Carlisle Indian Industrial School

The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from its founding in 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle Barracks, which was transferred to the Department of Interior from the War Department. After the United States entry into World War I, the school was closed and this property was transferred back for use by the Department of Defense. All the property is now part of the U.S. Army War College. Founded in 1879 under U.S. governmental authority by Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, Carlisle was an early federally funded off-reservation Indian boarding school initiated by the U.S. government. This was similar to the Choctaw Academy in Scott County, Kentucky, which was the first boarding school, but was initiated by Choctaw leaders and then funded by the U.S. government through the 1819 Civilization Act. Pratt had earlier supervised Native American prisoners of war, and supported some of them in gaining education at Hampton College. He became convinced that education was the key to assimilation. In his own words, Pratt's motto was, "Kill the Indian, save the man." The US applied this principle to the cultural assimilation efforts of the larger American Indian boarding school system, by requiring children to speak only English, practice Christianity, take on new names and wear European-American style clothing. Pratt wrote that he believed that Native Americans were 'equal' to European Americans, and that the school worked to immerse students into mainstream Euro-American culture. He believed that this would enable them to advance and thrive in the dominant society, and be leaders to their people.