Biology
The Living World Solutions
Document D: Luther Standing Bear (Excerpt)
Luther Standing Bear was a member of the Lakota tribe and attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
beginning in 1879. After graduating, he became a Lokota chief and advocated for Native American rights
and sovereignty. The following are excerpts from c book he wrote in 1913 about his experiences at the
school
At the age of eleven years, ancestral life for me and my people was most abruptly ended without
regard for our wishes, comforts, or rights in the matter. At once I was thrust into an alien world,
into an environment as different from the one into which I had been born as it is possible to
imagine, to remake mysell, if I could, into the likeness of the invader....
At Carlisle ... the "civilizing process began. It began with clothes. Never, no matter what our
philosophy or spiritual quality, could we be civilized while wearing the moccasin and blanket. The
lask before us was not only that of accepting new ideas and adopting new manners, but actual
physical changes and discomfort had to be borne uncomplainingly until the body adjusted itself to
new tastes and habits.... Of course, our hair was cut, and then there was much disapproval. But
that was part of the transformation process, and in some mysterious way long hair stood in the
path of our development...
Almost immediately our names were changed to those in common use in the English language....
I was told to take a pointer and select a name for myself from the list written on the blackboard...
. By that time we had been forbidden to speak our mother tongue, which is the rule in all boarding
schools....
of all the changes we were forced to make, that of diet was doubtless the most injurious, for it was
immediate and drastic.... Had we been allowed our own simple diet... we should have thrived.
But the change in clothing, housing, food, and confinement combined with lonesomeness was too
much, and in three years nearly one half of the children from the plains were dead and through
with all earthly schools. In the graveyard at Carlisle most of the graves are those of the little ones..
