Episode 25: Research Activity Updates

Listen to this episode here:

Episode 25: Research Activity Updates | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

Reminder—when we mention “the site” or “the project” it’s the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu).

Below are the documents Jim mentioned as recent acquisitions of the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections:

James Riley Wheelock (Oneida), bandmaster, with the Carlisle Indian School Band. (Before he left and formed the U.S. Indian Band.) Library of Congress, Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection LC-USZ62-26786

These documents relate to outing employer John C. Carter. For student documents related to Carter, see Carter, John C. | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

It looks like we haven’t done an outing-specific episode, so I’ll put that on the list of future topics.

Next we talked about the walking tours related to the trolley system and local industry sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society and led by local historian, Randy Watts. The Society’s online store doesn’t seem to have all of Watts’ publications listed, but here’s the link and you can contact them if there’s something you’re particularly interested in.

Laundry Building with the trolley stopped beside it, c. 1900. The trolley going to and from the town began serving the school in 1896. Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pa., Line Collection 00326B

Rebuilt Gettysburg Junction train station, as it is today.

As I mentioned, you can now order my walking tour booklet of the grounds of the school. It’s a good value at $10 and can serve as a kind of virtual tour as well.

Here’s the link to order: Walking Tour of Grounds of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School - Cumberland County Historical Society

Jim talked about watching the movie Jim Thorpe: All American (1951) specifically to see former Carlisle Student Shela Fritz in an uncredited role as Thorpe’s grandmother. Here is Fritz’s IMDB page. And here’s her student file: Shela Brown Guthrie (Che-ke-kah) Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Here’s the document Jim referred to about Superintendent Mercer sending girls on outing to his daughter and son-in-law’s family: https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/documents/susan-littleshield-and-sarah-chubb-outing-situation

Finally, we talked again about the Richard Henry Pratt papers at the Beinecke Library at Yale. Here’s a link to what they have digitized so far: Digitized materials from the Pratt Papers. Again, if you want any help with that collection, particularly the name indexes for the letterpress books, let me know.

Episode 24: A Tragic True Crime Story

As noted at the beginning of this episode, we are discussing a murder suicide of a former Carlisle student, and reading from newspaper accounts of the time which contain words and characterizations that may be offensive to some listeners. We don’t get into graphic detail of the crimes, but listener discretion is advised.

Listen to this episode here: Episode 24: A Tragic True Crime Story | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

Here is Eugene’s student information card:

Eugene Takapoh (Tah kah por) Student Information Card | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu) showing his many and long outings.

As noted, he was the kind of student that was often praised in the school papers and held up as an example. Here are a few examples:

From the School News December 14, 1888 while he was on outing.

From The Indian Helper July 25, 1890.

From The Indian Helper April 20, 1894

And here are a couple of excerpts from the newspaper accounts following the deaths.

From the Boston Globe, August 2, 1899, p. 1.

From the Berkshire County Eagle, Pittsfield, Mass., August 2, 1899, p. 1.

Again, if anyone wants to follow up on this, I can share the clippings I found with you, and we’d love to hear from anyone who locates more information from local sources.

Episode 23: Exploration of the Richard Henry Pratt Papers

You thought this was never going to happen, didn’t you? You thought we were gone forever, but not so! Welcome to what I’m calling Season Two, since we’ve had such a long hiatus.

Here’s a discussion of our first trip to the Beinecke Library Yale to start digging into the Richard Henry Pratt Papers. Listen here:

Episode 23: Our Exploration of the Richard Henry Pratt Papers | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

Notes for this episode:

So, here’s what I refer to as“the site”—the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.

Here’s the Pratt papers finding aid.

Here’s an example of two pages from one of the letterpress books, a letter from Pratt.

Correction—Noticed that at one point when I’m talking about the Native Americans held at Fort Marion, I said they were former prisoners of war. My misspeaking—they were prisoners of war while they were being held there.

Photo of a polished sea bean from the collection:

Sample of letter with info crossed out, as we talked about:

Episode 22: Calisthenics and "The Cage" (it's not what you think)

You can listen to this episode here:

Episode 22: Calisthenics and The Cage (not what you think) | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

As noted in this episode, the school’s cash book has an entry on October 16, 1879 for a number of items including “4 Calisthenics Songs” from Ivison, Blakman Taylor & Co. Here’s a sample of the content, and I discussed more on the show.

Ok, up next for the story about the quarry and The Cage. Here are the basics.

As noted, a researcher sent me an image of a building labeled as the Field House at Carlisle. I replied I wasn’t aware of any building with that name. Shortly after, he said he’d found another picture of it, sending me the picture and saying the building was located “in front of the quarry.”

Everett Strong Collection, 14B-03-04, Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pa.

Me: I never heard about a quarry at Carlisle.

[Asks Jim and another knowledgeable person. Nothing at Carlisle, Jim provides info about a quarry at a different school]

Me: Tells researcher we don’t think there was a quarry. This exchange follows. I’m the smarty-pants in the blue bubble.

Researcher points out (more politely than I probably would have) that the photo isn’t of Chilocco. Doesn’t look anything like that campus and also the second photo (with the quarry) was identified as being Carlisle. It turns out that he got that photo from the Cumberland County Historical Society, and it’s from the Everett Strong Collection. (Not yet online at CISDRC, but will be soon.)

Aha! Like an idiot, I hadn’t even bothered to look for sources about a quarry at the school before saying confidently that I didn’t think there was one. There was:

The Indian Craftsman, vol. 1, no. 2 (March 1909), p. 46

Ok, so if the quarry is “immediately to the south-east of the athletic field,” then how is that building in this photo identified? And what do the maps say?

Section of map from Jacqueline Fear-Segal, White Man’s Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of Indian Acculturation (University of Nebraska Press, 2007), p. 189. The map shows the “buildings of the Carlisle Indian School at closure from ‘Map of General Hospital No. 31,’ U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA. Rescaled and adapted by the author, with cemetery superimposed to scale.”

The caption for the CCHS image was “View of Campus of Carlisle Indian School with stone and gravel quarry in foreground, gravel grading machinery on left, mule drawn cart on extreme right and trade shops and stables in the background.”

Based on the angle of the photo and the location of the quarry (which we now know) and the map (made in 1918), I thought that building behind the quarry must be the “Athletic Care” building identified on the map. However, I had two questions: first, was the CCHS caption information supplied at the time the photo was taken or was it added later by staff, and second, when that that athletic building added (because maybe that was just another trade shop building)?

First, confirmed by Richard Tritt and Blair Williams of CCHS, no the caption wasn’t original to the photo. That’s good.

Second, Jim suggested I look in the 1912 school catalogue, which has descriptions of the buildings. At least that would tell us if the building was there in 1912 or not.

Carlisle Indian School Catalogue, 1912, p. 11.

The Cage??!!!

Ok, so the label on the map is Athletic Cage, not Athletic Care. And it certainly seems like the kind of building that might also have been known as a field house. But, when when was the Cage built?

Searches for “cage” in the publications brought up lots of references to the building (along with birds and animals in cages, etc), but here’s the one about it being opened:

The Red Man & Helper vol. XI no. 31, January 25, 1901, p. 3

So, yes, that’s “The Cage” in photo with the quarry, and it also matches the original photo of the Field House that the researcher sent me to begin with.

So, the Historical Society will have to update its caption, Jim and I have learned a bit more about the athletic facilities, and I’ve been reminded to do a bit of digging (no pun intended, but there it is) before I make definitive statements.

Hope you enjoyed this sort-of athletics-related episode.

Episode 21: From the Newspapers of January 1880

You can listen to this episode here:

From the Newspapers of January 1880 | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

In this episode Jim and I are discussing articles from commercial newspapers related to the school from January 1880. As noted in the episode, I’m using newspapers.com for my research, so I can’t link to the stories themselves, but below is a selection of ones we discussed. If you’d like more information about one not included below, just contact me.

The plan is to keep doing these kinds of episodes, since I’m reviewing mentions of the school in the papers for my research. Will be interesting, I think, to see how the local and national coverage evolves.

Williamsport Sun-Gazette, p. 4 January 3, 1880, p. 4

Valley Sentinel, January 23, 1880, p. 5

Shippensburg News, January 24, 1880, p. 3

Carlisle Weekly Herald, January 29, 1880, p. 3

Episode 20: Big Concepts

You can listen to this episode here:

Episode 20: Big Concepts | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

As I say in the episode, not much to link to for these show notes. The Topic terms are still a work in progress—still very much at the beginning of working on those, so if you start exploring things using them you’re going to see some . . . unevenness.

Here’s a link to Menachem Kaiser’s book, Plunder, which I read from and reference: https://www.amazon.com/Plunder-Memoir-Family-Property-Treasure/dp/132850803X

Thanks for listening. I was very reluctant to record an episode like this, which is mostly about my feelings—hardly seems like an appropriate topic. But I think most researchers and historians experience concerns and emotions about their work and we don’t talk about them very often. It’s a part of the process that doesn’t get discussed, or hasn’t in the past. Just as today archivists are being more open about acknowledging the emotions they experience working with collections, donors, and researchers, I think it’s helpful to talk about these kinds of aspects of our work in writing about and making available these primary sources.

Episode 19: Introduction to Native American boarding schools in the U.S.

Listen to this episode here:

Introduction to Native American boarding schools in the U.S. | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

And here are all the links to things we discuss:

Op-Eds by descendent Lauren Peters about her experiences and reflections having her great-aunt’s remains brought home:

In All This Darkness, Taking Back Our Stolen Children Can Offer Hope | Opinion (nativenewsonline.net)

Guest Column: Rematriation of an ancestor – Winters Express

Events in Canada: https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1012100926/graves-found-at-new-site-canadian-indigenous-group-says

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland’s statement announcing the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition map of boarding schools: List of Indian Boarding Schools in the United States

The book you should read: David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction (2020)

Here’s where you can find and read the Annual Reports from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs available online from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. Note that you can do a keyword search within individual reports. Searching for “cemetery” turns up some results, as you would imagine (or “boarding” or “Carlisle”). Again, these are rich sources of information, so our thanks to UW-M for making them available!

Tony Kornheiser quote source: “TV wizard Don Ohlmeyer, a far smarter man than I, once told me, ‘The answer to all your questions is: Money.’”

Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1909, look for tables after page 78.

Tweet from National Archives in Denver with a sample document in their collections:

The discovery of graves at Canadian residential schools isn't something the U.S. can look at abstractly - our own history is similarly stained. This graveyard plat from our holdings marks those children who perished at the Santa Fe Indian School, and who were at least recorded. pic.twitter.com/OsQCqzOwml

— Denver Archives (@Denver_Archives) June 14, 2021

Episode 18: Research Roundup

You can listen to this episode here:

Research Roundup | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

Spotted Tail with four of his sons, 1880. South Dakota State Historical Society, P155.

The image above is the new-to-us one mentioned in this episode (Spotted Tail with four of his sons, 1880). To answer Jim’s question, no, this image was not one of the ones marketed by the photographer Choate, but other images of Spotted Tail were, including one of him on his own and with other visiting chiefs.

If you want to learn more, I encourage you to get Richmond L. Clow’s book Spotted Tail: Warrior and Statesman (2019), and there is indeed a chapter entitled “Carlisle Troubles.”

And here’s a link to the Bureau of Indian Affairs records digitized by NARA from microfilm, this is specifically the roll of records for the Spotted Tail Agency: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/164449963

Following up on outings, here’s a link to the file of outing-related paperwork from Richard Henry Pratt’s papers; "Outing" forms and rules - Yale University Library. These forms were all for one student, John Mohawk and here’s his student file: John Thomas Mohawk (Mah-tah-tah-ma) Student File.

And, as mentioned, here’s the student information card for Jim Thorpe’s brother, Edward:

who went on an outing to his brother’s home for the summer of 1914. So that’s another example of a student being on outing at the home of a family member. Here’s his whole file: Edward Thorpe Student File.

And here are links to more information about the upcoming disinterments from the cemetery:

US Army to return remains of 10 Native American children to families | WITF

U.S. Army set to exhume remains of 10 Carlisle Indian School students in June | History | cumberlink.com

And here’s a link to the information about the cemetery on the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center: Cemetery Information.

Again, let me know if you’ve got questions or want more information about any of these topics. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast, if you haven’t already, and thanks for following along.

Episode 17: Comparing evidence about the gathering of the first students

You may listen to this episode here:

Episode 17: Comparing evidence about the gathering of the first students | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

Image of Descriptive Statement of male and female prospective students from the agent at Pine Ridge, M234, Reel 724, Frame 947. (Whole letter is frames 94-947, I think.) Red Cloud Agency, 1871-1880: 1879 (A6-M2227) (archives.gov). This is the document Jim talks about with the differing number of students being sent from Pine Ridge.

Sources referenced:

Letter from Richard Henry Pratt to Ezra H. Hayt, November 13, 1879.

Richard Henry Pratt’s memoir, Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904 (2004).

Luther Standing Bear, My People The Sioux (2017)

Example of contrasting statements about why there were fewer female students than male students:

Excerpt from Pratt’s letter to Hayt, November 13, 1879. (Note this is the example I read in the episode.)

Excerpt from article “Arrival of the Indians,” Carlisle Weekly Herald, October 5, 1879, p. 3

And, just in case you’d like to learn more, here’s some info about the disease scrofula.

Episode 16: Research Roundup

You can listen to this episode here:

Episode 16: Research Roundup | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

We covered a lot of topics in this one. Here are links and images that relate to what we discussed.

(Just occurred to me that I should probably mention that in addition to his work with the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center, Jim is also in charge of the archives of Dickinson College, which is why he’s telling stories about finding Indian School stuff when answering questions about the college.)

Former student Etta Batson with her husband and her sister Anona, who was on outing. Private collection.

Following up from last week, here are the mentions found by Cara Curtis of the Cumberland County Historical Society confirming that the bodies in the barracks’ “old cemetery” were moved prior to the opening of the school.

Carlisle Weekly Herald, July 13, 1871, p. 3

Carlisle Weekly Herald, September 7, 1871, p. 2.

Next we talked about the photo included at the top of this post, purchased by a researcher as being Carlisle-related. As noted, this appears to be the student Anona (Nana) Crow and her sister, former student, Etta Crow, while Anona was on outing at the home of her sister.

Nana Crow Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Etta Crow Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

I think Jim didn’t include the detail that the researcher found the address of Etta’s house and then located it as it is today on Zillow and compared them. Looks like the same house!

Edward Marsden with four Alaskan students, 1893. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Photo Lot 06860100; NAA 73828.

Regarding the issue of people were were not students (as I would define a student) having student files or cards, here’s the example of Edward Marsden:

Edward Marsden Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Who wrote in a letter back to the school:

Very much as I would like to, I am sorry to say that I have never been a student of the Carlisle School. While I was attending college in Ohio between 1891 and 1898, I used to visit the Carlisle School quite often as I was very much interested in all that Captain Pratt did for the Indians at the time.

And here’s the example Jim noted of the person who sent an application but never showed up:

Joseph Tarbell (so se teio nen tat te) Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Map from Farm Statistics for the 1905 Fiscal Year | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Following up on Jim’s story about how a Dickinson student’s question about the relationship between Dickinson’s current farm and the Carlisle Indian School’s farms was actually answered by sheer luck the very next day, in the report linked to above from 1906 you can zoom in on that map and it’s the Kutz farm that later ended up being owned by the College.

Next, here’s the link to Dr. John Bloom’s talk for the York County History Center, “The Imperial Gridiron: Masculinity, ‘Civilization,’ and Football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgOzAkusLUQ

And his book: To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sports at Native American Boarding Schools.

And, lastly, here’s the mention of student Howard Gansworth that Jim found in the Dickinson College student newspaper while looking for something else. We’ve confirmed that Gansworth was at this time enrolled as a student at Dickinson College.

Dickinsonian, November 14, 1896 | Dickinson College, p. 3

And, as I noted at the end of the episode, if you haven’t already, I encourage you to buy my book about the history of the school, as demonstrated in photography:

Available on Amazon: “A Very Correct Idea of Our School”: A Photographic History of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School”

Episode 15: Tour of the school grounds in 1879

You can listen to this episode here:

Tour of the school grounds in 1879 | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

Ok, so as promised, this episode is an audio tour of the school grounds as they were when the school first opened. In this post I’m sharing the images that were referenced without a lot of accompanying text because I don’t feel like retyping what we talked about. It’s a short episode, about 20 minutes.

Here’s Pratt’s letter on September 2, 1879 talking about repairs necessary to the buildings: Estimate of Cost for Transitioning Buildings from Carlisle Barracks to Indian School | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Here’s Pratt’s letter of February 23, 1880 about the buildings and their uses (include some photos): Description of the Grounds, Buildings, Industries and Aims of the Carlisle Indian Training School | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

When the Army’s letter from July 1879 goes up I’ll add a link for it.

Map of the Carlisle Barracks in 1872

Guard House, Cumberland County Historical Society, Line Collection 00305a

First School or Academic Building, Cumberland County Historical Society, PA-CH1-002

Teachers’ Quarters (also included offices in the early days of the school), Cumberland County Historical Society, PA-CH2-093

Teachers’ Quarters at left, bandstand in center, Girls’ Quarters at right. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Photo Lot 81-12 06810000, NAA 73326.

Girls’ Quarters (note third story was a later addition), Cumberland County Historical Society, PA-CH1-058b.

Boys’ Quarters (this became the Large Boys’ Quarters when they later renovated another building for the Small Boys’ Quarters). Cumberland County Historical Society, PA-CH2-091.

Former stables, used at first by the school as workshops and a gymnasium. Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Photo Lot 81-12 06810000, NAA 73326

Superintendent’s House. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Photo Lot 81-12 06824400, NAA 73470

Chapel. Constructed in December of 1879. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Photo Lot 81-12 06828600 NAA 73512

As noted in the episode, I have yet to find any images of the old Hospital building(s), used as hospital and dining hall in the early days of the school. The photo below is of the grounds today and shows where those buildings would have been.

Looking between the Teachers’ Quarters (still standing) at left and the bandstand (a rebuilt version) at right, across that street is where the buildings would have been that were originally used as the Hospital and the Dining Hall.

Again, our thanks to Jonathan Deiss for sending us copies of the maps and other materials from the Army’s records. If you need a professional researcher to find documents for you at the National Archives (when it’s opened again), he’s great. You can find him here: https://www.webbdeissresearch.com/

As promised, here’s a short (~18 mins) video tour of the 1879 grounds, including images of how the same spots look today. It’s a bit rough, but it’s done, so if you’d like to see more images or need more visual orientation, give it a watch. The podcast has more information, so don’t skip that if you want to get all the info. Link: https://fb.watch/4zpwo2qsD3/

Episode 14: Research roundup

You can listen to this episode here:

Episode 14: Research Roundup | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

I really sound like I’ve had way too much caffeine but I promise it’s just excitement. As I said, I feel like my brain is exploding with possibilities. It’s not a bad feeling.

Here are links to some of the things I ramble on about:

Information about visiting the Carlisle Barracks

Social Networks and Archival Context

Edward Marsden

(correction: the photos of him with students are not from his file-they’re from other sources):

Marsden, Edward | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Edward Marsden - Wikipedia

Flora Sadie Masta:

Masta, Flora Sadie | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

Notes on Algonquian languages collected by Truman Michelson at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1911-1912

Episode 13: Beginning to mine the correspondence files

Listen to this episode here:

Episode 13: Beginning to mine the correspondence files | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)

In this episode we begin to explore the correspondence available on microfilm (now digitized) in this series: M234 - Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881 (archives.gov). Today we’re focusing specifically on the difficulties Richard Henry Pratt had in getting supplies and support from the Bureau of the Indian Affairs as the school was opening.

The Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center team has gone through these records and begun to cull out the Carlisle-related items, which you can find on the site here, in the Documents section: Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu). As I say in the episode, I mention some documents which as of this recording are not yet up, but they will be shortly. Also, Jim and I discuss that we also need to explore the other sections of this series to locate correspondence from the agents to the Bureau about students being sent to Carlisle. Jim just did a quick search this morning and found one such example, so I’ll report back as we learn more about that side of the correspondence. And as mentioned in Episode 10, in which we gave an overview of the documentation, the incoming and outgoing correspondence are organized into different series, so until things open up again and we’re able to get a scanning team back down to DC, we will be limited to just this incoming material.

Here are a couple of examples of the documents we discuss:

First page of letter Request for Personal and School Supplies for Carlisle Indian School | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)

And

Request for Expedited Supplies Shipment | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)