BIA Policy and Policy Changes

These materials include correspondence regarding the return of a student [Blanche L. Shay] from the Old Town Indian Reservation in Maine. Carlisle's superintendent initially denied the request, before the Office of Indian Affairs determined that the school should not focus on educating students who were not under the care of the Office.

These materials include correspondence regarding the return home of Richmond Martin to New York. The documents also discuss in detail new Bureau of Indian Affairs policies related to the discontinued enrollment of pupils from New York State as well as pupils of a young age.

These materials contain correspondence regarding a dispute about the release of students from New York State, as pursuant to Bureau of Indian Affairs policy changes regarding the enrollment of students from New York.

These materials contain correspondence regarding Moses Friedman's plans to send an agent through territories to gather statistics on former students.

These materials include a letter from Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Valentine to Carlisle's Superintendent, Moses Friedman, proposing a change to how employment appointments are made for the Carlisle Indian School. Valentine suggested bringing Carlisle's appointment policies in line with the rest of Bureau, placing that…

Acting Commissioner R. G. Valentine informs Superintendent Moses Friedman that they are reorganizing the Education Division of the Office, so the organizations dealing with appointments for schools and agencies have now been combined into one office specializing only in appointments.

Valentine also asks if Friedman would be comfortable…

These materials include correspondence regarding a request to enroll a student from Alaska. The request was denied due to appropriations not being allocated to educate Alaskan students in the continental United States.

These materials include correspondence and a draft of Superintendent Friedman's 30th Annual Report for the Carlisle Indian School, reflecting the period ending July 31, 1909. Friedman forwarded the draft to a Bureau official, along with information on how to have news published in Carlisle's student newspaper. The annual report includes…

These materials include correspondence regarding a request from Cary W. Hartman to enroll at Carlisle a Native student from Canada. The request was denied by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs due to the fact that the student was not a ward of the United States or an American Citizen. He suggested Hartman reach out to the Department of Indian…

These materials include a letter from Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs F. H. Abbott to Carlisle Superintendent Moses Friedman, suggesting that future applications from overaged individuals be forwarded to the Bureau for expedited consideration.

These materials include correspondence and reports on the record keeping system for student files at the Carlisle Indian School. Supervisor of Indian Schools Charles F. Pierce was critical of the decentralized nature of the student file records. Pierce recommended that Nellie Robertson Denny, a clerk at the school, be put in…

These materials include correspondence regarding the enrollment of students at the Carlisle Indian School. Commissioner of Indian Affairs R. G. Valentine directed Superintendent Moses Friedman to only accept students who had no access to public schools. Further emphasis was noted that students should not be enrolled based on their desirability…

These materials include correspondence regarding an order from R. G. Valentine, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to accept no students not able to enter the third grade. Superintendent Moses Friedman, of the Carlisle Indian School, objected to the plan claiming the present age restrictions were sufficient. Valentine decided to temporary rescind…

These materials include correspondence and reports from Supervisor of Indian Schools, Charles F. Peirce, listing 69 pupils as ineligible for enrollment at the Carlisle Indian School. Peirce recommended they be dismissed from the school as a result. Additional correspondence regards the circumstances of various students named in the report.…

This document contains correspondence concerning the retention of students with tuberculosis at boarding schools including Carlisle. Indian Service officials including Joseph Murphy, Medical Supervisor and Ferdinand Shoemaker, Physical Expert in Tuberculosis and Trachoma for the Indian Service make policy suggestions.

These materials include correspondence regarding students' heritage. Specifically, officials sought information on students' blood quantum, as changing policy barred the enrollment of students considered to have less than one-fourth degree Indian blood. Also included are total enrollment statistics for the beginning of 1912.

The material includes correspondence about Jim Thorpe and his desire to decline a contract with the New York National Baseball Club. Richard C. Adams, Great Sachem of the Brotherhood of North American Indians National Organization, wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs regarding this matter, protesting that Thorpe and other adult students…

These materials include correspondence regarding a question from Hattie Martin, of Haverford, Pennsylvania, on whether Indian students with black heritage were excluded from enrolling in the Carlisle Indian School. School and federal officials debated on how to respond. Carlisle Superintendent Moses Friedman argued that those students often…

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells writes a lengthy letter to G. McM. Ross in which he thoroughly disagrees with Ross' claim that Carlisle Indian School students should be paid for their labor, reasoning that the government pays for their lodging, food, and education, that students can earn money on outing, and that their labor at the…

These materials include a draft and final letter to Oscar Hiram Lipps, Supervisor in Charge of the Carlisle Indian School, regarding a new form, Form 5-249, for method reporting. The letter also explains new reporting procedures regarding enrollment and outing students.

Two memos between government officials which discuss what laws or court cases are relevant to the investigation into the mishandling of money of the students of Carlisle. These were compiled in the wake of the 1914 Congressional Investigation at Carlisle where it was discovered that certain funds deposited for students for transportation were…

These materials include correspondence regarding the education of members of the Cherokee Nation from Robeson County, North Carolina.

These materials contain correspondence regarding the need for superintendents of nonreservation schools to communicate when students attempt to re-enroll in a different school, using two former Carlisle students as examples.

These materials include correspondence regarding the view of Oscar H. Lipps that Carlisle and other non-reservation schools should focus on educating only those who do not have access to education near their homes and that truly desired further instruction. Lipps cites that he has worked to remove many pupils he felt were not deserving from…

Carlisle Indian School Superintendent John Francis Jr. writes to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells regarding the Declaration of Policy, which he believes may prohibit any students from Oklahoma - particularly members of the "Five Civilized Tribes" - or New York from enrolling at Carlisle because they have access to public schools.…