Documents
The Documents section features digitized copies of documents relating to the history of the school. These documents include correspondence, graduation pamphlets, and other forms of ephemera, and have been digitized by Digital Resource Center staff. Today, these documents are preserved in a number of locations, including the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections as well as private collections.
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Date: March 24, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt provides the names of the sixteen Osage students sent by L. J. Miles who arrived on February 25, 1881.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Student Arrival
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: 
Names of Osage Children Sent to Carlisle in February 1881
Date: March 26, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt writes to inform the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of an outbreak of measles among the students of a mild type. He notes that as of March 26, 1881 their were fifty-four cases in bed.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Health and Medicine
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Notice of Outbreak of Measles Among Students
Date: March 28, 1881
An envelope described as previously containing an explanation to accounts sent by Richard Henry Pratt for the Carlisle Indian School.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics:
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Envelope for an Explanation for Accounts
Date: April 4, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt forwards a list of names of Pueblo students brought by the Rev. Sheldon Jackson to Carlisle in February 1881.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Student Arrival
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: List of Pueblo Students Brought by Sheldon Jackson in 1881
Date: April 9, 1881
A. R. Keller, U.S. Indian Agent at the Montana Crow Agency, writes to see if it would be possible to send a delegation of Crow children to Carlisle in the summer. Keller notes that the Agency has had little success in meeting its educational goals and indicates a boarding school would have a greater chance of succeeding.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics:
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Admission of Crow Children to Carlisle
Date: April 12, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt submits the abstract of bids for material and part of the labor to build a hospital for the Carlisle Indian School. Pratt includes the advertisement that appeared in the Herald and Mirror as well as the Valley Sentinel. Pratt notes that he is unhappy with the bidding process due to the lack of bids which he believes is a result of having some of the labor being done by the school limiting the upside of the contract. He also notes a conflict of interest with the low bidder due to their relationship with one of his employees. Pratt seeks authority to bid out the different parts of the building separately.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
View Document: Abstract of Bids on Hospital Building Construction
Date: April 18, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt provides notice to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that he is going on a trip to Philadelphia in order to raise awareness of the Carlisle Indian School. In doing so, he hopes to raise $2500 in order to build an addition onto the Girls Quarters to allow for a sitting room and additional dormitories.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Fundraising
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Notice of Fundraising Trip to Philadelphia
Date: April 18-23, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt forwards a letter he received from Dr. H. Caruthers of Tarrytown, New York who is requesting the permission of the Secretary of the Interior to start a small school dedicated to educating Indian pupils. Pratt and Caruthers note that they met when Pratt was in St. Augustine, Florida and Dr. Caruthers wife was an assistant at the school. The Caruthers eventually took a Kiowa student with them to New York.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Request to Open Indian School in New York
Date: April 22 - May 4, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt forwards the reports of school physician C. H. Hepburn on the deaths of Dora (Her Pipe), Rose (Red Rose), and Albert. Hepburn provides details on the treatment and condition of each student as well as their illnesses including measles, Bronchopneumonia or Bronchitis, and Pneumonia.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Health and Medicine, Student Death
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Report on the Deaths of Three Students
Date: May 2, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt reports that a Scarlett Fever outbreak as occurred at the Carlisle Indian School. Pratt notes that there has been an outbreak in the borough of Carlisle for the past three months during which he has instituted a quarantine for the last two months including removing his children from the local schools.
Pratt indicates that his ability to effectively treat the outbreak is hampered by the lack of a proper hospital and he has since placed the patients in the farmhouse removed from the rest of the school population. He notes that it might be better to pay for skilled labor rather than using the school apprentices in order to more quickly have access to adequate facilities.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Health and Medicine, Hospital
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Notice of Scarlett Fever Outbreak at Carlisle Indian School
Date: May 2, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt writes to seek the authority to send William Young, a member of the Nez Perce Nation, home before the expiration of his term due to illness.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Request to Send William Young Home
Date: May 5, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt seeks clarification on the need for Richard Parker to sign for the receipts paid for the rent of the Parker farm for himself as well as an attorney for the other heirs. Pratt believes this is unnecessary but wants to avoid figure hassles by seeking instructions from the Department of the Interior.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics:
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Clarification on Signing Receipts for Rental Payment
Date: May 6-9, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt forwards the report of the Carlisle School physician C. H. Hepburn on the deaths of Edward Upright and Giles. Hepburn notes the cause of death resulting from scarlet fever as well as pneumonia while recovering from measles.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Health and Medicine, Student Death
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Report on the Deaths of Edward Upright and Giles
Date: May 9, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt writes to seek authority to pay to send home three former prisoners who remained east for their education. The sponsor of Paul Zotom and David Oakerhater had them trained in agriculture as well as being ordained as deacons in the Episcopal Church while studying in Paris Hill, New York and is now proposing to build chapels at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency and the Kiowa and Comanche Agency. The third student, Henry Taawayite, was trained in the blacksmith trade at Carlisle. Pratt believes the three students will have a positive influence at their respective agencies on an industrial and religious level.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Request to Return Three Former Florida Prisoners Home
Date: May 11, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt sends a list of positions and salaries for the 1882 fiscal year. The list includes clerks, farmers, teachers, matrons, various superintendents, band leader, various industrial teachers, cooks, disciplinarians, a teamster, chaplain, nurse, and an individual to be in charge of the animals. There is also a Department of the Interior memo asking for the list to be compared to the 1881 fiscal year.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Staff Employment, Positions and Salaries
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: List of Positions and Salaries for Fiscal Year 1882
Date: May 16, 1881 - May 20, 1881
J. M. Howard writes to Richard Henry Pratt seeking to enroll John Leecy of the White Earth Agency at Carlisle. Howard provides a recommendation for Leecy along with the Agent at White Earth Agency and notes that Leecy would be able to pay his way to Carlisle.
Upon forwarding the letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Pratt notes that any enrollment of male students not accompanied by at least an equal number of female students is unwanted.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Request for Enrollment
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Request to Enroll John Leecy
Date: May 23, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt outlines a proposal for sending students from the Carlisle Indian School to local families in the Cumberland Valley and Bucks County. Pratt justifies the program by noting that any cost will be offset by savings in food as families will be required to board the students. He notes that students will benefit from English immersion and proposes to send out 100 boys and 40 girls for the summer vacation.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Outings
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Initial Proposal for Local Outing Program
Date: May 23, 1881
John Cook, a U.S. Indian Agent writes on behalf of Cook, a member of the Sioux Nation, to visit the Carlisle Indian School at his own expense.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Visitors
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Cook Requests to Visit Carlisle School
Date: May 23, 1881
A Council of Sioux Chiefs including Spotted Tail, Two Strike, White Thunder, and Swift Bear from the Rosebud Agency writes to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to protest the deaths of their children at Carlisle and asks for a local school in order to educate their children along with teachers. U.S. Indian Agent John Cook notes that he is agreement with the sentiment expressed and that it is in the best interest of the Agency to comply with the request.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Student Death
Format: Letters/Correspondence
Date: May 23, 1881
A Council of Sioux Chiefs including Spotted Tail, Two Strike, White Thunder, and Swift Bear from the Rosebud Agency writes to the Secretary of the Interior to protest the deaths of their children at Carlisle and asks for a local school in order to educate their children along with teachers. U.S. Indian Agent John Cook notes that he is agreement with the sentiment expressed and that it is in the best interest of the Agency to comply with the request.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Student Death
Format: Letters/Correspondence
Date: May 23 - June 8, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt forwards to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs two letters he received from the Rosebud Agency. One concerns the deaths of Rosebud students while at Carlisle and the desire of the Rosebud Sioux Chiefs to educate their children closer to home. The second from Black Crow protesting the actions of Spotted Tail and others who are attempting to return their children back to Rosebud.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Student Death, Requests to Return Home
Format: Letters/Correspondence
Date: May 23, 1881
A Council of Sioux Chiefs including Spotted Tail, Two Strike, White Thunder, and Swift Bear from the Rosebud Agency writes to President James A. Garfield to protest the deaths of their children at Carlisle and asks for a local school in order to educate their children along with teachers. U.S. Indian Agent John Cook notes that he is agreement with the sentiment expressed and that it is in the best interest of the Agency to comply with the request.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics: Student Death
Format: Letters/Correspondence
Date: May 30, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt notifies the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that the former Kiowa prisoner Tsaitkopeta who has been living in Tarrytown, New York with Dr. H. Caruthers wishes to return home to the Kiowa and Comanche Agency. Pratt notes that he is entitled to have the government pay this expense and ends by saying that the only remaining former prisoner who remains in the east is Etahdleuh who is helping at Carlisle.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Request to Return Tsaitkopeta Home
Date: June 1, 1881 - June 20, 1881
Cook, a member of the Sioux Nation, writes to his daughter Grace at the Carlisle Indian School. He writes that others in the Rosebud Agency are attempting to have their children returned from Carlisle but he does not think they will succeed. If they do though he would like Grace to return although he would also be happy with her staying and learning at Carlisle.
Richard Henry Pratt forwarded the letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs because of the connection with the Rosebud Sioux request to return their children.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics:
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Cook Writes to his Daughter Grace at Carlisle
Date: June 2, 1881
Richard Henry Pratt provides an update on the enrollment status of William Snake and Fred Smith. Pratt notes that William Snake and White Rabbit are the same individual. He also writes that the money for the two students would be better served if invested in cattle or another area rather than sent to the students directly.
Repository: National Archives and Records Administration
Topics:
Format: Letters/Correspondence
View Document: Enrollment Status of William Snake and Fred Smith