Agnostic.com

16 19

I posted these pics in photography group but felt this belongs to the entire community. The B&W is from the Carlisle, PA Indian school. Children were taken from reservations and brought here to have their "savagness" removed. General Pratt who started the school had a motto "Kill Indian Save Man" the children could not speak their language, wear their clothing, keep their Native name, or keep their long hair. The goal was to "Americanize" them; the school lasted from 1879 to 1915. The colored photos are ones I took at the cemetery where burials took place for the children who died. Reservations in the Mid and Southwest are now asking for the remains of their children to be returned home. I am aware of 3 sets of remains being returned to the various tribes. The school and burial grounds are located on the Carlisle Military Barracks, now part of The U.S. Army War College.

AmelieMatisse 8 June 19
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

16 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

2

,,,this is very tragic abuse of culture;
PBS did a documentary on it,I read a biography of Conrad Weiser"Friend of
Colonist and Mohawk" by Paula Wallace / he was shocked by the
activities that were perpertrated-
to minimize First Nation culture.Thank
You Greatly-should be taught in school
"history",,,

BBJong Level 7 July 31, 2018

Our history taught in schools is totally whitewashed.

@AmelieMatisse thanx again
we have an Indian Heritage Museum
near Allentown/Pa.-certain groups
(Moravian;Quakers)tried to support
each tribes sovieghntry(self determination).Read 1491_about
colonialism in South;north america,
scary.History is delivered by local
school boards----they pick the books/
there are thousands of them here
in PA.(see$)- no reality check?️
objectivity***,have a good one,
respectfully

@BBJong I did not realize there was a heritage museum so close by. I feel as if this country has totally hidden its behavior with our native people and their culture. We have committed serious crimes that we should feel shame about

4

Who is the savage? Australia and probably New Zealand and all those islands like Hawaii and Haiti suffered the same. Money? Yes. Religion? Yes even more. It's one of the worst evil things the Catholic Church has done. Even worse than the Crusades.

Gert Level 7 June 19, 2018

In our case the military did it quite often. But I'm sure they hired "good Christians" to run the places

4

Sad history of this country.

Yea, but it's not just history. It's also present practice.

2

I drive through Carlisle each time I visit NEPA, once coming, once going back. I had no idea. Thanks for posting this. I'll some more research on my own.

zeuser Level 9 June 19, 2018

@Zeuser It is very easy to get info online and not hard to find but since it is a military base there is only one way the general public can get in. If you have military ID then no problem.

3

This is one thing we have in common. Canada has its own skeletons with the "Residential Schools" and we are just coming to grips with "Reconciliation", far too late. Children were kidnapped from their parents without legal recourse and installed in boarding schools where they were forbidden their own language and culture. They were taught "civilisation through beatings, starvation, loneliness and what ever else the good priests and sisters could think up. Yes, these appalling gulags were run by the church - mostly Catholic, but other flavours of superstition as well. Are we surprised that these atrocities were committed by the followers of Christ? This went on until as recently as 30 years ago. The graduates of this system are, not surprisingly, often mentally ill, alcoholic, abusive parents and career criminals. So much for Christian charity.

Arouet Level 7 June 19, 2018
5

They returned a few last year and are working on returning more this year. Sadly, the bodies buried under some of the tombstones are not the ones on the marker. If you dehumanize people, I guess there would be no need to respect their final resting place. Separating children from their parents is obviously not a new thing either, as long as they are "the other people." It was done with the Jews in Germany, the native Americans in this country and is still being done by the Boco Haram in Nigeria. It is the ultimate in mistreatment and a sure sign of the moral decay. And interestingly enough, quite popular with religious groups.

Yes, what they say about the incorrect bodies being beneath markers is that in the area of the original cemetery there was flooding from a creek overflowing during exceptionally heavy rains. Some coffins were pushed out of the ground and when they were moved it became unclear as to under which marker some coffins belonged.

You forgot to include by Trump's separation of immigrant children from their parents today .

2

I'm well acquainted with this. It is a form of genocide. Instead of directly killing those that are deemed unworthy, simply turn them into members of your own tribe by stripping them of their culture and raising them in your own. There are some good books on this by Ward Churchill, a native American. Struggle for the Land, and A little matter of Genocide.

2

I have spoken to people that were removed from their homes to go to boarding schools like this. That "tradition" is not that remote

btroje Level 9 June 19, 2018

I saw the rest of your post in comments below @AmelieMatisse

Do you mean remote as in mileage or as in time? Yeah, these schools were all over the US and as I mentioned in one of my comments to someone else I traveled with a Native American woman who was sent as a child in the 1960's to one of these schools.

@AmelieMatisse yes workd on the Navajo reservation a few years back. AN eye opener. I was just afraid other people unfamiliar with the history would think it all ended a long long time ago. I am not sure how familiar most people would be with the fact the same thing happened in Canada and Australia and probably anywhere other imperialistic country

@Stevil or in time

5

Criminal then and now.

Marine Level 8 June 19, 2018
5

Why do we do this, then and now? Why do we allow it?

I think Trump tested the waters a long time ago by staring the birther thing. He saw he had support for this truly insane idea of his and then knew he could come up with even more bizarre things. The Republicans tested out America's readiness for the Tea Party with Sarah Palin. Even though she didn't become VP it was clear that there were enough Americans who thought she was wonderful. The Republican Congress came out with Mitch McConnell stating that they would block anything Obama tried to do and Republicans kept on winning. They are feeling their power quite mightily and never forget that Lord Acton of the UK back in the 1800's said "power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely" We are living our karma of not demanding better of our leaders. When this is all over I wonder what lessons we will have learned?

@AmelieMatisse When this is all over, which 'it' will never be, we'll go on like it never happened. We are a greedy bunch.

@AstralSmoke Unfortunately you are most likely correct.

@Morganfreeman good point

3

Another example of America's greatest hits! ?

Then there were the orphan trains where orphans in the East were loaded on trains to the west where many of them were sold into slavery to the farmers or prostitution. Not many found a happy ever after home.

@Goodhope458 Our history is pretty nasty.

2

They wanted to remove the injun gene. Spanish policy in my native land was simple "the cross or the sword". Nazi did it in Germany, Spain did it under franco remove the commie gene. Current kids removed from their families will dissapear never to be reunited, their latino gene removed, they will be americanized.

4

Who will return the children of Mexico in days to come? The lesson of history should never be to make the same mistakes. ?

I agree and this is why I posted this.

6

It would be nice if the US stopped doing evil things. What do we need to do to stop this? Because whatever it is, I'm in.

I've been calling my GOP Senator, I've called DHS, I've called everyone I can think of to stop this from happening. As long as we have a Hitler Wannabe sitting in the WH, I fear that nothing will happen. It is way too long to wait until November elections and hope for a blue wave.

0

Im so sorry that happened. I had nothing to do with that. Its a cultural thing amongst do gooders that supposedly mean well. Some may have benefited from it .... others did not. Thats sad.

And the children of Mexico Bob, will you turn your face from them?

@SimonCyrene. Brother.... if you've read a few of my post on this immigration thing trump is doing you could see my heart bleeding for these fine people. Especially their children. You know.... i always felt proud of my flag and my anthem and believed we were a country to shelter those in need. I believe in people that get out there and find a job... roam the states to find a job. Not sit on there ass complaining and selling dope. Ive worked for and side by side people from other cultures and counties. I cried when they died. Im sad and heartbroken now. This is me. I may write my congressman on this matter... i think i will.

General Pratt, who started this school went on to have his plan used to establish more of these schools. Believe it or not this was still happening to Native children in the 1960's. I traveled with a Native woman in New Mexico, she was a child in the 60's who was taken from her reservation and she told of some of the things that happened to her and others. Jim Thorpe was in the Carlisle School and I guess we might say he benefited in some way by becoming an amazing football player at that school and going on to win Olympic medals in running, which were later taken from him because the committee found out that he had play a few minor league baseball games and had gotten a small pay for doing it. Jim Thorpe died penniless. So did he ultimately benefit? Even if they benefitted somehow by being dragged into our American culture, how much more may they have benefitted from being allowed grow up with family and culture.

@BucketlistBob Please write, even call the DHS comment line. We all have to put up a protest to stop this. The Dems announced the Keep Families Together Act and so far not one Republican has signed on to support it. I actually wondered about what would happen if we would storm the gates of one of these places and then I realized we would all be gunned down by citizens of our own country acting in their role of enforcers. Trump has also announced that he is going to pull the US out of the UN's Human Rights Council. This is one hell of a nightmare in our country.

@AmelieMatisse it is a nightmare... hes going to be the beginning of our end... i will call and write.

@AmelieMatisse I wrote John Kennedy. I couldn't copy the letter but I have a receipt.

@BucketlistBob he is a good guy! That is great that you did this

@AmelieMatisse. It's my honor to speak up. If you know anything about me...you know I don't hold back and I speak up.

@BucketlistBob we sure need more people like you in this world

@AmelieMatisse ?

2

My heart sank looking at those. That's the ugly face of imperialism and colonialism. Terrible.

And we are still doing things like that. Our country sinks lower each day

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:110766
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.