The Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879–1918) was an Indian boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Founded in 1879 by Captain Henry Pratt under the authority of the US federal government, the school was the first off-reservation boarding school, and it became a model for Indian boarding schools in other locations.
It was one of a series of 19th-century efforts by the United States government to assimilate Native American children from 140 tribes into the majority culture.
The goal of total assimilation can be summed up in the school’s slogan:
“To civilize the Indian, get him into civilization. To keep him civilized, let him stay.”
From the earliest years of the republic, United States leaders struggled with the issues of integrating Native Americans into the European-based society, which they believed was superior and bound to dominate, especially with increasing immigration.
It is estimated that more than 10,000 Native American children attended Carlisle between 1879 and 1918. Students were forbidden from speaking their own language, their hair was cut and they had to be dressed in suits, ties and corseted dresses.
They often didn’t go home for years and were taught trades, such as baking and blacksmithing, designed to give them a foothold in the white world after graduation.
Photographer John Choate took pictures of scores of Carlisle students before and after they went to the school – to demonstrate the transformation they underwent there.