Listen to this episode here:
Episode Ten: Early documentation | Carlisle Indian School Research Podcast (zencast.website)
Welcome to the first episode of the rebooted podcast! I think this is going to work much better. In this episode Jim Gerencser and I discuss what forms of documentation for the school and its students are available for the years 1879 and 1880.
Note that whenever I refer to “the site” or just say something’s available online, what I almost always mean is the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center: Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu).
Statements of Receipts and Disbursements, vol. 1, page 3 Statements of Receipts and Disbursements (1879-1886) | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
Here are some examples of and links to the kinds of documents we talk about in this episode:
An example of student file (Series 1327): Clarence Three Stars (Packs the Dog) Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
This is the type of student information card that I refer to as a “1328 card”:
Student information card for John Menual Chaves, found in his student file John Menaul Chaves Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
This is the type of card I refer to as a “1329 card”:
Emma Student Information card, Emma Student Information Card | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
To see the documents from M234/E79 that are available on the CISDRC site, search or browse through Documents: Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
To flip through the cash books/statements of receipts and disbursements, beginning in 1879, look here: Statements of Receipts and Disbursements (1879-1886) | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
Here’s the description of the Richard Henry Pratt Papers at the Beinecke Library at Yale: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1196
Here is an example of one of the newspapers published at the school: Eadle Keatah Toh (Vol. 1, No. 1) | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu). To see more, you can browse through the Publications: Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
Richard Henry Pratt’s memoir is Battlefield and Classroom: Amazon.com: Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867–1904 (9780806136035): Pratt, Richard Henry, Utley, Robert M., Adams, David Wallace: Books
Luther Standing Bear’s memoir is My People The Sioux: My People the Sioux: Standing Bear, Luther, Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk: 9780803293328: Amazon.com: Books
UPDATE:
Here are some links to documents Jim found about the record keeping systems discussed in this episode:
The Annual Report of 1901 in which Pratt discusses “the card system” being developed (probably the “1328 cards”): Excerpt from Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1901 | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
From the Annual Report of 1909 (p.50). Jim notes “This suggests that they merely created some kind of indexing system for the various records held in various locations around the school grounds.” Draft of 30th Annual Report of the Carlisle Indian School | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)
And here’s a report from 1911, making the recommendation that Nellie Robertson Denny be in charge of recordkeeping (among other things): Inspection Report on Record Keeping at the Carlisle Indian School | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (dickinson.edu)