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

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 aract sponsors, Carlisle authorities published periodicals which occasionally featured essays, legends, and stories authored by its students. Between 1904-1918, 94 articles wrien by students of the Anishinaabe nation were published. Anishinaabe student-authors adapted the propagandist platform into a vehicle to proudly display their developing cross-cultural identities. Their writing demonstrates their enduring connection to Anishinaabe lands, communities, and cultures. Students undermined Carlisle’s agenda by demonstrating that their culture was not vanishing but had continued to adapt to new cultural contexts.