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Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, and Reclamations
The Carlisle Indian School (1879–1918) was an audacious educational experiment. Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, the school’s founder and first superintendent, persuaded the federal government that training Native children to accept the white man’s ways and values would be more efficient than fighting deadly battles. The result was that the last Indian war would be waged against Native children in the classroom.
More than 8,500 children from virtually every Native nation in the United States were taken from their homes and transported to Pennsylvania. Carlisle provided a blueprint for the federal Indian school system that was established across the United States and also served as a model for many residential schools in Canada. The Carlisle experiment initiated patterns of dislocation and rupture far deeper and more profound and enduring than its founder and supporters ever grasped.
Carlisle Indian Industrial School offers varied perspectives on the school by interweaving the voices of students’ descendants, poets, and activists with cutting-edge research by Native and non-Native scholars. These contributions reveal the continuing impact and vitality of historical and collective memory, as well as the complex and enduring legacies of a school that still affects the lives of many Native Americans.
More than 8,500 children from virtually every Native nation in the United States were taken from their homes and transported to Pennsylvania. Carlisle provided a blueprint for the federal Indian school system that was established across the United States and also served as a model for many residential schools in Canada. The Carlisle experiment initiated patterns of dislocation and rupture far deeper and more profound and enduring than its founder and supporters ever grasped.
Carlisle Indian Industrial School offers varied perspectives on the school by interweaving the voices of students’ descendants, poets, and activists with cutting-edge research by Native and non-Native scholars. These contributions reveal the continuing impact and vitality of historical and collective memory, as well as the complex and enduring legacies of a school that still affects the lives of many Native Americans.
414 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 14, 2020
Do yourself a favor and read this book.
January 7, 2023
This book is a collection of presentations made at an October 2012 symposium which was held in hopes of ‘….constructing an alternative, more open narrative’ about the Carlisle Industrial Indian School than had been the case up until then. In order to do this the editors Fear-Segal and Jones invited academic researchers and descendants of students who had lived at the school from 1879 until it closed in 1918. Native American writers, some of whom were descendants, also contributed to the book. One of the writers is Pulitzer Prize winner Scott Momaday, who is a member of the Kiowa Nation.
As is the case when a number of people contribute to a book there is some redundancy in the material presented. However, unlike most collections the quality of the essays is more consistently higher. And, save for one academic paper, the prose is generally quite readable. In fact, some of the chapters by the descendants and the Native American authors are beautifully, at times even lyrically and poignantly written. Photos of the school and some of its students interspersed amongst the narrative text enhanced my engagement with the book.
For those wishing to follow up on topics presented the academic authors provided references in the text and notes at the end of their chapters. The book also has 3 other features which make it very useful: an 8 page selected bibliography, 3 pages of published resources for researching Carlisle, and a 5 page chronology summarizing the history of the school. Finally, there is also an index.
This is not an ‘easy’ read because the subject matter is distressing. But it is a very informative one which I recommend highly for anyone wanting to learn more about the Native American experience of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Fear-Segal was involved in producing a documentary film about two children known as The Lost Ones by their tribe, the Lipan Apache (Nde). An 11 minute trailer about the movie can be seen at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I4jF...
An excellent Canadian dramatic film about a similar residential school in the 1920’s is called Where the Spirit Lives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I4jF...
In Beloved Child Diane Wilson describes her interviews with the Dakota descendants of those who lived in Native American residential schools in which the inter generational impact of that experience is discussed:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
As is the case when a number of people contribute to a book there is some redundancy in the material presented. However, unlike most collections the quality of the essays is more consistently higher. And, save for one academic paper, the prose is generally quite readable. In fact, some of the chapters by the descendants and the Native American authors are beautifully, at times even lyrically and poignantly written. Photos of the school and some of its students interspersed amongst the narrative text enhanced my engagement with the book.
For those wishing to follow up on topics presented the academic authors provided references in the text and notes at the end of their chapters. The book also has 3 other features which make it very useful: an 8 page selected bibliography, 3 pages of published resources for researching Carlisle, and a 5 page chronology summarizing the history of the school. Finally, there is also an index.
This is not an ‘easy’ read because the subject matter is distressing. But it is a very informative one which I recommend highly for anyone wanting to learn more about the Native American experience of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Fear-Segal was involved in producing a documentary film about two children known as The Lost Ones by their tribe, the Lipan Apache (Nde). An 11 minute trailer about the movie can be seen at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I4jF...
An excellent Canadian dramatic film about a similar residential school in the 1920’s is called Where the Spirit Lives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I4jF...
In Beloved Child Diane Wilson describes her interviews with the Dakota descendants of those who lived in Native American residential schools in which the inter generational impact of that experience is discussed:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
September 23, 2023
A bit of a slog, but worth the read.
November 30, 2016
An amazing collection of essays and poems that bring to life the tragedy that was the Carlisle Indian School.
Essays I'd recommend:
* Bilodeau on Susquehanna Native history
* White on Lincoln Institute and CIS
* Bloom on sports at CIS
* All the poems
* Both Fear-Segal essays
* Rittenhouse on tipis
* Thompson's "The Spirit Survives"
Essays I'd recommend:
* Bilodeau on Susquehanna Native history
* White on Lincoln Institute and CIS
* Bloom on sports at CIS
* All the poems
* Both Fear-Segal essays
* Rittenhouse on tipis
* Thompson's "The Spirit Survives"
August 6, 2021
Great Book! This is full of Native American History in addition to the school history.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews