Undergraduate Honors Thesis

 

Names Tell a Story: The Alteration of Student Names at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1879-1890 Public Deposited

https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/jq085k44j
Abstract
  • Using the administrative naming practices at Carlisle Indian Industrial School as a case study, this thesis illuminates the assimilation practices of the federal government towards Native American children in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Current historical scholarship on off-reservation, government-operated industrial schools between 1879 and 1918 takes little heed of naming practices at these institutions. The alteration of Native American student names sheds light on questions of assimilation, identity, and captivity in ways that advance the understanding of these industrial schools. Most importantly, it puts the experiences of individual students at center stage. The Anglicization of Native American student names demonstrates how the practices at these schools put children in a liminal state intended to eradicate their previous identities before assimilation into white society. Tracking student names however, reveals a more complicated story. In fact, the evolution of student names demonstrates Native American resilience and ingenuity despite the federal government’s attempts at cultural genocide.
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  • 2019-01-01
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  • 2019-12-02
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