Carlisle Indian School
Photo courtesy of South Dakota State Historical Society

 
     An army captain started Carlisle Indian School in 1879. He thought that Indian children would learn white ways better if they were away from their homes. The boarding school was in Pennsylvania. It was far away from the Indian reservations. When children came to the school, the teachers cut their long hair. The students also got different clothes. No one would let them talk their own language. Many children became very homesick. Their teachers showed them how to read and write in English. They also taught them trades like farming, sewing, and baking. The Indian children were sent to church and Sunday School. Their teachers wanted them to know how to live like white people when they left the school.

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