Figure 1.--This cabinent card portrait shows a group of fully identified Native American Osage Indian boys. They were the first Osage boys to attend the Carlisle Indian Training School. The six boys wear the school uniform and from their posture and appearance, they have been at the school some time. Each of the Boys is identified with a small manuscript number. On the back of the card mount is a list of the Boys names: 1. Joel Chetopah 2. Josie Big Wolf 3. Watson Penn 4. Elmer Nicacola 5. Fred Lookout 6. Alex Tall Chief Also writen on the back, "First Osage boys to go to Carlisle School, Carlisle Penn. About 1880.� The photographer was J. N. Choate. He apparently had a contract because printed on the back is, "Photographed for / Indian Training School, Carlisle Barracks, PA.�. This Photograph is among the very earliest images of young Indian children who attended the Carlisle School. The first students arrived at the Carlisle Barracks in the middle of the night on October 6, 1879 beginning what would be close to 4 decades of education at the Carlisle School. The biography of Fred Lookout (who is pictured in this cabinet card), an important Chief of the Osage Nation, states that he attended the school from 1879 to 1884. This image was likely taken in 1880 or perhaps 1881.

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, initially called the Carlisle Indian Training School was a boarding school located at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It was the best known of the Native American boarding schools established by the Federal Government. It was opened in an abandone Army post--Carlisle Barracks , Peensylvania (1879). The school was founded by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. The Carlisle School was the first off-reservation boarding school in the United States. It was designed to bring Native American children from the hunter-gathering stage into the modern world by forcibly assimilating them. Native American advocates refer to this today as cultural genocide. The School became a model for other schools working with Native American children. Many of the children were forced to attend the schools. Once at the school, their hair was cut and they were issued uniforms. The school has been criticized for taking the children from their parents and strict regime verging on brutality, based on modern standards. Using modern standards, however, is unfair. Any assessment should compare them to contemporary schools. Perhaps the most valid way of assessing the school program is to compare the life success of the graduates to comparable children who stayed on the reservations. We are not sure if such a study has ever been conducted. The children came from 140 tribes. The school had the all the attributes of boarding schools for wealthy children. It was known for its football team. Perhaps its most famous graduate was Olympic athelete Jim Thorpe. The school was closed (1918). The U.S. Army resumed control and converted Carlisle Barracks to use as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers returning from World war I service in France. The Army War College was subsequently opened there. The Carlisle complex was designated a National Historic Landmark (1961).

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Created: 6:39 PM 5/24/2009
Last updated: 1:16 AM 9/8/2015