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I t lasted only 39 years. But the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a century gone, made a significant impact both on local history and the history of Native American peoples and culture. In 1879, Richard Pratt, a U.S. Army officer, founded the school based on his belief in forced assimilation, stripping students of their language, culture and religion, all under strict militaristic rule. Located at what is now the U.S. Army War College, the school was "home" to an estimated 8,800 students representing more than 375 nations over the course of its history. ese nations did not include any tribes local to central PA, which already had all but disappeared. "By 1879, there were no communities in Pennsylvania with any kind of identity or sovereignty as a nation," said Barbara Landis of the Cumberland County Historical Society. "at's one reason why Pratt chose this area. It was far away from the influence of communities, and it was close to New York City, Philadelphia, D.C., and Pittsburgh—white cultural centers that he could take advantage of." Pratt's approach was assimilation at almost any cost, removing all sense of native culture and forcing conversion to Christianity. "We give the rising Indian something nobler and higher to think about and do, and he comes out a young man with the ambitions and aspirations of his more favored white brother," Pratt wrote in an 1898 issue of the school newspaper. "We do not like to keep alive the stories of his past, hence deal more with his present and his future." Landis explained that the dark side of the school's history was left out of the written record, but that one can read between the lines of documents on the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. "Pratt set up this justice—adjudication—structure," Landis said. "ere was a ranking system, and every person was assigned to a rank. ere were boys that were giving out punishments for boys that were misbehaving or for infractions." A series of letters from 1910 and 1911 between the school staff, the Department of Indian Affairs and a concerned Carlisle citizen, Arthur Rupley, detailed the use of solitary confinement and corporal punishment for transgressions such as swearing, insubordination or fighting. Photoportrait of Richard R. Kaseeta (Kissitti), age 4, c. 1907, taken at the Leupp Studio at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. a DaRk histoRy enDs A hundred years ago, the doors closed on the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. bY AshLeIgh PoLLArt

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