The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, while aiming to assimilate Native American children into white American culture, paradoxically also became a place where some individuals attempted to understand and document Native American languages and customs. This complex and often contradictory relationship with Native American culture is a key aspect of the school’s legacy.
A School Founded on Assimilation
Founded in 1879 by Richard Henry Pratt, a U.S. military officer, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School aimed to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” Pratt believed that the path to success for Native Americans lay in abandoning their cultural heritage and adopting white American customs. The school enforced strict military-style discipline, forbade the speaking of native languages, and replaced traditional clothing with uniforms. Children were even given new English names, erasing a fundamental part of their identity. This forceful assimilation was seen as a way to integrate Native Americans into mainstream American society.
Carlisle students in uniform, demonstrating the school’s assimilationist policies.
Documenting Native American Cultures
Despite the school’s overarching assimilationist goals, there’s evidence that some individuals at Carlisle engaged in efforts to learn and document Native American languages and customs. While the school actively suppressed Native languages among students, the very diversity of the student body – representing over 142 different tribes – created a unique environment where linguistic and cultural exchange could potentially occur.
The need to communicate with students from various tribes may have necessitated some level of language learning by staff. Furthermore, researchers and anthropologists of the time were increasingly interested in studying Native American cultures. Carlisle, with its large and diverse student population, could have served as a convenient location for such research. It’s possible that ethnographic studies were conducted, involving the recording of languages, songs, stories, and cultural practices.
A “Before and After” photograph, highlighting the school’s transformation of Native American children.
A Complex Legacy
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School represents a dark chapter in the history of Native Americans. While the school’s primary mission was cultural assimilation, often through harsh and traumatic methods, the presence of diverse Native American communities within its walls may have inadvertently led to some efforts to understand and document their languages and customs. This contradictory nature makes Carlisle a complex and significant site for understanding the history of Native Americans in the United States. Further research is needed to fully uncover the extent to which the study of Native American cultures occurred at Carlisle and the motivations behind these efforts.
Conclusion: The Unanswered Questions
The question of “Which Group Tried To Learn American Indian Languages And Customs” at Carlisle remains partially unanswered. While the school’s administration focused on assimilation, the potential for cultural exchange and documentation existed. Further research into historical records, including school archives and anthropological studies from the period, could shed more light on this often overlooked aspect of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School’s complicated legacy.
