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Background:

Before and during the Civil War the American opinion of the native people was either fear or loathing. However in the time after the war the opinion of the natives began to shift towards a belief that if they were properly educated they could become more American. These first boarding schools were an attempt to change the natives into patriotic members of American society

Inspiration for "Americanization through Education" shaped by:

-Military

-Religion

The military provided Pratt with the model on which to base his educational institutions. Pratt operated Fort Marion and the Carlisle Indian School like a military unit

  • Quaker and missionary reformers explored new methods to 'civilize' the Indians. They were uncomfortable with extermination policies and began to formulate ideas of assimilation. These methods appealed to Pratt, who was already experimenting with his Ft. Marion prisoners.
  • Pratt saw his work with Native Americans in part as a religious calling. Fittingly, he came to be known as the “Red Man’s Moses.”

Academic Curriculum:

  • Morning vs. Afternoon
  • Boys vs. Girls

Mornings devoted to Academics:

*English

*Science

*Math

Afternoons devoted to Trade:

*Wagon building, cobbling, blacksmithing, carpentry, painting, etc

The school approached self-sufficiency with the production of food and the manufacture of clothing, kitchen utensils, rugs, furniture, leather goods and wagons.

For the farmer, businessman, or craftsman, the Outing System provided a source of cheap labor in the home and on the farm. Some children remained with families year-round and went to the local public schools with their non-Indian siblings. This, to Pratt, was the ultimate assimilator.

Extra Curriculars:

Drama

Choral concerts

Band

Drawing

Athletics

But he's not a bad guy!

He was a champion for Native American rights, and really cared about his students.

Legacy:

Model for education of formerly marginalized populations: they founded schools in the rural South for basic and college education of African Americans, and the nation was concerned with educating and assimilating the millions of new European immigrants arriving in northern and midwestern industrial cities.

http://americanindiantah.com/lesson_plans/ml_boardingschools.html

  • First students were from the Lakota people (aka Sioux)
  • 82 children arrived at Carlisle on October 6, 1879
  • By February 1880, the school had an enrollment of 147
  • Objective was to "erase and replace" Indian culture
  • Video clip from TNT mini-series "Into the West"

Civilization Process:

Step 1=Appearance

Step 2=Renaming

Step 3=Language

Video clip of Carlisle and an interview

Capt. Richard Henry Pratt

Father of Indian Education

Richard Pratt and Carlisle

Indian School

assimilation through total immersion

Girls were also taught:

Sewing, cooking, canning, cleaning, child care, bookkeeping, etc

"A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one," Pratt said. "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."

By the end of their term of incarceration (1878), Pratt had convinced 17 prisoners to further their education by enrolling in the Hampton Institute in Virginia.

"Pop" Warner and Jim Thorpe

Conclusion:

  • Over 39 years, 10,000 students attended Carlisle
  • Early in the 20th century, annual enrollment reached 1000 students, representing more than 70 tribes. The diversity of culture and experience contributed to the quality of Carlisle education.
  • Until closing in 1918, Carlisle served as a model for other boarding schools that adopted the concept of civilization and assimilation by taking away their identity
  • The schools did not succeed in destroying Indian culture forever, but its focus on acculturation came at the expense of the native cultures and languages.

Pratt realized Football could be a positive way to showcase the school’s accomplishments and allowed his students to take up the game that was capturing the nation’s attention.

Louise Erdrich: author and Chippewa descendent

Indian Boarding School: The Runaways

By Louise Erdrich

Home’s the place we head for in our sleep.

Boxcars stumbling north in dreams

don’t wait for us. We catch them on the run.

The rails, old lacerations that we love,

shoot parallel across the face and break

just under Turtle Mountains. Riding scars

you can’t get lost. Home is the place they cross.

The lame guard strikes a match and makes the dark

less tolerant. We watch through cracks in boards

as the land starts rolling, rolling till it hurts

to be here, cold in regulation clothes.

We know the sheriff’s waiting at midrun

to take us back. His car is dumb and warm.

The highway doesn’t rock, it only hums

like a wing of long insults. The worn-down welts

of ancient punishments lead back and forth.

All runaways wear dresses, long green ones,

the color you would think shame was. We scrub

the sidewalks down because it's shameful work.

Our brushes cut the stone in watered arcs

and in the soak frail outlines shiver clear

a moment, things us kids pressed on the dark

face before it hardened, pale, remembering

delicate old injuries, the spines of names and leaves.

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