I got talking about Carlisle, PA with a friend recently. We read about the city on Wikipedia (here) and learned of this boarding school called the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, “an experiment in educating Native Americans and teaching them to reject tribal culture and to adapt to white society.” Horrific.
I’ve lived in PA most of my life and never heard of this place. This atrocity.
“Carlisle became the model for 26 off-reservation Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools in 15 states and territories. Some private boarding schools were sponsored by religious denominations.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School
Oh, religious denominations, falling right in line with American imperialism!
And this from the “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ending 1882“:
All our students attend Sabbath-school, the girls in our own chapel, the boys at the different churches in Carlisle. Sabbath afternoon services havo been conducted by Rev. Dr. Lijpincott, of Dickinson College, to whom I am greatly indebted for faithful and zealous services as chaplain. These influences have produced gratifying results.
I mean, how does the church justify this? How do they remedy this? They played a part in the genocide of a people.
These are children from just 120 years ago. Sickening.