Tag Archives: Carlisle Indian School

Other Forms of Resistance

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Students in American Clothing at Carlisle, 1879

Students in American Clothing at Carlisle, 1879

Parents who did not want to send their children to boarding school could not always fight back, but many parents tried to instill the traditional ways and values of their culture into their children despite the federal government. When children returned to their reservations, they could still attend dances and ceremonies, speak their native language (if they still remembered it), wear traditional clothing, hear the old stories, etc. Some, of course, rejected the old ways, but many were willing to incorporate them into the new knowledge and way of life they had seen off-reservation.

Elders in some tribes did all that they could to keep tradition intact. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the Taos Pueblo required men to wear their hair in braids and wear traditional clothing. If they wore “American” pants, they had to cut the seat out and wear a blanket around the middle; this outfit resembled deerskin leggings and the breech clout. Purchased shoes had to have the heels cut off to resemble moccasins.

Children who refused to grow their hair long once they returned from school or who wore “American” clothes, could be fined one to five dollars. If they refused to participate in dances they were given the alternative of a ten-dollar fine or a dollar-a-stroke whipping in the plaza.*

*These details are taken from Masked Gods: Navaho and Pueblo Ceremonialism by Frank Waters.

Colville Indian Family on Reservation, circa 1900 - 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

Colville Indian Family on Reservation, circa 1900 – 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

Taos Pueblo, circa 1900 - 1910

Taos Pueblo, circa 1900 – 1910

Resistance to Boarding Schools

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Hopi Indians on Alcatraz Island, courtesy nps

Hopi Indians on Alcatraz Island, courtesy nps.gov

Boarding schools hundreds of miles away from reservations served as a primary tool for the federal government in its attempts to assimilate Native Americans into Anglo culture. By taking children from familiar environments and immersing them into a new one, administrators hoped to break family bonds, alienate children from their cultural pasts, and prevent them from learning native ways from older adults on their reservations.

Of course, parents resisted these efforts. Many refused to give their permission to send children to schools when they had that option; otherwise they hid their children or taught them a “hide and seek” game to play when federal authorities arrived. In turn, authorities were willing to play hardball with the parents. One group of 19 Hopi men were sent to the U.S. military prison on Alcatraz when they refused to give up their children.

Despite their parents’ best efforts, thousands of children were forced to go to boarding schools. Parents were sometimes coerced by threats or the withdrawal of rations into signing permission to allow their children to leave home. Sometimes, however, federal agents actually kidnapped children from their homes.

Chief Red Cloud Visiting Carlisle Indian School in 1880

Chief Red Cloud Visiting Carlisle Indian School in 1880

Richard Pratt, Founder and Superintendent of Carlisle Indian School

Richard Pratt, Founder and Superintendent of Carlisle Indian School

Native Americans And WWI

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Otis W. Leader, Depicted by a French Artist as the Ideal American Soldier

Many people are familiar with the military contributions of Native American Code Talkers during WWII, but don’t know about Native American contributions to the Great War. Over 17,000 males registered for the draft, but many other men volunteered to enter the military. Data on these volunteers are not as  firm, but perhaps half of all Native Americans who enlisted were volunteers. Proportionally, as many or more Native Americans served in the military as other adult American men. Tribal participation rates varied: Oklahoma tribes entered the military at the highest rates, while Navajo and Pueblo men served at the lowest.*

Students from Indian boarding schools like Carlisle volunteered in great numbers, which may have been due both to their familiarity with the military from their school experience as well as a desire to get away from the boarding school environment. Almost without a voice of dissent, whites in authority  over these students–all the way up to commissioner of Indian Affairs, Cato Sells–approved of this massive exodus into the military. They attributed it to the success of the Indian Office’s assimilation policy and patriotism on the part of students. Both these factors may have entered into student decisions to enlist, but a thirst for adventure and an equally powerful hatred of their substandard schools were probably just as contributory. Unfortunately, some of these enthusiastic students were underage, with teachers (as the only adults even able to stand in as pseudo-parents) usually turning a blind eye or actually encouraging enlistment.

*Statistics about Native American participation in the military during WWI are taken from Russel Lawrence Barsh’s “American Indians in the Great War; Ethnohistory 38:3 (Summer, 1991).

Gus Sharlow, Ojibwa WWI Veteran, courtesy Wisconsin Historical Images

Parade Field at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, PA, courtesy U. S. Army

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The Dismal State of American Indians

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Council of Indians, Pine Ridge, 1881, courtesy Library of Congress

John Collier wrote an article in 1929, entitled “Amerindians,” which used measured language and concrete statistics to paint a sober picture of American Indians’ well-being. According to Collier’s figures, the number of Indians who lived in the U.S. had fallen from approximately 825,000 at the time of America’s discovery by Europeans, to 350,000 at the time of his writing.

Day school was mandated for children aged six to eighteen, and they had to go to boarding schools away from their families if there were no acceptable schools nearby. Collier noted that “the food allowance for the children is eleven cents a day, supplemented in a few cases by provender from school gardens and dairies.”

The 1925 census showed a 62% increase (28.5 per 1,000) in the death rate of Indians over the previous five years. This figure showed that the Indians’ death rate had surpassed their birth rate. The Bureau of Indian Affairs disputed the census findings, but according to the article, admitted that the Indian death rate was about 95% higher than the general death rate.

On the Indian Reservation, courtesy Library of Congress

Graduating Class, Carlisle Indian School, 1894, courtesy Library of Congress

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Kill the Indian, Save the Man

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“A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one[….]In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” –from a paper read by Carlisle Indian School founder, Captain Richard H. Pratt, at an 1892 convention.

Pratt’s words sound terrible to us today, but in his own time, his theory that Indians could be assimilated into American culture–rather than massacred out of it–was more humane than many of his contemporaries’ ideologies.

Pratt was an Army officer in the 10th Calvary,who commanded a unit of African American “Buffalo Soldiers” and Indian scouts  in Indian Territory after the Civil War. In 1875 he escorted 72 Indian warriors suspected of murdering white settlers to Ft. Marion in Florida. Once there, he took off his prisoners’ shackles, put them in uniforms, and drilled them like soldiers. Curious locals offered to teach them English. Pratt agreed, feeling that he was “civilizing” his charges. Eventually the Indians’ military guards were dismissed and trusted prisoners were allowed to act as guards, instead.

Pratt’s accomplishments drew positive attention and he gained permission from the Secretary of the Interior to establish a school that would take Indian children far away from their homes and immerse them in American culture. He got permission to use the Carlisle Barracks at a deserted military base to begin his experiment in civilizing the Indian nations through their children.

Richard H. Pratt

Richard H. Pratt

Richard Pratt With Prisoners, Ft.Marion, 1875

Richard Pratt With Prisoners, Ft.Marion, 1875

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Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic–Not

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The BIA, of course, knew what was best for Indian children–vocational training that would help them become useful members of society. Before they began their lessons, though, students had a host of chores to perform (cooking, cleaning, weeding the garden) that helped keep the school running.

After chores were out of the way, the children had a chance to learn academics like English, music and U.S. history. Children also participated in sports like football and baseball, which many enjoyed. However, they marched to class, marched to their meals, marched to inspections and roll calls, marched to wherever they needed to go, and always by the regimented ringing of a bell to tell them when to go.

Since the government considered education a primary way to help its Indians wards earn a living, the emphasis was put on vocational training. Girls learned nursing and office work, while boys learned animal husbandry, carpentry, blacksmithing, or shop. In addition to formal classes, students swept and scrubbed, painted, sewed, milked cows, maintained gardens and buildings, and performed an abundance of unpaid labor.

Chiricahua Apaches Four Months After Arriving at Carlisle Indian School, 1886, courtesy Library of Congress

Chiricahua Apaches Four Months After Arriving at Carlisle Indian School, 1886, courtesy Library of Congress

Wood Chopping at Tulalip Indian School, circa 1912

Wood Chopping at Tulalip Indian School, circa 1912

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A New Life

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Graduating Class, Carlisle Indian School, 1894, lcourtesy Library of Congress

Graduating Class, Carlisle Indian School, 1894, courtesy Library of Congress

A host of cruel practices were committed in the name of “civilizing” Indians. Though many children endured a hardscrabble life growing up on reservations, many others went to government boarding schools. Sometimes children were forcibly taken from their parents and put on trains without any preparation for leaving.

When they reached their schools, children were both brainwashed and miserably treated, because boarding schools had a mandate to cut the ties students felt to their homes and families.  They were told that their race was inferior to the white race, that their practices were savage, and that even their religion was worthless.

Children were often not allowed to go home to visit their families. The schools were purposely far away from reservations so that it would be a great hardship for families to visit their children. By the time some of the students came home, they had forgotten how to speak their own language.

Boys often wore uniforms and learned to march. Showing homesickness was forbidden. Letters were sometimes intercepted and destroyed or censored. Runaways were a problem, so many children were locked in their rooms at night, or their windows were nailed shut.

Children who conformed to the new way of living  were called “good Indians.” Those who resisted, ran away, spoke their native language, or complained were called “bad Indians.”

Indian Children on Flathead Reservation, 1907, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Children on Flathead Reservation, 1907, courtesy Library of Congress


Three Lakota Boys Arriving at Carlisle, courtesy National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian

Three Lakota Boys Arriving at Carlisle, courtesy National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian


The Same Three Boys Beginning Civilized Life at Carlisle, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian

The Same Three Boys Beginning Civilized Life at Carlisle, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian

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Other Indian Prisons

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Indian School at Pine Ridge, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian School at Pine Ridge, courtesy Library of Congress

Commitment to an insane asylum would be a horrific experience for any Indian, but fortunately that happened to only a few within the population as a whole. What happened far more often, and affected more people, was the BIA’s invasion into Indian family life. Continue reading →