Where Did All the Children Go

Editor's Note: This story contains topics and historical language which may be upsetting to some readers.

Recently, the New York Times published an articledescribing the findings of the second and final volume of an investigative reportfrom the U.S. Department of the Interior into the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative that found nearly 1,000 native children died at these government-run institutions, according to identified grave sites.

Here, Millersville University's archivist and special collections librarian and assistant professor Frank Vitale, who is also an expert on the history of Native American boarding schools with a focus on the Carlisle Indian School and other Pennsylvania institutions, details why this report is important, it's implications and possible ties to Millersville history.

1. Can you elaborate on the historical significance of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the context of Native American history and U.S. education policy?

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first and most famous federally run off-reservation boarding school and was established at a time when the United States government sought to reduce Indigenous resistance to settlers' land grabs in the American West.

Carlisle's founder, Richard Henry Pratt, asserted that through Euro-centric education and Christianization, you could assimilate Native American youth; or in his own words, you could "kill the Indian in him, and save the Man."

Since Carlisle was the closest federal school to major cities on the East Coast, including the Capital, politicians, researchers, reformers, and tourists from across the country frequently visited it. Carlisle was also famous thanks to its athletic teams, which frequently played and beat major collegiate teams of the day, and for the number of Native Americans who were educated there who later became leading figures in society.

2. Why was there a push for these boarding schools in the United States and Canada?

The boarding schools in the United States and Canada served as a new and less outwardly violent means of controlling Indigenous populations, which had for centuries opposed Western expansion and land theft through warfare. By using education to strip Indigenous youth of their cultures, languages, religions, and identities, the boarding schools thus helped settlers strip Indigenous communities of their land. Proponents of the boarding schools in the United States also hoped to relieve shortages of cheap labor caused by the end of slavery and claimed to be improving the quality of life of Indigenous peoples by "civilizing" them.

3. How was this effort pitched to the public? Was this a government effort?

Newspapers, churches, politicians, and more all argued that the United States faced an "Indian Problem" of Native American resistance to land expansion and "civilization." While missionary groups had already established some schools near reservations, the federal government became more directly involved in the late 1800s, starting with the founding of Carlisle.

By 1900, the federal government through the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior operated and/or funded a network of over 400 schools for the purpose of assimilating Native Americans. Through newspaper articles, political speeches, sermons, and even Worlds Fairs, these schools were hailed as a vital part of Indigenous peoples' "progress."

4. How did they find the children that they brought to the Carlisle Indian School?

Children were brought to Carlisle in several ways. Unlike most boarding schools that were regionally focused, Carlisle enrolled children from dozens of tribes and nations from across the American Empire. Sometimes, groups would be specifically targeted to cultivate relationships between American and Indigenous political leaders, or as a punishment for resisting settlers.

Some children were sent voluntarily by their parents, while others were orphans, most often due either to disease or to conflict. Other families were coerced into sending their children to Carlisle and other schools through violence and threats of violence, through withholding of food and money to the families, through deception, and more. Some children at Carlisle were prisoners of war, either captured during raids or taken as hostages to discourage further resistance of their tribes and nations.

5. What were the conditions in schools like the Carlise Indian School?

Conditions at Carlisle and other boarding schools were generally unhygienic and unhealthy. Children were often placed in crowded dormitories, without adequate clothing, and without adequate nutritional food. This led to frequent disease outbreaks, especially contagious diseases including tuberculosis, smallpox, measles and more.

Discipline was strict and militaristic, with children organized into companies and forced to practice drilling and marching. However, some of those who attended the schools reflected fondly on their time as well, even while acknowledging the poor conditions they experienced. The student experience of schools like Carlisle was complex, and scholars are still trying to unpack and understand exactly what it was like at these institutions.

6. Were you able to talk with any family members of survivors?

I have worked with dozens of descendants and several nations as part of my work over the last decade. Most often, I am in conversation with individuals and families, mutually sharing information about their ancestors' experiences at Carlisle and the other schools I investigate. Since my research focuses largely on medicine and mortality at Carlisle, I have also given information to descendants seeking to repatriate their ancestors' remains from the school's cemetery to return them to their homelands.

7. Do any of the Indigenous groups that were forced to attend the Carlise Boarding School have any remaining populations in the area?

Pennsylvania does not have any state or federally-recognized tribes or nations. However, boarding school survivors and their descendants can be found across the United States, including the Lancaster area. The University works with some of our local community members who are descendants as part of its broader efforts to acknowledge the land upon which we live and work. There are also descendants of boarding school survivors and victims who are members of our University community.

8. How have the legacy and impact of boarding schools like Carlisle influenced contemporary Native American communities?

The boarding schools inflicted generational trauma upon Native American communities that continues to impact them today. Efforts like language revitalization, cultural and religious revival programs, and more seek to reverse and counteract the impacts of the boarding schools. Recently, repatriation efforts and attempts to identify cemeteries at boarding schools have also been successfully pursued to unpack the legacy of these institutions. The federal government has also become more involved in recognizing this history, with the Department of the Interior under Secretary Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna) launching the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative in 2021 to investigate the troubled legacy of federal policies and efforts related to the boarding schools.

9. The Department of the Interior just released the second and final volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative's investigative report that says nearly 1,000 Native children perished in these schools. Is it possible that there were more deaths?

The recent release of the second volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative's final reportis significant, adding details to their previous findings including statistics about the 400+ schools they have identified, the number of burial sites at these schools, the role of religious organizations and institutions in the boarding school system, and the financial support provided by the federal government over decades. Their finding that 973 children died at these schools is horrible, but not surprising.

The true number of children whose deaths can be attributed to the boarding school system is much higher.

Since the Department of the Interior's investigation focused only on known burial grounds located at the schools themselves, their report acknowledges that their findings are an undercounting. My researchinto the Carlisle Indian School has identified 237 individuals who died while connected to this one school, and that count does not include the hundreds of fatally ill children who were sent home to die with their families instead of in the school's hospital. Scholars are continuing their investigations into the death counts and rates of individual institutions in the boarding school system, but the true number of direct and indirect deaths easily numbers in the thousands.

10. Do you have any other insights you'd like to offer?

Since I arrived at Millersville in 2022, I've been leading an effort to investigate Millersville's connections to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and the wider boarding school movement. Last fall, we received a grant to help found the Millersville Institutional Legacy Initiative, and to fund a student researcher to further these efforts. Bryanna Nase '27 and I worked together to identify 18 individuals who were essentially dual-enrolled between Millersville and the Carlisle Indian School between the 1880s and 1910s. These individuals are likely our first Native American students at Millersville and came here as a direct result of the assimilationist efforts of the federal government during that period. Bryanna presented on her findingsduring our Made in Millersvilleconference last year, and the Millersville Institutional Legacy Initiative is continuing its investigations into our connections to Carlisle.

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