The Archives and Special Collections at the Hillman Library provide numerous documents regarding an often forgotten aspect of Pennsylvania Indigenous history. Those documents include accounts from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, not far from Pittsburgh in central Pennsylvania. Founded in 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first and most infamous of more than 500 government-funded Native American boarding schools across the U.S. Created by U.S. Army officer Richard Henry Pratt, the Carlisle School served as a way to assimilate Native children to American culture — with the ultimate aim of eliminating Native American culture. Pratt used his military background to create a regimented, strict curriculum. Cutting Native children’s hair, replacing their traditional clothes, forbidding the use of Native language, he attempted to use these tactics to create the perfect American and complacent and loyal worker.

The Archives and Special Collections Periodical Collection holds periodicals created by the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, magazines created to attract attention to the school and provide a source of income. The periodicals were often printed by the school’s printing press facilities and written by Carlisle students. Pratt not only believed that the Carlisle School would be extremely successful, but he believed that his image and his mission to be known nation-wide. These periodicals attracted attention to the school, especially amongst white-upper-middle-class intellectuals who considered themselves “Friends of the Indian.” Pratt relied on donations provided by these wealthy donors to sustain Carlisle and often catered to what these audiences found entertaining. Each periodical has a different function, but ultimately is used as a platform to advocate Pratt’s assimilationist ideologies.  

The Red Man Volumes, which originated as The Red Man and Helper, were published between 1900 to 1917. The Red Man and Helper news periodicals first served as a way to keep subscribers updated on “Indian” affairs and provide them with entertaining short stories. As time went on, The Red Man and Helper evolved into The Red Man in 1910 and became a magazine-like pamphlet rather than a newspaper periodical. The Red Man included longer form stories and articles on Native American life written by faculty of Carlisle, scientists, and politicians, seemingly informed in Native American life and culture. The magazine also included a “Legends and Myths” section written by students that told origin stories and myths from their respective tribes. The Red Man also provided a way for subscribers to stay updated on the Carlisle school, often showing pictures of student graduating classes, new additions to the campus, and even providing health updates. The Red Man boasted the percentage of students that secured jobs after school, married, and built their own houses.

Though this periodical, on its surface, may seem relatively unproblematic, and maybe even empowering for Indigenous Peoples, The Red Man and other periodicals of its time display harmful assimilationist ideologies taught at boarding schools across the U.S., in line with many Americans’ perceptions. Through The Red Man, using “scientific” articles and fables, Pratt promoted the disbandment of reservation life and, in turn, the acquisition of private land. He promoted stories of “American” success, sharing tales of past students or  more known Native Americans who’d become “successful” in the view of dominant society: obtaining a blue collar job, creating a nuclear family, and moving away from reservations, which “friends of the Indian” so fervently detested. To appeal to white audiences, The Red Man’s articles and fables describe Indigenous culture as if it’s wholly a mythology of the past, another attempt at erasure of Indigenous culture. The Red Man can now be used to analyze assimilationist tactics and understand viewpoints held by publishers of The Red Man and their readers. 

The Carlisle Arrow was created for local residents and students of Carlisle, comparable to a modern day school newspaper. Students wrote many of the stories and articles, though they were likely censored heavily, so determining actual authorship is difficult. The Archives and Special Collections have the 1915 Senior Number, which is solely “written” by students of the 1915 graduating class. Though some form of censorship is highly likely, The Carlisle Arrow can further our understanding of the Indigenous boarding school experience. The Arrow provides perspective on how teachers and faculty wanted students to be perceived and reveals what they thought students should value. 

Many student writings depict their desires for the future, how Carlisle seemingly helped them to become virtuous or disciplined. The goal of The Arrow was to put on display student success and Carlisle’s ability to transform students into more idealized Americans. We can also see the school’s prioritizing of education for skilled working professions such as farming, construction, and rail-road laborer, as well as professions more open to women: nurses, nannies, mothers and seamstresses. For example, a passage entitled “The Inauguration of Domestic Science Course,” written by student Delian May John, describes a new course on domesticity. Even still, education in skilled labor limited students to work in professions otherwise dominated by the white majority. This is just one example of how The Carlisle Arrow can be used to analyze the Indigenous boarding school experience.