Libraries and Reading Culture at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1879–1918

Abstract

This article examines the libraries and reading culture of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (Pennsylvania, 1879-1918), the largest educational institution for Native people in its era. During the superintendency of Richard Henry Pratt, books assisted the school’s assimilation efforts. After his dismissal in 1904, subsequent administrations espoused limited intellectual and social expectations for Native people and reading materials were of diminished importance. Examination of various school documents illustrates that the library presented a Euro-American worldview to Native students while offering little if any access to academic subjects, thus embodying both cultural and biological racism. Nonetheless, American Indian children both enacted and defied the school’s expectations.