Carlisle Indian Industrial School - Abuse

Abuse

During the years of operation, hundreds of children died at Carlisle. Most died from infectious diseases common in the early 20th century that killed many children. More than 175 were buried in the cemetery. The bodies of most who died were sent to their families. Children who died of tuberculosis were buried at the school, as people were worried about contagion. The new climate, separation anxiety and lack of immunity increased the death toll. Others died while attempting to escape from the school. Some suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse or malnutrition. Beatings were a common form of punishment for students' grieving, speaking their native languages, not understanding English, attempting to escape and violating the harsh military rules. Other forms of punishment included hard labor and confinement. According to Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo of the 21st-century "Boarding School Healing Project", children at Carlisle had their mouths washed with lye soap for speaking in their tribal languages.

The children who arrived at Carlisle able to speak some English were presented to the other children as "translators." The authorities at the School sometimes used the children’s traditional respect for elders to require them to inform on other children’s misbehavior. This was typical of the pattern in the large families of the time, in which older children were required to take care of and discipline younger children.

School officials required students to take new English names. This was confusing, as the names from which they were to choose had no meaning. In traditional Native American culture, people had a variety of formal and informal names that reflected relationships and life experiences. The "renaming" was difficult for many of the children, especially because they could not read and had to pick their names by the way that the writing looked.

Late 20th-century appraisal of the school led to criticism like this: The boys and girls at Carlisle Indian School were trained to be cannon fodder in American wars, to serve as domestics and farm hands, and to leave off all ideas or beliefs that came to them from their Native communities, including and particularly their belief that they were entitled to land, life, liberty, and dignity....separated from all that is familiar; stripped, shorn, robbed of their very self; renamed.