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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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CARLISLE INDIAN SCHOOL
Pennsylvania
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Location: Cumberland County, on U.S. 11, at
Carlisle Barracks, northeastern edge of Carlisle.
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As the first of the off-reservation boarding schools
and the model for scores of others, the Carlisle Indian School
commemorates the efforts of the 19th-century reformers who attempted to
improve conditions among the Indians. In its almost four decades of
existence, from 1879 until 1918, the Government-operated institution
provided thousands of students with an elementary and practical
education.
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Group of Sioux on arrival at
Carlisle Indian School. (Library of Congress) |
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Richard H. Pratt, founder of
Carlisle Indian School. (Yale University
Library) |
Richard H. Pratt, Civil War officer and later cavalry
officer in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and Texas, conceived the idea of
the school. Between 1875 and 1878 he had been in charge of a group of
Indian prisoners at Fort Marion, Fla., and had evolved an educational
program for the younger ones. In 1878, when the prisoners gained their
freedom, Pratt arranged for some of the young men and a group of western
Indians to attend the black school at Hampton, Va. Stimulated by the
success of that program, Pratt persuaded the Army to turn over the
cavalry post at Carlisle Barracks, inactivated that same year, to the
Indian Bureau for a school. The Army authorized Pratt to serve there.
Beginning with 136 boys and girls the first year, the school grew
rapidly. Pratt, who rose in rank from lieutenant to colonel while
superintendent, retired from the Army as a colonel in 1903 and the
following year was awarded a brigadier general's star.
Although a popular misconception exists that the
school had the status of a universitythanks to its athletic
achievements in collegiate competitionit actually offered only a
limited elementary education and instruction in mechanical arts,
agriculture, and home economics. The length of the term was first 3 and
later 5 years. As he had done at Fort Marion, Pratt ran the school on a
semimilitary basis. Male students drilled and wore surplus Civil War
uniforms. A unique feature of the instruction was the "outing" system,
under which selected boys and girls lived with nearby white families and
gained practical experience in farming and domestic arts. This program
helped each race know the other better. Students from tribes that were
traditionally enemies lived and worked together amicably.
The athletic program, notably "Pop" Warner's
excellent football teams, won the school much fame. Outstanding among a
number of eminent Carlisle athletes was Jim Thorpe, the Sauk-Fox Indian
who was an All-American football player and excelled in the decathlon
and pentathlon during the 1912 Olympics. Sports writers voted him the
outstanding U.S. athlete of the first half of the 20th century.
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Superintendent's quarters,
Carlisle Indian School, now occupied by Army War College commandant.
(U.S. Army, Department of Defense) |
A number of buildings of the Indian school era are
grouped in close proximity near the western limits of the present
military reservation. One is the commandant's quarters, once occupied by
Pratt and today the home of the commandant of the Army War College,
which now has jurisdiction over Carlisle Barracks. Thorpe Hall was the
school gymnasium, a role it still fulfills for Army personnel. The Coren
Apartments, built immediately after the destruction of Carlisle Barracks
by fire in 1863, was a girls' dormitory and is currently an officers'
quarters. Armstrong Hall, at present containing the post headquarters
offices, served as the school laundry. Quarters No. 2, home of the
deputy commandant of the war college, was erected in 1887 as the
residence of-the school's assistant superintendent. Washington Hall,
another survivor of the school, is a guesthouse. On the eastern side of
the post is located a small cemetery where Indian students are buried.
Visitors may obtain permission from military policemen to visit the
historic buildings and cemetery.
NHL Designation: 07/04/61
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/siteb29.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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