Dickinson College received a grant to help digitize Carlisle Indian School records and connect them with the public. Pictured are students identified as Muscogee (Creek). (courtesy photo)

CARLISLE, Pennsylvania — Through a grant received from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission Program, Dickinson College is visiting communities who had children sent to Carlisle Indian School.

The grant is helping an archive team digitize records from the school.

“Our purpose is to allow the stories to emerge from the other side. In other words, most of what’s been written about Carlisle for a long time was written by people who were sympathetic to the goals of the school and not by Native people,” archiving specialist Barbara Landis said.

She said CIS was in operation from 1879-1918 and was the first off-reservation boarding school for Native Americans. Other boarding schools were modeled after CIS.

Some of the students have been identified as Muscogee (Creek).

The team will be visiting Okmulgee at 9 a.m., March 9 at the Mvskoke Dome.

Landis said the meeting will be hands-on, and attendees can bring a laptop if they have access to one.

The visit is for anyone who has an ancestor who attended the school or anyone interested in the historical information.

Other visits are planned throughout Oklahoma the same week.

The archives and additional information about the project can be found at: carlisleindian.dickinson.edu.

To contact the resource center, email: cisproject@dickinson.edu, or call: 717-245-1399.

Pictured are Carlisle Indian School students identified as Muscogee (Creek)

Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School is a major site of memory for many Native peoples, as well as a source of study for students and scholars around the globe. This website represents an effort to aid the research process by bringing together, in digital format, a variety of resources that are physically preserved in various locations around the country. Through these resources, we seek to increase knowledge and understanding of the school and its complex legacy, while also facilitating efforts to tell the stories of the many thousands of students who were sent there.
http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu