History

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources
 

Carlisle's Nurses

Tour

Nations /Number of Students Enrolled

Biographies

Search information.

Carlisle school photos

Discussion and Queries - egroup

Jim Thorpe

Thorpe Photos

My Heart is On the Ground - book review

Related links

The Indian Helper

Powwow 2000

Scenes from the powwow
 

email Barbara Landis


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Carlisle Indian Industrial School

(1879 - 1918)


"The common schools
are the stomachs of the country
in which all people that come to us
are assimilated within a generation.
When a lion eats an ox,
the lion does not become an ox
but the ox becomes a lion."
..Henry Ward Beecher
"If the Great Spirit had desired me
to be a white man
he would have made me so
in the first place.
He put in your heart
certain wishes and plans;
in my heart he put
other and different desires.
Each man is good
in the sight of the Great Spirit.

It is not necessary,
that eagles should be crows."
..Sitting Bull (Teton Sioux)


Tom Torlino - before
Tom Torlino (Navajo) as he appeared upon arrival to the Carlisle Indian School October 21, 1882.
Tom Torlino - after
Tom Torlino (Navajo) three years later

.

Photographs Courtesy CCHS


INTRODUCTION

These pages are designed, written and executed
with the purpose of offering glimpses
into the Carlisle Indian School and its history.

The Carlisle Indian School's mission was to shape identity.

In its infancy, that shaping meant to transform American Indian children
to resemble their so-called civilized American brothers and sisters.
As the experiment progressed, that purpose shifted to one of "influence"
rather than "transformation," to quote Francis Leupp,
U.S. Indian Commissioner, 1904.

It is our purpose to respectfully honor those students
and their descendants who lived the experiment,
to celebrate with those who prospered from it,
and to grieve with those whose lives were diminished by it.

This is a history that belongs to all Americans
- the identities of all Americans
are shaped by the Carlisle experiment.

Much of the text on these pages reflect the collaborative efforts of 
Barbara Landis and Genevieve Bell.





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