From Carlisle to Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of the Indian Outing System, 1878-1930

IN THE EARLY YEARS of the twentieth century hundreds of Indian school children participated in an apprenticeship program called the "Outing System." This elaborate educational program hoped to promote the assimilationist goals of the federal government by placing Indian children in intimate contact with "civilized" American society. The outing idea originated with Richard Henry Pratt, founder of the famed Carlisle Indian School. Pratt believed that Indian contact with a