Catalogue of the Indian Industrial School, 1902
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CATALOGUE O F T H E INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL CARLISLE, PA. ESTABLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1879, AT THE ABANDONED ARMY POST KNOWN AS CARLISLE BARRACKS. 2 3D Y E A R , 1 002. DESIGNERS ENGRAVERS PRINTERS PUBLISHERS JOURNAL Ijamestowmhy THE CARLISLE IDEA Sioux, a Ute or a Creek and becoming an American citizen, The young men in this party (the Indian prisoners) he is sensible enough to do it, and that is the end. while undergoing this banishment should be educated in — Address before the National Educational Association, Ocean Grove, English, trained in our industries, and brought in contact August 11, 1883. with our civilization as much as possible, for sooner or later # ¥ * they will be returned to their tribes and after all they are The slavery of separate systems and espionage must not so culpable as their old leaders, being more like soldiers be removed and somehow the Indian be merged into our acting under orders. life and made to carry his load of responsibility like the rest —Captain Pratt from Fort Sill to General Sheridan, Chicago, Mar. 1875, of us. That sharp spur that drives other men: “If a man in reference to Indian prisoners to be sent to Florida. will not work he shall not eat,” must be applied.—Editor ial, January, 1884. * * * f ? The Indian can only meet civilization successfully with The day of real progress for the Indian will begin when civilization as on the great prairies he fights fire with fire. each Indian becomes an individual and an organized unit in If he conquers the issues of the new life we now force upon himself to make the most of himself that he can. * * * * him, it can only be by thoroughly civilizing himself and be One of the greatest hindrances to the Indian in his transit coming a very part of that new life.—Editorial March, 1881. from barbarism to civilization is his entire exclusion from the experiences of practical civilized life. * * * * Unless * * * we can make our Indian school system build Indian children Our Indian children must be educated into the capac out of and away from the experiences of savagery into the ity and the courage to go out from all the Indian schools association and experiences of civilization in all its varied into our schools and into our life. Then will they learn that forms, competitions, etc., we shall not succeed in making- the world is theirs and that all the good of it- their trained capable citizens—Editorial, March, ’85. capacity enables them to grasp is theirs as well as ours. * » All our Indians need is broad and enlarged liberty of All the Indians need in order to become English-speak opportunity and training to make them, within the short ing, useful, intelligent American citizens is the same oppor space of a few years, a perfectly acceptable part of our pop tunities and responsibilities accorded to our own people and ulation, and to remove them from a condition of depend all foreigners who emigrate to and locate among us. ence, pauperism and crime to a truly civilized condition. It is impossible to give Indians these opportunities If we can fairly and honestly show to the Indian that with any force in their tribal aggregations on their reser his greatest advantage lies in his losing his identity as a vations. The element of necessity, of contact, the learning by and the Indians were taught by these women to read, write seeing, association with, and doing, is entirely absent at and speak English. A cheerful interest in the surroundings their homes. seemed to take the place of their sullen revengeful spirit. Educating them together in tribes is only added hire They showed themselves eager to learn, working intelligent to remain tribes. ly and willingly. This was a revelation to many, and dem Tribal disintegration, individual freedom and the tak onstrated that the secret of civilizing the Indian was to give ing upon their individual selves the useful qualities of our him work and to bring him into direct association with civ American life, can never come to them in any fullness ilized people. Experience has shown that this principle un through any educational training that may be given to derlies all successful Indian education. them in their tribal masses on their reservations, no differ The term of confinement of the Indian prisoners came ence how excellent tne quality of instruction. to an end in April, 1878, and they were returned to their The Sioux, educated in schools made up entirely of homes; but twenty-two asked to remain in the east to at Sioux on the Sioux reservation, naturally accept that they tend school. Of these, four went to Paris Hill, New York, are to remain Sioux indefinitely.—Annual Report, 1901. under the care of Rev. W. J. Wick; one to Tarry town, New «T #• ¥ 1 ork, into the family of Dr. Carruthers; and seventeen were HISTORY AND AIM. placed in the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute, In April, 1875, seventy-four Indian prisoners of war Virginia. from the Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, Captain and Mrs. Pratt under orders of the govern in the Indian Territory, under charge of Capt. R. H. Pratt ment went west and brought fifty Sioux, A rick aree, Mandan, were brought to old Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida, and Or os Ventre boys and girls from their Dakota reserva They had been leaders in murderous raids upon the tions to enter Hampton, and Captain Pratt was detailed to white settlers on the borders of the Territory and had been remain in charge of them at the school “until they become taken by the United States forces and sent in chains to accustomed to their new mode of life and interested in edu Florida. cational pursuits.” Not long after their arrival at Ft. Marion their chains Thoughtful observation soon showed that it was not were removed and they were put to work in the fort, and enough that these people should remain at the school even proved so trustworthy that they were gradually given work with the advantages of learning a trade. “If freedom and in St. Augustine and vicinity. This susceptibility to good citizenship are to be their lot then the surroundings of free influences aroused the interest of a number of large-hearted dom and good citizenship during education would seem the women there, and a little school was opened in the prison best to equip them for that lot.” It was believed impossible to introduce Indians into naturally gravitated. The War Department readily sanc the heart of civilization, but Mr. Hyde of Lee, and Captain tioned the use of this post and in September, 1879, it was Pratt found in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, a few be set apart for an Industrial School with Captain Pratt as nevolent families brave enough to take these children of an superintendent. alien race into their homes and teach them the work of the * » ? house and farm, and more than all make them a part of the family life. CARLISLE AN HISTORICAL SPOT. After a year’s experience Captain Pratt urged that if The name Carlisle is interwoven with colonial, revolu- the authorities expected him to remain in Indian educa tionarv, and civil war history. tional work he be given a separate school, as he was not Benjamin Franklin made a treaty with the Indians at satisfied with the attempt to unite the problem of the this place in 1753, about two years after it had been sepa Indian with that of the negro. The problems were not at rated from Penn’s vast acres and called Carlisle. all similar. One related to eight millions of negroes already Hessians captured at Trenton in the Revolution were prepared by a peculiar system and living in and as a part of brought here and held as prisoners. An evidence of their the body politic, while the other under a radically different labor remains in the stone building erected by them at the system related to two hundred and fifty thousand Indians south entrance to the grounds. living in separate communities and entirely alienated by this In July, 1863, when the Southern army made its great fact and by language from the body politic. The native venture north of the Mason-and-Dixon line which culminat heath of one was Africa, a. country on the opposite side of ed in defeat at Gettysburg, Fitzhugh Lee stopped to shell the globe and mostly in the torrid zone, the native heath of Carlisle, and burned the buildings at the post; but in 1865 the other was the very land upon which the body politic these were rebuilt. had become so enriched and mightily developed, and from The place had long been a school for the training of which the Indian had been driven. cavalry to fight Indians and poetic justice ruled when the The army post at Carlisle, Pa., had been abandoned children of these Indians were brought here to learn the arts several years before. It lay in a fertile valley, skillfully de of peace. veloped by an industrious and thrifty race, and where excel ¥ ¥ ¥ lent railroad facilities would bring them in touch with the kindly people of Pennsylvania, especially the Quakers, al THE COMING OF THE FIRST PUPILS. ways noted for their just and practical dealings with Indians At midnight, October 5th, 1879. the first party con and towards whose homes the Indians and their care-takers, sisting of eighty-two untaught Sioux boys and girls from seeking for sympathetic, thrifty, and economic influences, the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Agencies of Dakota arrived in charge of Captain Pratt.