Adapting Against Assimilation: Recovering Anishinaabe Student Writings in Carlisle Indian School Periodicals, 1904 –1918

Abstract

Carlisle Indian School was a federal boarding school in Pennsylvania which operated between 1879-1918 aiming to strip Native American youth of their indigenous culture and assimilate them with Anglo-American society. To promote this work and attract sponsors, Carlisle authorities published periodicals which occasionally featured essays and stories authored by its students. Between 1904-1918, 94 articles written by students of the Anishinaabe nation were published. Within these, student-authors adapted the propagandist platform to proudly display their cross-cultural identities. Students undermined Carlisle’s agenda by demonstrating that their culture was not vanishing but had continued to adapt to new cultural contexts.