Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Carlisle Indian Industrial School, (1879 - 1918), was an Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1879 by Captain Richard Henry Pratt at a disused barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The so-called “noble experiment” was a failed attempt to forcibly assimilate Native American children into the culture of the United States. The United States Army War College now occupies the site of the former school.

Richard Pratt was an enlistedman and then an officer in the Civil War. After the war, Lt. Pratt was an officer with the Buffalo Soldier’s 10th Cavalry Regiment, in the southern plains of the United States. One of Pratt's jobs was to command the Native Americans who were enlisted Scouts for the 10th Cavalry. In 1875, Pratt took a small group of Native American leaders to Fort Marion, an Indian reservation or POW camp in Florida where they were held hostage to allow the U.S. Government to coerce their respective nations. At Fort Marion, Pratt set about trying to “civilize” his captives: taking away their traditional clothing in favor of military uniforms, cutting their traditional braids, teaching them English, etc. While these people were released in 1878, Pratt and others thought his techniques could be applied to others, especially children. He convinced others to establish Carlisle.


"It seems curious that church people, humanitarians, and idealists should fall so much in love with Pratt. He was a quite ordinary army officer who had developed a marked ability for knocking the spirit out of the Indians and turning them into docile students who would obey all orders. Pratt was a domineering man who knew only one method for dealing with anyone who opposed his will. He bullied them into submission." (Hyde, 1979, p. 289)

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