History of Indian Education

History 204 | History of Indian Education | Dickinson Indian School Public Contacts | Prosopography of Indian Dickinson College Students | Insitute to Institute: Dickinson College and Carlisle Indian School | Bibliographic Information

In the quest to civilize American Indians and turn them into white Americans, it became the accepted policy to educate Indians in order to complete the transformation from uncivilized Indian to model white American. The process of educating American Indians began in earnest in 1860s with the establishment of Reservation Day Schools. Located on the outskirts of Indian reservations and villages, these schools were the first real attempt to educate and civilize Indians. The Day Schools operated on the assumption Indian children would voluntarily come to the schools and receive instruction in the English language, basic reading and writing skills, and arithmetic. At these schools Indian children further received instruction in so-called “industrial skills,” which often time included learning how to use household tools and do basic household tasks. The Day Schools were generally viewed as being rather successful in their goals. However, they were heavily criticized for not successfully assimilating Indian children into white culture and society because Indians still returned to the reservations at night and essentially lost what had been taught to them during the day. It was due to this reason that another form of education was utilized in the process of civilizing Indians.

This second type of educational assimilation came in the form of Reservation Boarding Schools. Instead of being located near reservations, these schools were located at Indian Office headquarters, away from reservations, and were directly supervised by an agent of the Indian Office. At these schools, students were isolated from the reservation and were kept at the schools for eight to nine months out of the year. The Reservation Board Schools again focused on teaching English and learning industrial skills but they also sought to teach Indians basic manners and attempted to inject Christian morals into the lives of all Indians. Despite the general success of this system of education, there again was criticism on the grounds that the Boarding School did not do enough to fully remove all influence of Indian tribal life. Critics argued that even allowing Indians to return to reservations for several weeks around Christmas was enough to destroy all process of that the Boarding School had made.

A third and more popular approach to assimilating Indians into white culture emerged after the decline in popularity of the Boarding School system. The third system of civilizing Indians focused on removing all vestiges of Indian culture and reservation life from the education process. This system, which sought to do nothing but teach Indians how to be civilized white Americans, was developed by Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt while he was charged with guarding Indian prisoners at Fort Marion outside St. Augustine, Florida. Pratt sought to totally indoctrinate Indians by removing every possible influence of Indian culture. The Indians were again taught English and some skills but were also made to do so in a military-like culture. As a further step, Pratt strongly emphasize the role of Christianity in civilizing Indians and a large part of the civilization process was influenced by Christian teachings and morals at Fort Marion. Indians were also allowed to interact with the population of St. Augustine in an effort to teach them how to succeed in white culture. The model developed by Pratt in Florida was hailed as wholly successful in transforming “savages” into civilized white Christians. It was this model of education that was implemented at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania when it opened in 1879.