
Angel De Cora Dietz (1871–1919) was a Winnebago painter, illustrator, Native American rights advocate, and teacher at Carlisle Indian School. She was a well-known Native American artist before World War I.
Background
Angel De Cora Dietz or H ...
, trained at
Hampton Institute, Virginia and
Smith College, Massachusetts, to be instructor of the first Native arts course at the Carlisle. De Cora agreed to accept the position at Carlisle only if she "shall not be expected to teach in the white man's way, but shall be given complete liberty to develop the art of my own race and to apply this, as far as possible, to various forms of art, industries and crafts." The project was ambitious, and in 1907 students constructed the Leupp Indian Art Studio. The studio was strategically positioned to the entrance to the campus and designed as an exhibition hall and artist studio. Materials were purchased by using profits from the prior Carlisle Indians football season. Public demand for Native American arts was growing, and proceeds from sales were used to raise funds for individuals on reservations and to cultivate public interest in Indian crafts. Students enjoyed Plains art and drawing traditional pictographs on paper and slates. The studio showcased paintings, drawings, leather work, beadwork,
jewelry
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...
, and basketry made by students, and some produced on reservations. The floor was covered with colorful
Navajo blankets. As head of the Leupp Art Studio from 1906 to 1915, De Cora emphasized design, and encouraged students to apply tribally-specific designs to marketable modern art media such as book plates,
textiles
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
, and wallpaper. Carlisle boasted a state-of-the-arts photography studio for students.
In 1908, De Cora married a Carlisle student
Lone Star Dietz
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University ( ...
. At the age of 23, Dietz enrolled at Carlisle where he studied art in Philadelphia in the Summer Outing Program. After his marriage to De Cora he continued in the roles of student and assistant art teacher. In 1909, the school launched a monthly literary magazine known as the ''Indian Craftsman'', later changed to ''The Red Man''. Designed by the school's art department, printed and in part written by students, the magazine gained a wide reputation for the quality of its appearance and content. Lone Star created cover designs for almost all of the 50 issues of the magazine between 1909 and 1914. During their time at Carlisle, Angel and Lone Star Dietz brought cultural awareness to students through innovative teaching programs.
File:Angel De Cora.jpg, Angel De Cora
Angel De Cora Dietz (1871–1919) was a Winnebago painter, illustrator, Native American rights advocate, and teacher at Carlisle Indian School. She was a well-known Native American artist before World War I.
Background
Angel De Cora Dietz or H ...
(Ho-Chunk
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iow ...
) taught arts at Carlisle
File:Yellow star cover1911.jpg, Angel De Cora
Angel De Cora Dietz (1871–1919) was a Winnebago painter, illustrator, Native American rights advocate, and teacher at Carlisle Indian School. She was a well-known Native American artist before World War I.
Background
Angel De Cora Dietz or H ...
and Lone Star Dietz
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University ( ...
cover art and illustrations for Elaine Goodale Eastman
Elaine Goodale Eastman
Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953) and Dora Read Goodale (1866–1953) were American poets and sisters from Massachusetts. They published their first poetry as children still living at home, and were included in Edmund Cl ...
, 1911
File:Buffalo Hunt by Baldwin Blue Horse.png, ''Buffalo Hunt'', ledger art
Ledger art is a term for narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth, predominantly practiced by Plains Indian, but also from the Plateau and Great Basin. Ledger art flourished primarily from the 1860s to the 1920s. A revival of ledger art be ...
, by Baldwin Blue Horse (Oglala Lakota
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority ...
), Carlisle, c. 1880
File:Leupp Art Studio, Carlisle Indian School.png, Leupp Art Studio, Carlisle, 1907
Political context
Progressive Era fight for the image of Native Americans
From 1886 to the onset of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, Progressive Reformists fought a war of images with Wild West shows before the American public at world fairs, expositions and parades. Pratt and other reformist progressives led an unsuccessful campaign to discourage Native Americans from joining Wild West shows. Reformist Progressives vigorously opposed to theatrical portrayals of Native Americans in popular Wild West shows and believed Wild West shows portrayed Native Americans as savages and vulgar stereotypes. Reformist progressives also believed Wild West shows exploited and demoralized Native Americans.
Other Progressives, such as "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who as Pratt believed Indians equals of whites, had a different approach. He allowed Indians to be Indians. New ideas were not to be thrust forcefully upon Native peoples. Cody believed Native Americans would observe modern life and different cultures, acquire new skills and customs, and change at their own pace and on their own terms. Both Pratt and Cody offered paths of opportunity and hope during time when people believed Native Americans were a vanishing race whose only hope for survival was rapid cultural transformation.
[ Buffalo Bill's Wild West and the Progressive Image of American Indians is a collaborative project of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of History with the assistance from the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.] Notwithstanding his criticisms, Pratt invited his old friend Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West show to perform in Carlisle on June 24, 1898. The school paper ''"Red Man"'' reported that students were "privileged to witness the best exhibition of some rude manners and customs of the people of the western frontier in the fifties and sixties."
During the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, there was an explosion of public interest in Native American culture and imagery. Newspapers, dime-store novels, Wild West shows and public exhibitions portrayed Native Americans as a "Vanishing Race." American and European anthropologists, historians, linguists, journalists, photographers, portraitists and early movie-makers believed time was of the essence to study western Native American peoples. Many researchers and artists lived on government reservations for extended periods to study Native Americans before they "vanished." Their inspired effort heralded the "Golden Age of the Wild West." Photographers included
Gertrude Käsebier
Gertrude Käsebier (née Stanton; May 18, 1852 – October 12, 1934) was an American photographer. She was known for her images of motherhood, her portraits of Native Americans, and her promotion of photography as a career for women.
Biography
...
,
Frank A. Rinehart,
Edward Curtis
Edward Sherriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952) was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people. Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Curtis traveled ...
,
Jo Mora
Joseph Jacinto Mora (October 22, 1876 – October 10, 1947) was a Uruguayan-born American cowboy, photographer, artist, cartoonist, illustrator, painter, muralist, sculptor, and historian who lived with the Hopi and wrote about his experiences in ...
and
John Nicholas Choate, while portraitists included
Elbridge Ayer Burbank
Elbridge Ayer (E. A.) Burbank (August 10, 1858 – April 21, 1949) was an American artist who sketched and painted more than 1200 portraits of Native Americans from 125 tribes. He studied art in Chicago and in his 30s traveled to Munich, Germany ...
,
Charles M. Russell
Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, an ...
and
John Hauser. The "Vanishing Race" theme was dramatized at the
Trans-Mississippi Exposition
The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was a world's fair held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 1 to November 1 of 1898. Its goal was to showcase the development of the entire West, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coa ...
of 1898 at
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
, and the
Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
. Exposition organizers assembled Wild Westers representing different tribes who portrayed Native Americans as a "vanishing race" at "The Last Great Congress of the Red Man", brought together for the first and last time, apparently to commiserate before they all vanished.
During this period, U.S. Government policy focused upon acquiring Indian lands, restricting cultural and religious practices and sending Native American children to boarding schools. Progressives agreed that the situation was serious and that something needed to be done to educate and acculturate Native Americans to white society, but they differed as to education models and speed of assimilation. Reformist progressives, a coalition led by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Native American educators and Christian organizations, promoted rapid assimilation of children through off-reservation Indian boarding schools and immersion in white culture.
At Carlisle, Pratt developed a photographic record of the model school for publicity and documentation. The institution and the school were photographed during the school's existence by approximately a dozen professional photographers. The photographs evidenced that the school successfully acclimated Indians to the white man's culture. The first and best known photographer of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was John Nicolas Choate. "After replacing Indian dress with military uniforms and cutting their hair in Anglo fashion, the Indians' physical appearance was transformed." Before and after "contrast" photos were sent to officials in Washington, charitable donors and to reservations to recruit new students. "Pratt's powerful photographs showing his quick results helped persuade Washington that he was doing vital work.
Society of American Indians
![Dr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Dr._Charles_A._Eastman.png)
The Carlisle Indian School was a well-spring for the
Society of American Indians
The Society of American Indians (1911–1923) was the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians. The Society pioneered twentieth century Pan-Indianism, the movement promoting unity among American Indians r ...
, the first Indian rights organization created by and for Indians. The Society was a group of about fifty prominent Native American intelligentsia who exchanged views collectively confronting their tribes and gave birth to
Pan-Indianism
Pan-Indianism is a philosophical and political approach promoting unity, and to some extent cultural homogenization, among different Indigenous groups in the Americas regardless of tribal distinctions and cultural differences.
This approach to ...
. The organization was influenced by the Carlisle experience and dedicated to self-determination and preserving Native American culture. From 1911 to 1923, the Society was forefront in the fight for Indian citizenship and the passage of the
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, (, enacted June 2, 1924) was an Act of the United States Congress that granted US citizenship to the indigenous peoples of the United States. While the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ...
. Founding members included Dr.
Carlos Montezuma
Carlos Montezuma or Wassaja (c. 1866 – January 31, 1923) was a Yavapai- Apache Native American, activist and a founding member of the Society of American Indians. His birth name, Wassaja, means "Signaling" or "Beckoning" in his native tongue. W ...
, Dr.
Charles Eastman
Charles Alexander Eastman (February 19, 1858 – January 8, 1939) was an American physician, writer, and social reformer. He was the first Native American to be certified in Western medicine and was "one of the most prolific authors and speakers ...
,
Angel De Cora
Angel De Cora Dietz (1871–1919) was a Winnebago painter, illustrator, Native American rights advocate, and teacher at Carlisle Indian School. She was a well-known Native American artist before World War I.
Background
Angel De Cora Dietz or H ...
,
Zitkala-Ša and Chauncey Yellow Robe. The Society of American Indians printed a quarterly literary journal, ''American Indian Magazine''. Dr. Montezuma joined Pratt at the Carlisle Indian School as a resident physician from 1895 to 1897. Montezuma a correspondent with Pratt since 1887, was drawn to the noble experiment at Carlisle. The physician Charles Eastman and his wife,
Elaine Goodale Eastman
Elaine Goodale Eastman
Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953) and Dora Read Goodale (1866–1953) were American poets and sisters from Massachusetts. They published their first poetry as children still living at home, and were included in Edmund Cl ...
, and children, resided at Carlisle in 1899, and were frequent visitors and lecturers.
Native Americans in mainstream culture at the time
World fairs and expositions
![Buffalo bill wild west show c1899](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Buffalo_bill_wild_west_show_c1899.jpg)
During the
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
, from the late 19th century until the onset of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, Native American performers were major draws and money-makers. Millions of visitors at world fairs, exhibitions and parades throughout the United States and Europe observed Native Americans portrayed as the vanishing race, exotic peoples and objects of modern comparative anthropology. Reformists Progressives fought a war of words and images against popular Wild West shows at world fairs, expositions and parades.
In 1893, the fight for the image of the Native American began when Reformist Progressives pressured organizers to deny
William F. ("Buffalo Bill") Cody a place at the
Columbian Exposition of 1893
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Chicago, Illinois. Instead, a feature of the Exposition was a model Indian school and an ethnological Indian village supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In style, Buffalo Bill established a fourteen-acre swath of land near the main entrance of the fair for "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World" where he erected stands around an arena large enough to seat 18,000 spectators. Seventy-four "Wild Westers" from
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Pine Ridge (Lakota: ''wazíbló'') is a census-designated place (CDP) and the most populous community in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 3,138 at the 2020 census. It is the tribal headquarters of the Oglala S ...
, who had recently returned from a tour of Europe, were contracted to perform in the show. Cody also brought in an additional one hundred Wild Westers directly from Pine Ridge, Standing Rock and Rosebud reservations, who visited the Exposition at his expense and participated in the opening ceremonies. Over two million patrons saw Buffalo Bill's Wild West outside the Columbian Exposition, often mistaking the show as an integral part to the World's Fair. The
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...
of 1904, known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was the last of the great
fairs
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
in the United States before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. Organizers wanted their exotic people to be interpreted by anthropologists in a modern scientific manner portraying contrasting images of Native Americans. A Congress of Indian Educators was convened and Oglala Lakota Chief Red Cloud and Chief Blue Horse, both eighty-three years old, and the best-known Native America orators at the St. Louis World's Fair, spoke to audiences. A model Indian School was placed on top on a hill so Indians below could see their future as portrayed by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
. On one side of the school, "blanket Indians", men or women who refused to relinquish their native dress and customs, demonstrated their artistry inside the school on one side of the hall. On the other side, Indian boarding school students displayed their achievements in reading, writing, music, dancing, trades and arts. The Carlisle Indian Band performed at the Pennsylvania state pavilion, and the
Haskell Indian Band performed a mixture of classical, popular music and Dennison Wheelock's "''Aboriginal Suite''" which included Native dances and war whoops by band members.
The Inaugural Parade of President Theodore Roosevelt, 1905
![Roosevelt Inauguration Parade](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Roosevelt_Inauguration_Parade.jpg)
On March 4, 1905, Wild Westers and Carlisle portrayed contrasting images of Native Americans at the First Inaugural Parade of 26th President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
. Six famous Native American Chiefs,
Geronimo
Geronimo ( apm, Goyaałé, , ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache ba ...
(
Chiricahua Apache
Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans.
Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende ) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehende ...
),
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker (Comanche ''kwana'', "smell, odor") ( – February 23, 1911) was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwah ...
(
Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
),
Buckskin Charlie (
Ute
Ute or UTE may refer to:
* Ute (band), an Australian jazz group
* Ute (given name)
* ''Ute'' (sponge), a sponge genus
* Ute (vehicle), an Australian and New Zealand term for certain utility vehicles
* Ute, Iowa, a city in Monona County along ...
),
American Horse
American Horse ( lkt, Wašíčuŋ Tȟašúŋke) (a/k/a "American Horse the Younger") (1840 – December 16, 1908) was an Oglala Lakota chief, statesman, educator and historian. American Horse is notable in American history as a U.S. Army Indian S ...
(
Oglala Lakota
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority ...
),
Hollow Horn Bear
Hollow Horn Bear (Lakota, Matȟó Héȟloǧeča; March 1850March 15, 1913) was a Brulé Lakota chief. He fought in many of the battles of the Sioux Wars, including the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Later, while serving as police chief of the Rose ...
(
Sicangu Lakota) and Little Plume (
Blackfeet
The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Monta ...
), met in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 census, the borough population was 20,118; ...
, for dress rehearsal on the main street to practice for the parade in Washington.
Theodore Roosevelt sat in the presidential box with his wife, daughter and other distinguished guests, and watched
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
army cadets and the famed
7th Cavalry, Gen.
George A. Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...
's former unit that fought at the
Battle of Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota people, Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lako ...
, march down
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a diagonal street in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, that connects the White House and the United States Capitol and then crosses the city to Maryland. In Maryland it is also Maryland Route 4 (MD 4) ...
. When the contingent of "Wild Westers" and the "Carlisle Cadets" and Band came into view, President Roosevelt vigorously waved his hat and all in the President's box rose to their feet to behold the powerful imagery of the six famous Native American Chiefs on horseback adorned with face paint and elaborate feather headdresses, followed by the 46-piece Carlisle Indian Industrial School Band and a brigade of 350 "Carlisle Cadets" at arms. Leading the group was "
Geronimo
Geronimo ( apm, Goyaałé, , ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache ba ...
", of the
Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño a ...
, in his regalia including war paint, sitting astride his horse, also in war paint, in the center of the street. It was reported that: "The Chiefs created a sensation, eclipsing the intended symbolism of a formation of 350 uniformed Carlisle students led by a marching band," and "all eyes were on the six chiefs, the cadets received passing mention in the newspapers and nobody bothered to photograph them." The Carlisle Band led by Claude M. Stauffer and cadets led by Captain William M. Mercer, superintendent of the school and member of the 7th Cavalry.
Carlisle "Wild Westers"
![Samuel American Horse, c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Samuel_American_Horse%2C_c.1900.png)
The Carlisle Indian School and "
Wild Westing
Wild Westing was the term used by Native Americans for their performing with Buffalo Bill's Wild West and similar shows. Between 1887 and World War I, over 1,000 Native Americans went "Wild Westing." Most were Oglala Lakota (''Oskate Wicasa'') fr ...
" were portals to education, opportunity and hope, and came at a time when the Lakota people were depressed, impoverished, harassed and confined. Wild Westers from
Pine Ridge enrolled their children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School from its beginning in 1879 until its closure in 1918. Known as "
Show Indians
Show Indians, or Wild West Show Indians, is a term for Native American performers hired by Wild West shows, most notably in Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders. "Show Indians" were primarily Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge In ...
", Oglala Wild Westers referred to themselves as ''Oskate Wicasa'', a colloquialism meaning "one who performs" or "Show Man", a title of great honor and respect. Its usage began in the early days of the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West shows. The phrase "Show Indians" likely originated among newspaper reporters and editorial writers as early as 1891. By 1893 the term appears frequently in Bureau of Indian Affairs correspondence. Some believe that the term is derogatory describing the "phenomenon of Native exploitation and romanticization in the U.S." Arguments of a similar nature were made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the popularity of Wild West shows in the United States and Europe. Many Carlisle students, mostly Lakota, had parents, family and friends who were Wild Westers. Ben American Horse and Samuel American Horse, sons of Oglala Lakota Chief American from the
Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, attended Carlisle and went "Wild Westing" with their father. Often entire families worked together, and the tradition of the "Wild Wester" community is not unlike the tradition of circus families and communities. Carlisle Wild Westers were attracted by the adventure, pay and opportunity and were hired as performers, chaperons, interpreters and recruiters.
Frank C. Goings, the recruiting agent for
"Buffalo Bill" Cody and other "Wild West" shows at
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Pine Ridge (Lakota: ''wazíbló'') is a census-designated place (CDP) and the most populous community in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 3,138 at the 2020 census. It is the tribal headquarters of the Oglala S ...
, was a Carlisle "Wild Wester" with experience as a performer, interpreter and chaperon. Goings carefully chose the famous chiefs, the best dancers, the best singers, and the best riders; screened for performers willing to be away from home for extended periods of time and coordinated travel, room and board. He traveled with his wife and children, and for many years toured Europe and the United States with "Buffalo Bill's Wild West",
Miller Brothers 101 Ranch
The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch was a cattle ranch in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma before statehood. Located near modern-day Ponca City, it was founded by Colonel George Washington Miller, a veteran of the Confederate Army, in 1893.Hoy, JimCatt ...
and the
Sells Floto Circus
The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog & Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in the United States during the early 1900s.
History
Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and Harry Heye Tammen owned the first ...
.
Closing and legacy
Pratt's retirement
Pratt conflicted with government officials over his outspoken views on the need for Native Americans to assimilate. In 1903, Pratt denounced the
Indian Bureau
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and Al ...
and the
reservation system as a hindrance to the civilization and assimilation of Native Americans ("American Indians"). "Better, far better for the Indians," he said, "had there never been a Bureau." As a result of the controversy, Pratt was forced to retire as superintendent of Carlisle after 24 years and was placed on the retired list as a brigadier general in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
. In retirement, Pratt and his wife Anna Laura traveled widely, often visiting former students and lecturing and still writing on Indian issues. Pratt continued to advocate for Native American rights until his death at the age of 83 on March 15, 1924, at the old
Letterman Army Hospital
The Letterman Army Hospital, established around 1898 and redesignated as the Letterman Army Medical Center (LAMC) in 1969, was a US Army facility at the Presidio of San Francisco in San Francisco, California, US. It was decommissioned in 1994. ...
in the
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part o ...
, at
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Pratt's modest granite memorial stone in
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
across the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...
from
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
says "Erected In Loving Memory by his Students and Other Indians."
Assimilation efforts at Carlisle
![Tom Torlino Navajo before and after circa 1882](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Tom_Torlino_Navajo_before_and_after_circa_1882.jpg)
Carlisle was created with the explicit goal of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream European-American culture. "The goal of acculturation was to be accomplished by "total immersion" in the white man's world." Pratt founded Carlisle to immerse Native American children in mainstream culture and teach them English, new skills, and customs. Pratt's slogan was "to civilize the Indian, get him into civilization. To keep him civilized, let him stay." Pratt's approach was harsh but an alternative to the commonly-held goal of extermination of Native Americans. A positive outcome of a Carlisle education was the student's increased multilingualism.
While assimilation was a crucial part of the Carlisle School's plan, it was also looked at controversially by some
Native Americans who felt they were pushed to marry interracially. As Katherine Ellinghaus notes in her book, "There was considerable resistance to the school's unspoken policy regarding interracial marriage." On the
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
The Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center is a publicly accessible digital archive of material originating from or pertaining to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School that operated in Carlisle, Pennsylvania from 1879 to 1918."Carlisle Indi ...
, this also proves evident. Isaiah Wasaquam, a member of the
Ottawa Nation, echoes controversy in an application to Carlisle when he answers a question about his marriage proudly, "it has been nearly ten years since I married my Race." Research suggests this was a subtle hint to the school's officials to prove that they have married their own race. Most likely, this backlash by the Natives is due to the fact that the school was trying to, "take the Indian out of the man." Additionally, Cathleen Cahill proves that the
Carlisle School matches the time in history that enveloped such assimilation, "During the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the federal government's strategies for changing Indian societies tacitly encouraged interracial marriage." Although this unwritten rule of interracial marriage was never proven, the conversation remains ongoing regarding the controversiality of this occurrence.
All children who attended Carlisle were subjected to "militaristic regimentation and disciplines," such as cutting of their hair, changing their dress, diets, names, and learning unfamiliar conceptions of space and time.
They were also forced to let go of their cultural gender roles, and assimilate to what white men believed they should do in society. Native women traditionally held important political, social and economic power within their communities, as most Native cultures promoted gender equality, and this was disrupted at Carlisle.
The Documents Concerning Mary Welch, from the Carlisle Indian Digital Resource Center, provide validation of Welch's completion of seven years at the Carlisle school, and say that she would make a fine housekeeper or seamstress. However, Welch was a member of the
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...
, whose women are known for speaking out against the colonization and expansionism of American settlers. Some Cherokee women also attained the rank of chief. "They were not, as Euro-Americans imagine, merely chattel, servants to man, wives, and mothers."
It wasn't uncommon for Native women to be warriors, statesmen, religious leaders, and shamans (the equivalent of doctors). Carlisle instructors forced the women to learn the industrial and domestic skills appropriate to European American gender roles. For many of them, this cultural assault led to confusion, alienation, homesickness and resentment.
During the first few weeks at Carlisle, when the Lakota and Dakota greatly outnumbered all other tribes, it was discovered that Cheyennes and Kiowas were learning to speak Lakota and Dakota. After that, English was the only language permitted on the campus. Dormitory rooms held three or four each, and no two students from the same tribe were permitted to room together. The plan helped in the rapid acquisition of English, and although some were hereditary foes, Pratt believed the Indian students to be less inclined to quarrel than most white children. However, there were consequences. In 1879,
Chief Blue Horse
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
's son Baldwin Blue Horse, age 12, was in the first group of Oglala Lakota students to arrive at Carlisle. In 1888, Chief Blue Horse met with Baldwin at a performance of Buffalo Bill's Wild West in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and spoke through an interpreter. Later Luther Standing Bear was called to the superintendent's office and asked him if it was a good idea to get some Indian boys from the reservation and put them in school with white boys, expecting that the Indian boys would learn faster by such an association. Luther agreed that it might be a good plan, so a permit was received from Washington. Sixty boys from Pine Ridge were mixed with 60 European-American boys. Teachers had hoped the Indians would learn the English language faster by this arrangement. "But lo and behold, the white boys began learning the Sioux language." The program was discontinued. Some Native Americans are angry about painful Indian boarding school experiences and Pratt's Progressive Reformist views on assimilation have been condemned.
Back on the reservation
One student, Luther Standing Bear got a mixed reception at home on the reservation. Some were proud of his achievements while others did not like that he had "become a white man."
He was happy to be home, and some of his relatives said that he "looked like a white boy dressed in eastern clothes." Luther was proud to be compared to a white boy, but some would not shake his hand. Some returning Carlisle students had become ashamed of their culture, while some tried to pretend that they did not speak Lakota. The difficulties of returning Carlisle I.I.S. students disturbed white educators. Returning Carlisle students found themselves between two cultures, not accepted by either. Some rejected their educational experiences and "returned to the blanket," casting off "white ways"; others found it more convenient and satisfying to remain in white society. Most adjusted to both worlds.
In 1905, Standing Bear decided to leave the reservation. He was no longer willing to endure existence under the control of an overseer. Luther sold his land allotment and bought a house in
Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...
, where he worked as a clerk in a wholesale firm. After a brief job doing rodeo performances with
Miller Brothers 101 Ranch
The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch was a cattle ranch in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma before statehood. Located near modern-day Ponca City, it was founded by Colonel George Washington Miller, a veteran of the Confederate Army, in 1893.Hoy, JimCatt ...
in
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
(former old
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
), he moved to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
to seek full-time employment in the
motion picture
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
industry. While Standing Bear left the confinement of the reservation, he continued his responsibilities as an Oglala Lakota chief, fighting to preserve Lakota heritage and sovereignty through public education.
Deaths from infectious diseases
Exposure to "white men's diseases", especially
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, was a major health problem on the reservation as well as the East. During the years of operation, hundreds of children died at Carlisle. Most died from infectious diseases common in the early 20th century that killed many children. More than 180 students were buried in the Carlisle Indian School Cemetery. The bodies of most who died were sent to their families. Children who died of tuberculosis were buried at the school, as people were worried about contagion.
Carlisle's later years
Beginning in the early 1900s, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School began to diminish in relevance. With growth of more localized private and government
reservation schools in the West, children no longer needed to travel to a distant Eastern school in Pennsylvania. Successive superintendents at Carlisle Indian School after Pratt: Captain
William A. Mercer (1904-1908),
Moses Friedman (1908-1914),
Oscar Lipps (1914-1917) and John Francis, Jr. (1917–1918), were besieged by faculty debate and pressures from the
Indian Commission and the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
. Around 1913, rumors circulated at Carlisle that there was a movement to close the school. In 1914, a
Congressional investigation focused on management at the School and the out-sized role played by athletics. Pop Warner, Superintendent Moses Friedman and Bandmaster C.M. Stauffer were dismissed. After the hearings, attendance dwindled and morale declined. The reason for Carlisle's existence had passed. When the United States entered
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
on April 6, 1917, there was an additional reduction of enrollment. Many Carlisle I.I.S. alumni and students served in the U.S. military during World War I. On the morning of September 1, 1918, a transfer ceremony took place. The American flag was lowered for the last time at the Carlisle Indian School and presented to Major A.C. Backmeyer, who raised it again over the new U.S. Army Base Hospital Number 31, a pioneering new type of rehabilitation hospital to treat soldiers wounded in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. Remaining pupils were sent home or to other off-reservation boarding schools in the United States. In the spring of 1951, the
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officer ...
, founded 1901, senior educational institution of the U.S. Army, relocated to the old
Carlisle Barracks
Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and I ...
. In 1961, the complex was later designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...
(NHL).
File:USArmyWarCollege.gif, Jim Thorpe Sports Day is the biggest annual extracurricular event at the U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officer ...
, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
File:Carlisle Barracks, General Hospital No. 31.png, In 1918, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School closed and the old historic Carlisle Barracks
Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and I ...
temporarily became U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 31 to treat soldiers wounded in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
.
Contemporary institutions
U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
The
U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
The United States Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, is the U.S. Army's primary historical research facility. Formed in 1999 and reorganized in 2013, the center consists of the Military History Institu ...
(USAHEC), in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is the U.S. Army's primary historical research facility. With its oldest part established in 1967, and later reorganized in 1999 and reorganized again in 2013, the center consists of the U.S. Army Military History Institute (U.S.A.M.H.I.) (of 1967), the Army Heritage Museum (A.H.M.), the Digital Archives Division, the Historical Services Division, the Research and Education Services, and the U.S.A.H.E.C. Staff. The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center is part of the United States Army War College, but has its own 56-acre (230,000 m2) campus in Middlesex Township nearby the Carlisle Barracks.
U.S. Army War College—Jim Thorpe Sports Day
Jim Thorpe Sports Day is the biggest annual extracurricular event at the
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officer ...
. Began in 1974, the competition in ten sports is among the military's senior service schools, the Army, Navy and Air Force academies. The sports are played at Carlisle Barracks' historic Indian Field, where Jim Thorpe once displayed the teamwork, discipline and physical fitness that inspires the name of the athletic games at Carlisle.
Cumberland County Historical Society
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School is remembered and honored by the people of the
Borough of Carlisle. The
Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, houses an extensive collection of archival materials and photographs from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Among the items are 39 years of weekly and monthly school newspapers, musical and athletic programs, brochures, letters, catalogs and the annual reports to the
Commissioners of Indian Affairs. The society has over 3,000 photographs and recorded oral histories from school alumni, relatives of former students and local townspeople. In 2000, the Cumberland County 250th Anniversary Committee worked with
Native Americans from numerous tribes and non-natives to organize a "Pow-wow" on
Memorial Day
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...
to commemorate the unique Carlisle Indian School, the students and their stories.
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
The
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
The Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center is a publicly accessible digital archive of material originating from or pertaining to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School that operated in Carlisle, Pennsylvania from 1879 to 1918."Carlisle Indi ...
is a publicly accessible digital archive of material pertaining to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The project is run by th
Archives and Special Collections Departmentof th
Waidner-Spahr Libraryat
Dickinson College
, mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning
, established =
, type = Private liberal arts college
, endowment = $645.5 million (2022)
, president = Jo ...
, and by th
Community Studies Center at Dickinson College Additionally, the project is advised by a number of subject-area experts and cultural advisers. The project seeks to aggregate collections of primary source materials held at various repositories, including the
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
, the
Cumberland County Historical Society, and the Archives and Special Collections at Dickinson College.
In media
* ''
Band and Battalion of the U.S. Indian School
''Band and Battalion of the U.S. Indian School'' is a silent film documentary made on April 30, 1901 by American Mutoscope and Biograph Company made in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA. The cinematographer was Arthur Marvin. It depicts a parade drill b ...
'' is a silent film documentary made on April 30, 1901, by
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, ...
(AM&B) made in Carlisle. The cinematographer
Arthur Marvin
Arthur Weed Marvin (May 26, 1859 – January 18, 1911), was an American cinematographer who worked for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in which his brother Harry Marvin was one of the four founders (the others being Herman Casler, ...
depicts a parade drill by the cadet corps of the American Indian School which includes many representatives of the Native American tribes. In 1902 Marvin produced another documentary, "Club Swinging at Carlisle Indian School" for AM&B.
* Carlisle Indian Industrial School was depicted in the 1951 movie classic ''
Jim Thorpe – All-American
''Jim Thorpe – All-American'' (UK title: ''Man of Bronze'') is a 1951 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe, the great Native American athlete who won medals at the 1912 Olympics and d ...
'', a biographical feature film produced by
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
and directed by
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...
, honoring
Jim Thorpe
James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...
. Historian Mark Rubinfeld says, "The movie stands out as an important cultural document in both American and Native American history." The film starred
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...
as Thorpe and featured some archival footage of both the
1912
Events January
* January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established.
* January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens.
* January 6 ...
and
1932 Summer Olympics
The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...
, as well as other footage of the real Thorpe (seen in long shots).
Charles Bickford
Charles Ambrose Bickford (January 1, 1891 – November 9, 1967) was an American actor known for supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), '' The ...
played the famed football coach -
Glenn Scobey ("Pop") Warner, who was Thorpe's longtime mentor. Bickford also narrated the film, which told of Thorpe's athletic rise and fall, ending on an upbeat note when he was asked by a group of boys to coach them.
Phyllis Thaxter
Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter (November 20, 1919 – August 14, 2012) was an American actress. She is best known for portraying Ellen Lawson in ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944) and Martha Kent in ''Superman'' (1978). She also appeared in ''Bewit ...
portrayed Thorpe's first wife. Warner Bros. used a number of contract players in the film, as well as a few Native American actors.
* Part of the 2005 mini-series on cable TV's
Turner Network Television
TNT (originally an abbreviation for Turner Network Television) is an American basic cable television channel
A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is dist ...
, ''
Into the West'', takes place at the school.
* The
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary ''In the White Man's Image'' (1992) tells the story of Richard Pratt and the founding of the Carlisle School. It was directed by Christine Lesiak, and part of the American history documentary series ''
The American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
'', also produced by PBS. The documentary features interviews with Indian educators
N. Scott Momaday
Navarre Scott Momaday (born February 27, 1934) is a Kiowa novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His novel ''House Made of Dawn'' was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and is considered the first major work of the Native ...
and Henrietta Mann, as well as frontier historian
Robert M. Utley and Professor of American studies Lonna Malmsheimer.
* The "Dear America" Series young adult fictional diary, ''My Heart Is on the Ground'' by
Ann Rinaldi
Ann Rinaldi (August 27, 1934 – July 1, 2021)
- Shannon Maughan. July ...
(1999), tells the story of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux girl sent to the school in 1880.
* Numerous additional works address the stories of former residents of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and other
Native American boarding schools
American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid 17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Na ...
in Western New York and
Canadian Indian residential school system
In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school sy ...
such as
Thomas Indian School
Thomas Indian School, also known as the Thomas Asylum of Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, is a historic school and national historic district located near Irving at the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Erie County, New York. The institution ...
, and
Mohawk Institute Residential School
The Mohawk Institute Residential School was a Canadian Indian residential school in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. The school operated from 1831 to June 27, 1970. Enrollment at the school ranged from 90 to 200 students per year.
History
Operated by ...
in
Brantford
Brantford (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River (Ontario), Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by County of Brant, Brant County, but is politically separate with ...
, Southern
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
; the impact of those and similar schools on their communities; and community efforts to overcome those impacts. Examples include: the film ''
Unseen Tears: A Documentary on Boarding School Survivors'', Ronald James Douglas' graduate thesis titled ''Documenting ethnic cleansing in North America: Creating Unseen Tears'', and the Legacy of Hope Foundation's online media collection:
*The memoir ''Apple: Skin to the Core'' by
Eric Gansworth
Eric Gansworth is a Haudenosaunee novelist, poet and visual artist.
Early life
Gansworth was born in 1965 and is an enrolled citizen of the Onondaga Nation; however, he grew up in the Tuscarora Nation as a descendant of one of two Onondaga women ...
is a book in poems and images documenting the author's life as well as that of his extended Family. Three of the author's grandparents attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School and the book details both the experience and the aftermath of their attendance there. Gansworth is an enrolled member of the
Onondaga Nation
The Onondaga people (Onondaga: , ''Hill Place people'') are one of the original five constituent nations of the Iroquois (''Haudenosaunee'') Confederacy in northeast North America. Their traditional homeland is in and around present-day Onondaga ...
, born and raised among the
Tuscaroras
The Tuscarora (in Tuscarora ''Skarù:ręˀ'', "hemp gatherers" or "Shirt-Wearing People") are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government of the Iroquoian family, with members today in New York, USA, and Ontario, Canada. They co ...
. The book was in the longlist of the
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors.
The Nat ...
s 2020 for Young People's Literature.
See also
*
American Indian outing programs Native American outing programs were associated with American Indian boarding schools in the United States. These were operated both on and off reservations, primarily from the late 19th century to World War II. Students from boarding schools were a ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Fear-Segal, Jaqueline. "Nineteenth-Century Indian Education: Universalism Versus Evolutionism", ''Journal of American Studies'', 33#2 (1999): 323–341.
* Fear-Segal, Jaqueline, ed., with Susan D. Rose. ''Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, and Reclamations'' (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). xiv, 398 pp
*
*
*
*
*
Paul T. Mero">Daniel E. Witte and Paul Mero, Paul T. Mero, "Removing Classrooms from the Battlefield: Liberty, Paternalism, and the Redemptive Promise of Educational Choice" 2008 ''Brigham Young University Law Review'' 377
Primary sources
* Leahy, Todd, and Nathan Wilson, eds. "My First Days At The Carlisle Indian School By Howard Gansworth An Annotated Manuscript." ''Pennsylvania History'' 71.4 (2004): 479–493; memoir of alumnus of 1894. He praised Carlisle's influence; Gansworth (
Seneca-
Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following:
First nations and Native American people and culture
* Tuscarora people
**''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960)
* Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people
* ...
, from New York) later took two degrees at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. He became a successful businessman in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
, and a leader in Indian affairs
online*
*
*
*
* Richard Henry Pratt Papers. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
*
*
*
External links
Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Archives & Special Collections Waidner-Spahr Library, Dickinson College.
Carlisle Indian Industrial Schoolfrom the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
at
Flickr Commons
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting service, image hosting and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and w ...
.
"Carlisle Indian School" Cumberland County Historical Society.
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center"Carlisle Indian Industrial School Photograph Collection"US Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
*
ttp://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.pratt Richard Henry Pratt Papers Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
* Life stories of 50 Carlisle Indian School football players.
*
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report',
US Department of Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
, May 2022
"Fort Marion Artists", Smithsonian Institution
{{coord, 40.209, -77.178, region:US-PA_type:edu, display=title
1879 establishments in Pennsylvania
Assimilation of indigenous peoples of North America
Buildings and structures in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Defunct universities and colleges in Pennsylvania
Educational institutions established in 1879
National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania
Native American boarding schools
Native American history of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania state historical marker significations
School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
National Register of Historic Places in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
C
Universities and colleges in Pennsylvania