Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument ⓘ

From 1819 through 1969 the United States government implemented policies establishing and supporting Indian boarding schools across the nation and territories. Thousands of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children were taken, often forcibly, from their families to attend boarding schools at different locations across the United States.

The Federal Indian boarding schools were intended to assimilate Indigenous children into what was considered “American culture” by European Americans. Separated from their families and communities, children were stripped of their languages, religions, and cultural practices. They often suffered physical and emotional abuse, as did their families and communities at the loss of their children and young generations of their culture.

Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School (Carlisle School) was one the first of the Federal boarding schools to be set up outside of a reservation and was often considered the model on how to structure other boarding schools in the system. US Army 1st Lieutenant Richard Pratt believed that off-reservation education for Native Americans would make it easier to assimilate them into American culture by learning English and trades.

Pratt successfully lobbied for a school at Carlisle Barracks, which at that point was a vacant calvary barracks. The War Department transferred the barracks campus to the Department of the Interior in 1879. The school was financed with both government funds and private donations. Pratt served as the school’s first superintendent.

The first American Indian and Alaska Native children arrived at the Carlisle School on October 6, 1879. Many of the first children were taken from their families on the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Lakota reservations. Approximately 7,800 children from more than 140 distinct cultures would attend the school over its nearly 40-year history. These students were transported long distances by boats and trains, traveling sometimes for days with military escorts before arriving in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The goal of the school was to assimilate children into mainstream American society, which involved unlearning Indigenous culture. The children were often placed with peers who did not speak the same language or practice the same cultural customs or religious beliefs. This method forced the children to rely on English and limit other traditional practices.

As a vocational school, the children were taught trades such as smithing, carpentry, and bricklaying. As part of vocational training, they constructed a number of buildings and expanded the campus; additions included a chapel, three-story dining hall, classroom building, girls' dormitory, boiler house, and hospital.

Civilian school officials enforced military-style discipline at the Carlisle School. Children marched across the grounds to and from their classes, the dining hall, extra-curricular activities, and for regular inspections. They marched in groups like soldiers in military drills. When officials rang a bell, they shifted to new movements. If a child disobeyed a rule, they went to the guardhouse for punishment or were forced to perform hard labor.

As part of forced assimilation practices, Carlisle School staff cut off the long braids of male children, took away the children’s personal or tribal clothing, moccasins, and family belongings. Children could not keep medicine bags, jewelry, or ceremonial rattles. These items often had special meanings to tribes. While at the Carlisle School, boys wore fitted, wool military-style uniforms and girls wore long, high-collared Victorian dresses. The school administrators also assigned a new English name to each child and did not allow native languages to be spoken. Administrators took before and after photos of children. These photos showed portraits of children arriving at the school with long hair and traditional clothing made of animal hides “before” and in the style of Anglo Americans with closely shorn hair and school uniforms “after.” Pratt shared the photos with the media and in his publications as propaganda to show politicians and the American public that cultural assimilation was working.

The Carlisle School's start as a Federal Indian boarding school coincided with the rise of American football. Although children also participated in other athletics, the Carlisle School used the football team as a means to earn publicity and garner support for the boarding school approach to assimilation. One of the greatest athletes of the 20th century attended Carlisle School: Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation. Thorpe won athletic competitions while at the school, won two gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics, and went on to be a professional football player.

By the time the Carlisle School closed its doors in 1918 after 40 years in operation, over 7,800 children from over 140 Indian Nations had spent time here. Some children graduated in their late teens or early twenties, but others left early due to illness or homesickness. An estimated 200 children died and were buried in the cemetery on campus.

In total, the Federal Indian boarding school system included 417 boarding schools across the country. Under the same military-style discipline, children at these schools learned domestic and industrial skills. The staff forced them to speak English and tried to destroy their ties to traditional cultures. In 1928 the U.S. government reported findings that children were abused, overworked, and underfed. Most off-reservation schools closed by the 1930s when Americans learned about how children were treated.

The Carlisle School campus returned to U.S. Army control in 1918. Today, the former Carlisle School is located within the boundaries of what is now the United States Carlisle Barracks, one of the Nation’s oldest military installations.