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Native America's Pastime: How Football At An Indian Boarding School Empowered Native American Men And Revitalized Their Culture, 1880-1920, David Gaetano

Honors Papers

This thesis analyzes the impact of football on student-athlete identity at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It explores the origins of Pratt’s racial ideology toward Indians and evaluates his motivations for opening Carlisle as well as his inconsistent attitude toward the game of football. The thesis asserts that the members of the Carlisle football team maintained a form of cultural continuity through the game by making it something of their own.