Richard PrattIn Richard H. Pratt both the Friends and the government found the person to create a new education policy. In April 1875 Pratt was placed in charge of a group of seventy-two Indian prisoners from several tribes who he was to transport from the plains to Fort Marion, near St. Augustine, Florida. There the Indians were to be imprisoned. Pratt was a veteran of the Indian wars who had twice commanded Indian scouts. Because of his experience with the Indian scouts, Pratt held the somewhat unusual view among contemporary Euro-Americans that Indians were trustworthy and could learn white ways. Pratt did not accept Indian culture as the equal of his. Rather, he believed that through education Indians could be "elevated" to white standards. This opinion served as the starting point for an experiment in Indian education that would become federal policy.

At Fort Marion Pratt developed a "prison school" to acculture his prisoners into white society. Pratt immersed the prisoners in white culture, giving them European clothing, creating daily work routines to develop in them an appreciation for the European sense of time and labor, and giving the prisoners an opportunity to learn marketable vocational skills and use those skills to make money. Christianity, Pratt believed, was an important element in becoming part of the European community. Pratt held weekly Christian services for the prisoners and eventually encouraged them to attend denominational services in nearby St. Augustine. Finally, Pratt believed that the elimination of native language was critical to the success of his efforts. Thus, prisoners were taught the English language as well as the rudiments of reading and writing. Once the prisoners had obtained a basic competency in English all further instruction was in that language.

In 1878 the Fort Marion school came to an abrupt end when the War Department determined that conditions on the plains were such that the prisoners could be allowed to return west. Pratt believed that the now freed Indian prisoners would benefit from continued education. He persuaded the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia to accept them. Hampton had been founded in 1867 to supply mechanical training to newly freed African-Americans. Twenty-two of Pratt's former prisoners voluntarily agreed to continue their education; seventeen at Hampton and five at other Eastern schools. Pratt himself was also assigned to Hampton.

Pratt's days at Hampton were few. Tireless in his advocacy, in 1879 Pratt convinced the Secretary of War to allow him to establish an independent Indian school at an abandoned military post in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Pratt opened Carlisle Industrial Training school on November 1, 1879. At Carlisle Pratt founded a multi-tribal, co-educational school that isolated the students from their tribal cultures and attempted to fully assimilate the students into a European lifestyle. In its now nearly perfected form the school employed military, cadet-like training to teach the English language, basic academics, industrial training focused largely on agricultural skills, the importance of hard manual labor, and the need for remunerative employment. To further reinforce the value of the work ethic Pratt adopted the "outing system," in which student labor was contracted out to local farmers and other businesses, with the student receiving at least some of the wages earned. Native languages were banned and Christianity was strongly encouraged.

Government officials, who saw Carlisle as a potentially useful alternative to the expensive and bloody Indian campaigns in the West, and humanitarian reformers, who sought to assimilate Indians into European society, both rallied to the support of the educational policies employed at the new school. Carlisle became the model for a vision of Indian education that built upon military subjugation to achieve cultural assimilation. Pratt would remain at the school until his removal in 1904, and continue to argue vigorously for his vision of Indian education until his death in 1924. The General Allotment Act of 1887, more commonly referred to as the Dawes Act, incorporated the Carlisle model into government policy.

Thomas Morgan as Commissioner of Indian Affairs

Thomas Jefferson Morgan, appointed commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1889, vigorously supported the educational agenda created through the Dawes Act. Upon appointment as commissioner of Indian Affairs, he announced:

"When we speak of education of the Indians, we mean that comprehensive system of training and instruction which will convert them into American citizens, put within their reach the blessings which the rest of us enjoy, and enable them to compete successfully with the white man on his own ground and with his own methods."

He saw his task in missionary terms, writing, "We must either fight Indians, feed them, or else educate them. To fight them is cruel, to feed them is wasteful, while to educate them is humane, economic, and Christian."

To accomplish his goals, Morgan expanded the number of off-reservation Indian boarding schools from seven to nineteen. Morgan controlled activities within these schools through a detailed volume of rules. The 1890, Rules for Indian Schools, explicitly established "preparation of Indian youth for assimilation into the national life" as the schools' overall objective. Over the course of eight years Morgan assumed Indians would receive two years of intensive English language training and the equivalent of a sixth grade education. An 1892 revision of the Rules added a ninth year of study and opened the door for kindergarten classes. The revision also specifically included efforts to promote Christianity by including in the curriculum memorization and recitation of the Lord's Prayer as well as the Beatitudes, the Psalms, and the ten commandments.

Although Morgan had created a primary school system, he consistently argued for more advanced courses. Like Pratt, Morgan disagreed with the day's popular wisdom regarding the ability of Indians to learn. Morgan believed Indians capable of significant intellectual achievement and argued that simply training Indians to be good farmers was insufficient.

When Indians resisted Morgan's program, he responded quickly and harshly. In 1892 he wrote to the Secretary of the Interior, to whom he reported, that while he preferred reasoning with Indian parents, he had also, "wherever it seemed wise, resorted to mild punishment by the withholding of rations or supplies, and , where necessary, ... directed Agents to use their Indian police as truant officers in compelling attendance." Further explaining himself Morgan wrote:

"I do not believe that Indians ... people who for the most part speak no English, live in squalor and degradation, make little progress from year to year, who are a perpetual source of expense to the government and a constant menace to thousands of their white neighbors, a hindrance to civilization and a clog on our progress have any right to forcibly keep their children out of school to grow up like themselves, a race of barbarians and semi-savages."

Like Pratt, Morgan saw no value in Indian culture.