Carlisle Indian School proclaimed a national monument

WASHINGTON, DC—It takes 23 hours to drive from Pine Ridge to Carlisle Indian School but this far off historic industrial school has had a large impact on the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Last Monday President Biden signed a presidential proclamation establishing the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

According to the official press release: “The proclamation designates a 24.5 acre national monument, to be managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Army, building on Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, the first-ever comprehensive effort by the federal government to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies, address their intergenerational impact, and shed light on past and present trauma in Indigenous communities.”

Carlisle Industrial School opened 125 years ago, bringing students from all over the country to what was initially a raw Discovery Doctrine assimilation operation. But as the decades went by, layers of genuine Native tradition were established by the excellence of those attending Carlisle. When Carlisle closed in 1918, almost 8,000 students from more than 140 tribes had been subjected to what some have deemed “its coercive form of education.”

If the intent of Carlisle was to assimilate per the Discovery Doctrine, it failed in the respect that the success of Carlisle’s stellar athletes, increased public awareness and affection for distinctly Native competitors. In the realm of Sport, their traditional tribal identity was celebrated.

As a lame duck president, Biden has embarked on a mission to address tribal needs and concerns. Before the Carlisle announcement, Biden visited the Gila River Indian Community, where he did something tribes have been requesting for more than a century, he offered formal apology for the lasting harms caused by the government’s assimilation boarding school policy.

“No single action by the federal government can adequately reconcile the trauma and ongoing harms from the federal Indian boarding school era.,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “But, taken together, the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to acknowledge and redress the legacy of the assimilation policy have made an enduring difference for Indian Country. This trauma is not new to Indigenous people, but it is new for many people in our nation. One of the reasons I launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative was to ensure that this important story was told. Through the National Park Service – America’s storyteller – people can now learn more about the intergenerational impacts of these policies as we, as a nation, continue to take steps to heal from them.”

National Parks Director Chuck Sams, an enrolled member of the Umatilla Confederated Tribes, stated: “This addition to the national park system that recognizes the troubled history of U.S. and tribal relations is among the giant steps taken in recent years to honor tribal sovereignty and recognize the ongoing needs of Native communities, repair past damage and make progress toward healing.”

Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt was the first Carlisle Indian School Administrator. He was of the opinion that Natives were the equal of whitemen, but he thought to establish that equality by assimilation and indoctrination. Pratt came to Pine Ridge but faced opposition from Red Cloud who did not have school age children, but more than that, deeply mistrusted Pratt’s agenda. given the duplicitous altered language in the 1868 Peace Treaty.

But American Horse believed children would have to live and operate in the white world, and they could best do that by understanding how that world operated. He sent two sons and a daughter to Carlisle in 1879.

When the exploits of Carlisle alumna Jim Thorpe earned him recognition as the world’s greatest athlete, Carlisle appeared to be at its high water mark. But just six years later it ceased to operate. But the impact of its alumni would be a major factor in establishing the NFL two years later. Although past his prime, Thorpe became the face of the NFL, and it’s first household name player.

In 1957 Pine Ridge High School changed the name of their sports teams to Thorpes. Prior to the change they had many names: Braves, Indians, and the Oglala Community Scarlet Warriors. Twenty years later the Thorpes produced an undefeated state champion, considered one of the most dominant teams in state history.

The proud legacy of Carlisle and famous alumni like Thorpe will always be tarnished by the grim reality that at least 233 students died in the 39 years it operated, and that is about six students a year. Had six students a year died at any South Dakota school during that time period, that school would have been immediately shut down, and some people would have probably gone to prison for a long time. The legacy of Carlisle Indian School will always be bittersweet for the tribes who sent loved ones there, becoming both world famous and childhood victims of a vile assimilation process.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him at skindiesel@msn.com)

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