Proposal to Formally Transfer Title of School Property to Interior Department

Richard Henry Pratt writes to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs regarding the ownership of the property upon which the Carlisle Indian School is located. Pratt notes that the Department of the Interior has made significant improvements to the property and should have the title as approved under a bill signed by the President in 1882.

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs agreed with this statement in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior. However, the War Department under Robert Todd Lincoln decided despite there being no present need for the barracks it was not in the interest of the War Department to formally transfer the title to the Department of the Interior.