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Native Americans

When did the first Native American boarding school open?

1879: First off-reservation boarding school for Native Americans opens. Congress authorizes the establishment of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

Who was the founder of the first Native American boarding school?

The federal government began sending American Indians to off-reservation boarding schools in the 1870s, when the United States was still at war with Indians. An Army officer, Richard Pratt, founded the first of these schools. He based it on an education program he had developed in an Indian prison.