The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle Pennsylvania was formed in 1879 by Colonel Richard Henry Pratt. He believed that Native people were held back by their own culture and would only be able to thrive by letting go of their traditions in favor of American ones. His philosophy was to “kill the Indian, save the man.” He founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to accomplish this goal.

Students at Carlisle had to wear uniforms, cut their hair, and speak only English. They spent part of their time in regular school subjects, like reading and math. The rest of their time was spent learning jobs such as farming, sewing, or cooking. Students were sent on “outings” to live with white families for months at a time and work for them.

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first boarding school of its kind in the United States. It was very successful in displacing Native youth and forcing many to give up parts of their culture. It became a model for boarding schools across the country, including the Haskell Institute, Chemawa, and Mt. Edgecumbe.

“Carlisle has always planted treason to the [T]ribe and loyalty to the nation at large.” -Richard Henry Pratt, Kill the Indian, and Save the Man” (1892).

In July 1901, eleven Alaska Native students arrived at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The children were escorted by Charles E. Bunnel, a teacher from Pennsylvania who had arrived in Woody Island in 1900. The eleven students Bunnell escorted were: Kate Shepard, Anastasia Ashowuak, Pariscovia Apaiukak, Orleana Yakoff, Theodore (Fadya) Sheellikoff, Sashka Alexanderoff, Peter Dobrovolsky, Geo. Galatkinoff, John Lolchesnekoff, Nikifer Shouchuk, and Michael Chabitnoy.

Anastasia Ashouwak was born to Iakim Akvak and Pelageia Vologdin on Woody Island. Her parents died a year apart in 1896 and 1897, after which she was put into the Kodiak Baptist Orphanage on Woody Island. She was thirteen years old when she arrived at the Carlisle School. While information about her years at Carlisle are sparse, records say she was studying housework. Like other students, she was sent to local families to work for them. She worked on a farm from September 14, 1901, to May 1904, returning after becoming ill with tuberculosis. She was sixteen when she died. In 2022, after more than a century buried in Pennsylvania, Anastasia’s remains were returned home and reburied in Old Harbor next to her brother, Peter.

Pariscovia was born in Kiliuda. Her father was Ioann Apaiukak, and her mother was Evgeniia Tuduin. Her father died shortly after she was born in 1888. That same year, her mother remarried to Mikhail Iakushev in Katmai. They moved to Afognak and had a son, Mikhail Iakushev, Jr. Evgeniia died between 1890 and 1891 in Cape Douglas. Upon her death, Pariscovia went to live with her godmother’s father, Feodor, in her home community of Kiliuda. Following his death in 1900, she went to work on a fox farm on Long Island, where Bunnell visited her the following year.

Pariscovia, too, was sent out on outings at the Carlisle School. She was sent to four different families between 1901 and 1905. During her final outing, she became seriously ill from tuberculosis and returned to the school on June 29th, 1905. She died of her illness on April 29, 1906, at nineteen years old. She was buried in the school cemetery, where her remains still rest today. Efforts to identify her living relatives and bring her home are ongoing.

“[Pariscovia Apaiukak], one of our Alaskan girls, died Sunday from consumption. She had been a patient, suffer[ed] for a long time.” – The Arrow, May 4, 1906, Vol. II.

Nikifer Shouchuck was from Afognak Island. He became well known at the school as an athlete, playing center on the Carlisle football team alongside Jim Thorpe. Shouchuck met President Theodore Roosevelt after the team was invited to the White House in 1902. Shouchuck also played football in the 1904 Olympics, where Carlisle beat Haskell 38-4. After finishing school, he worked as an assistant cook at Carlisle. He also worked at other boarding schools, including Chemawa and the Haskell Institute. No records about his later life have been discovered.

Michael Chabitnoy was born in Unga. Chabitnoy had two separate stints at Carlisle. He arrived with the other students in 1901 and was discharged in 1906 after his five-year term expired. However, he was readmitted in 1907 and stayed at Carlisle for two additional years to graduate. After graduating, he married Lillian Zellers from a nearby Pennsylvania town. He worked at the Hersey Chocolate Factory shortly after it opened. He died of tuberculosis in 1920 in Pennsylvania.