Battlefield and classroom : four decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904

General Richard Henry Pratt, best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, profoundly shaped Indian education and federal Indian policy at the turn of the twentieth century. Pratt’s long and active military career included eight years of service as an army field officer on the western frontier. During that time he participated in some of the signal conflicts with Indians of the southern plains, including the Washita campaign of 1868-1869 and the Red River War of 1874-1875. He then served as jailor for many of the Indians who surrendered. His experiences led him to dedicate himself to Indian education, and from 1879 to 1904, still on active military duty, he directed the Carlisle school, believing that the only way to save Indians from extinction was to remove Indian youth to nonreservation settings and there inculcate in them what he considered civilized ways. Pratt’s memoirs, edited by Robert M. Utley and with a new foreword by David Wallace Adams, offer insight into and understanding of what are now highly controversial turn-of-the-century Indian education policies. Contents......Page 6 Foreword......Page 12 Introduction......Page 18 1. Indian Territory, 1867......Page 30 2. Fort Arbuckle and the Nomads......Page 38 3. Life at Fort Arbuckle......Page 51 4. The Washita Campaign of 1868......Page 59 5. Fort Sill and Camp Supply, 1870–72......Page 68 6. Fort Griffin and the Texas Frontier, 1873–74......Page 83 7. The Red River War......Page 94 8. Campaigning on the Staked Plains......Page 103 9. Kicking Bird, Dangerous Eagle, and Big Bow......Page 120 10. Exile of the Hostile Leaders......Page 133 11. Prison Life at Fort Marion......Page 145 12. Prison Industries......Page 157 13. Anthropological Interest in the Prisoners......Page 165 14. The Kiowa Escape Plot......Page 176 15. Prison Educational Programs......Page 183 16. Opinions, Progress, Appeals......Page 196 17. Primitive Correspondence and Incidents of Prison Life......Page 209 18. Recruiting Indians for Hampton......Page 220 19. Mission to the Indians of Florida......Page 234 20. The Founding of the Carlisle Indian School......Page 242 21. The First Year at Carlisle......Page 259 22. Transformation......Page 274 23. Self-Evident Truths......Page 297 24. Progress in the School and in Public Sentiment......Page 303 25. Propaganda......Page 311 26. The World's Columbian Exposition......Page 323 27. The Carlisle Outing......Page 340 28. Compelling Respect: Football, Baseball, and Music......Page 345 29. The Great Heart of America......Page 354 30. End of Service at Carlisle......Page 363 A......Page 398 B......Page 399 C......Page 400 D......Page 402 F......Page 403 G......Page 404 I......Page 405 K......Page 406 M......Page 407 P......Page 409 Q......Page 411 S......Page 412 T......Page 414 U......Page 415 W......Page 416 Z......Page 417 Photo Section......Page 368 In these memoirs, Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924) recounts the history he lived through and helped to make in 8 years of frontier army service and as founder of the Carlisle Indian School. In 1867, Captain Pratt arrived at Fort Arbuckle, Indian Territory. The following 8 years culminated in the collapse of the hostile southern Plains tribes. Pratt's assignments as organizer and leader of units of Indian scouts led him to reflect on the condition of minority races in a social and political order that he regarded as otherwise perfect. He concluded that the Constitution guaranteed "fraternity and equal privilege for development" to all, and that this was all the Indian needed to cast off his aboriginal culture and be assimilated into American society. In 1875-78, Pratt served as jailor to 72 conquered Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne leaders imprisoned in Florida. His accomplishments in educating the prisoners helped to convince others that the experiment should be enlarged in a more favorable environment. In its first year (1879) Carlisle enrolled over 200 pupils from 12 tribes. During Pratt's 24-year tenure, the school educated 4,903 Indian children from 77 tribes. The curriculum emphasized both academic and manual instruction. The school's most famous feature, the Carlisle Outing, placed Indian children with white farm families during the summer. So determined and public was Pratt's attack on all who opposed his program that he was relieved of duty in 1904. Carlisle closed in 1918. This book contains 33 photographs, many letters, and an index Pratt, General Davidson directs that you take command of the twenty-five Indian scouts at this post and twenty men and a sergeant of Troop D, and escort him from Gibson to Arbuckle. Originally published: New Haven : Yale University Press, 1964, in series: Yale Western Americana series ; 6.