The Relationship Between the Young Men's Christian Associations at Dickinson College and the Carlisle Indian School

The Relationship Between the Young Men’s Christian Associations of Dickinson College and the Carlisle Indian School. Brad Benton, Dickinson College, Class of 2008 By the time the Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened in 1879, almost every American Indian was living on a reservation. It was with this fact in mind that the American Government initiated a plan to “civilize” some of the Indians on the reservations by bringing them into white American culture. In order to do so, Indian schools, such as the Carlisle Indian School (CIS) were founded on the principle that by removing American Indians from reservation culture and life, they could effectively be converted to and assimilated into white American culture. To accomplish these goals, Indians brought to the CIS were taught English, arithmetic, and social manners and were given training in certain practical, industrial skills. Another prominent part of this assimilation process was the instillation of tradition Christian morals and beliefs into the Indian students. In order to accomplish this religious goal, the students were required by the school’s first superintendent, Richard Henry Pratt, to attend one of the churches in Carlisle to learn the stories of the Bible and to gain an appreciation of the Christian religion. Pratt also became personally involved in this process by holding English Bible study courses to further the religious aspects of the educational process. He also encouraged the Indian students to hold Bible study groups among themselves and to establish religious student organizations. One such organization that was founded at the CIS was the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Almost every young Indian at the CIS participated in the activities and services provided by the YMCA. With such a high participation rate within the CIS student community, the YMCA has able to play an integral role in the Christianization and education of the Indians at the Carlisle Indian School. The actions of the YMCA at the CIS were not the only such spiritual activities in Carlisle. Nearly two miles away in downtown Carlisle, the same types of spiritual activities were taking place at Dickinson College’s YMCA. Home to several hundred students in the 1880s, Dickinson College offered a diverse curriculum and drew students from all over the region. While attending Dickinson College, students formed and took part in a number clubs and organizations on campus. One of the most popular was the YMCA. The YMCA at Dickinson provided a wide array of spiritual services to the students of Dickinson, including Bible study and spiritual lectures. The Dickinson YMCA did not confine its activities to the academic campus. It routinely cooperated with the citizens of Carlisle to provide spiritual services to the community. As a result of taking an active role in Carlisle, the Dickinson YMCA forged a relationship with its counterpart at the CIS. The relationship that developed between the two YMCAs during the 1880s and 1890s provided the members of the CIS YMCA with an opportunity to interact with members of white American culture and further become assimilated into it. More importantly, this relationship afforded the two YMCAs the benefit of interacting with each other and working together to further their common goal of developing strong moral and religious foundations in its members. The YMCA at the CIS viewed the Indians at the school in the same light as they viewed American college students. That is, to make young Indian boys into strong men with an endowed sense of self and to provide them with connections and life skills that would help them succeed in the future. The Association sought to strengthen its member’s moral and religious fiber. To accomplish this basic goal, the YMCA conducted many of the same activities that it did on college campuses, such as Bible class, spiritual lectures, and organized meetings that aimed other convert Indians to Christianity. During such events the YMCA members were taught the stories and lessons of the Bible as means of instilling Christian virtues into their lives. It was reported that many Indian students found the stories in the Bible to be entertaining and because of this were receptive to listening to and learning about the lessons of these stories. The existence of the YMCA at the CIS also played an important role in furthering the development of the social skills the CIS wanted to instill in the Indian students. The Association was able to address these social goals by providing a forum for Indians to interact with each other to learn how to conduct themselves in a social environment as well as developing their speaking and debating skills. By drawing Indians at the CIS together into the YMCA, it also developed a sense of community among its members and acted as a deterrent to returning to the reservation where it was assumed that all progress that had been made toward assimilation would be lost. The YMCA effectively acted as cohesive organization that brought together a number of Indian students and worked to instill Christian values in them while providing a forum for them to develop their interpersonal skills. At the Carlisle Indian School, the YMCA’s possessed a large degree of power and was well respected by the students of the school. The YMCA’s power at CIS grew to such a degree that the organization was able to prompt a 1914 congressional investigation of the school. The students of the Indian School YMCA cited concerns over the growing lack of morality and equality at the school. Several students testified before the commission and stated that the YMCA was the only organization on campus that attempted to keep the CIS in line with basic Christian morals. The faculty also took note of the effective work the Association was doing on campus. Superintendent Moses Friedman applauded the activities and accomplishments of the YMCA. Friedman expressed desire that the YMCA’s activities could be expanded because they proved so effective at helping Indians assimilated into white culture. As evidence of the YMCA’s positive influence on the students of the CIS, Friedman pointed to a number of successful graduates of the school that were active members in the YMCA during there time at the CIS. After graduation, a number of YMCA graduates returned to their reservations to work as teachers, superintendents, and community leaders. However, several CIS graduates were able to obtain prominent positions in “white society.” These prominent individuals included Charles E. Dagenette, the President of the American Indian Association, and manager of the Department of Indian Employment and Howard E. Gansworth, a Princeton graduate and member of a prestigious manufacturing firm in Buffalo, New York. Friedman seemed to believe that these former members were able to thrive in white society because of the values they learned from the YMCA at the CIS. While the YMCA at the Indian School was being established in the 1880s, the Dickinson College chapter was undergoing a transformation into a stronger and more respected student body organization. As with the Indian School, the Dickinson YMCA was on campus to serve the spiritual needs of the students and to attempt to be a guiding moral force in the lives of Christian students by keeping students in line with Christian morals during their time at college. The YMCA aimed to prepare men to enter the world with a strong set of morals and character. In order to accomplish these goals, the Dickinson YMCA held weekly meetings, usually on Fridays and Sundays, during which time members would read and discuss the Bible and hear from guest speakers. It was not uncommon for Dickinson faculty to speak at these meetings nor was it rare for traveling members of the national YMCA to come to Dickinson to address the college Association. The college newspaper, The Dickinsonian, generally reported that these meetings, both regular and with guest speakers, were well received by the members of the YMCA and the student body as a whole. It was also during the late 1880s and early 1890s that the YMCA received new spaces to operate on campus. In June 1889, the YMCA received a newly refurbished room in which to hold meetings and in June 1890 work commenced on transforming a chapel on campus to what later became known as YMCA Hall. The YMCA also had a reading room and library in Dickinson’s Bosler Hall and conducted some of it activities in Bosler Hall throughout this period. The Dickinson YMCA was not limited to conducting activities solely for the enjoyment of its members. The YMCA worked to better the on campus environment for all students by conducting a number of on-campus activities to better the lives of the students. Most prominent among these events was the YMCA’s ongoing “Star Course” which took place in the mid-1890s. The Star Course was a set of lectures, concerts, and other performances that was put on for the entire campus by the YMCA. The YMCA recruited faculty members and other inspirational speakers from outside the Dickinson community to present lectures. The Star Course was extremely well received by the students of Dickinson and represented one of the organizations most successful endeavors. The activities of the Dickinson YMCA also stretched beyond the campus and college community and into the town of Carlisle. On a number of occasions the YMCA or its members worked in conjunction with the Carlisle YMCA to organize events for the people of Carlisle. Such was the case in 1890, when the two organizations put on a well-received entertainment show for the townspeople. Also, as part of the organization’s Outpost Program, members of the Dickinson YMCA traveled to the local jail to work with prisoners and to try to help them in their spiritual endeavors. Further, the Missionary Band, a group closely associated with the YMCA that specialized in spreading information about missionary work abroad, traveled to the local Carlisle churches and gave speeches regarding the benefits of missionary work. Missionary work played a strong role in the Dickinson YMCA as many members went to pursue missionary work in Asia and Africa. It was also common for past YMCA members and outside speakers to come to Dickinson to recount their experiences as missionaries. Throughout its time on campus, the YMCA remained a permanent feature of Dickinson College life. Even when the YMCA experienced a slight decline in attendance during the late 1890s, the organization still remained a popular and influential student organization. The two YMCAs, while located at different educational facilities, were within two miles of each other in Carlisle. It was not uncommon for members of the CIS YMCA to work or meet with members of the Dickinson YMCA. The two organizations shared common goals and used comparable methods to reach these goals. As such, the Dickinson and CIS YMCA’s began to meet on a somewhat regular basis to hold what were called Union Meetings. These meetings were typically held at Dickinson College and during these meetings there would be discussions of popular and religious topics. Such was the case in November 1887, when the first Union Meeting of the Dickinson and CIS YMCAs was held in Dickinson’s Bosler Hall. During the meeting, presided over by Dickinson’s Abraham Lincoln Dryden and the Indian School’s Luke Phillips, the members prepared and presented three minute speeches and heard speeches from several reverends as well as the president of Dickinson, James McCauley. This first meeting was so effective and popular that the Union Meeting was extended and held for the next three weeks in the Dickinson College Chapel. The Union meetings between the two YMCAs continued with some regularity and typically received a large turnout when they were held, as was the case at both the 1890 and 1892 meetings. Following the 1890 meeting, which was held in part at the Carlisle Indian School and at Dickinson and included members of the Carlisle YMCA, The Dickinsonian announced the college YMCA would now gladly accept Indian members at there regular Friday night meetings. The Dickinson YMCA had further contact with the CIS when it recruited the Indian School Band, which was of notable talent during this time period, to perform during the Star Course in February 1895. It is also probable that members of the CIS YMCA heard speeches presented by Dickinson members of the Missionary Band when they traveled to local churches and spoke about their missionary experiences. In 1909, the strength of the relationship between the two institutions was truly demonstrated when Superintendent Friedman recruited Adam Nagay, a Dickinson College student and YMCA member, to become the secretary of the Indian School YMCA. Nagay held this position for two years. Under his leadership, the CIS YMCA flourished because it established routine and well-attended Sunday night meetings and recruited a number of popular speakers. It was also during this period that Dickinson College students began to teach Bible study classes at the CIS. This program continued beyond Nagay’s tenure at the school and was extremely well received on the CIS campus. It is also important to note that the religious and spiritual services afforded to students at both the CIS and Dickinson College were not limited to male students. Both Dickinson and the CIS had a Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). The YWCA at both institutions offered the same types of services and spiritual guidance as the YMCA and the same type of relations between the YWCAs at Dickinson and the CIS developed. The women of the YWCA at Dickinson routinely traveled to the CIS to conduct Bible study classes with Indian students and in 1910, the YWCA from Dickinson was invited by the CIS to take part in the joint YWCA/YMCA Annual Reception at the Indian School. In this case the Dickinson YWCA preformed for the audience a sketch entitled “A College Stunt.” It appears that the two YWCAs interacted in a similar, though smaller manner than the YMCAs. Despite this smaller scale of interaction, the two organizations, like the YMCAs, were still able to come together and work towards their shared religious and moral goals. The shared purpose of these two organizations allowed them to collaborate in order to meet their goals of spreading Christian morals into the lives of their members. These inter-institutional links probably helped to further the CIS’s goals of assimilating Indians into white culture. The meetings gave the Indian students the opportunity to interact with white students from Dickinson and from this exposure, the Indian members of the YMCA and YWCA had the opportunity to practice their spoken English and to witness first hand how white culture operated. These collaborative experiences were effective in meeting the ultimate goal of the CIS by creating the potential for the CIS students to learn about and potentially adopt traditional Christian morals while interacting with white culture. The ultimate goal of strengthening the moral and religious fiber of the members of each organization at Dickinson and CIS was also undoubtedly furthered by the cooperation of the YMCAs and YWCAs at each institution. Sources: Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1995. “For an Equal Chance with Other Men.” Association Men: The Magazine of the Young Men’s Christian Association. No. 11(1911): 485-492. “Locals.” The Dickinsonian. June 1889, 10. “Locals.” The Dickinsonian. December 1887, 9. Ryan, Carmelita S. “The Carlisle Indian Industrial School.” Thesis, Georgetown University, 1962. “The Carlisle Indian School YMCA.” The Carlisle Arrow. No. 14(1912):1-2. “YMCA Notes.” The Dickinsonian. June 1890, 17. “YMCA Notes.” The Dickinsonian. April 1890, 12. “YMCA Notes.” The Dickinsonian. November 1892, 13. “YMCA Notes.” The Dickinsonian. February 1893, 16. “YMCA Notes.” The Dickinsonian. December 1894, 14 “YMCA Notes.” The Dickinsonian. February 1895, 22.