The Creation And Implementation Of The Carlisle Indian Industrial School

The “us versus them” effect is defined by the American Psychological Association as the tendency of individuals to view the social world in terms of an in-group (us) and an out-group (them). Consequently, people prefer to associate with others that are similar to themselves rather than others who are different, to allocate resources to others that are similar to themselves, and hold more positive beliefs about those that are similar to themselves. Throughout history, the “us versus them” effect has produced many negative impacts for those who are perceived as different from the people in the majority and with the most power. The creation and implementation of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School is a prominent example of how the “us versus

culture was virtuous. White Americans perceived Native American culture as less advanced and viewed it as their job to make Native Americans more “civilized.”. On August 22, 1879, the New York Herald published an article in support of the Carlisle Industrial Indian School, stating that the Carlisle Barracks would be “transformed into an asylum for Indian Youth, where in future years they may learn the arts of progress.” The school is described as an “asylum”, insinuating that the school is saving and providing a safe space to its students from their former lives. Furthermore, the author of the newspaper connected European-American culture with “progress” and implied the opposite about Native American culture. The author of the newspaper assumed that the school would be beneficial to its students because it would help the students into a more civilized way of life, therefore saving them from how they lived before. During a speech in 1982, Richard Pratt, the creator of the Carlisle Indian Industrial school, stated, “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” Pratt implies that being Native American is separate from being a “man”. The founder of the school believed that the only way for Native Americans to be human was for them to assimilate to European-American culture. The school was built on this belief, its main focus being to erase the culture of young Native American students.

The efforts taken by White Americans to strip Native-American children of their culture were extremely immoral and in some cases, deadly. A book written by Luther Standing Bear, a member of the Lakota tribe and former student of the Carlisle Industrial Indian school, revealed the vicious intent of the people in support of the school. Luther wrote that “never, no matter what our philosophy or spiritual quality, could we be civilized while wearing the moccasin and blanket.” Luther Standing Bear revealed the obvious prejudice of the school staff. The staff associated Native American culture with being uncivilized. They did not take the time to get to know the students, but instead made their judgements based on the clothes they wore, the language they spoke, etc. The staff of the school were quick to replace parts of Native American culture with their European American counterpart. Students were forced to cut their hair, change their diet, and were only allowed to speak english. These changes were overall extremely harmful to the students of the Carlisle Industrial Indian School. Luther describes that “the change in clothing, housing, food, and confinement combined with lonesomeness was too much, and in three years nearly one half of the children from the plains were dead.” The actions taken by the staff of the school were harmful to the point of