Case Study: Richard Henry Pratt Papers

Composed by RAD members Alison Clemens, Elise Riley, and Meg Rinn. 

One of the tasks that the Reparative Archival Description Working Group (RAD) undertakes as a part of its charge is responding to patron requests to replace or contextual harmful language for a better understanding of the history. This is often done through the Suggest a Correction form located on every page of Archives at Yale, which gives users the option to indicate that “this suggestion relates to outdated or harmful language.”  Once submitted, the extent of changes needed is evaluated by RAD. Some changes are minor,  others require an intense review and rewrite, as was the case with the finding aid for Beinecke Library’s Richard Henry Pratt papers, brought to our attention through the Suggest a Correction form.

Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924) was a soldier in the American Civil War and later fought in armed conflicts against Native Americans on the Great Plains. In 1879, Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, the first Native American boarding school in the United States. These schools removed Native American children from their homes and forced them to assimilate into white American society under the guise of providing education. Carlisle created the template for similar state and religious institutions in the United States. The conditions in and long term impacts of the Native American boarding school system -- which included hundreds of schools -- is only beginning to become well known in the United States.  This is due to the discovery of gravesites containing the human remains of Native American children who died in these schools, investigative podcasts that center Native experiences of the schools, and renewed commitment by the United States Department of the Interior to address these historic wrongs. In the case of Carlisle, the gravesites and activities of the school have long been well known among Native American communities and scholars, but have had less critical engagement by others. This was certainly the case in the 1970s, when the collection of Pratt’s personal papers held at Yale underwent processing and description.

Reparative archival work is rarely as simple and straight-forward as hitting control+f to locate outdated language and replacing it with something more respectful and accurate. As other entries on this blog have highlighted, there is often a large amount of research required, which can take the shape of consulting experts, community listening, and reading published literature. Updating the Richard Henry Pratt papers was no different. It was clear in reading the original archival description which described Pratt as an advocate for Native American education that there was a need to place Pratt into the appropriate historic context, determine how his views evolved, and highlight the long-term lasting impacts Carlisle has had into the present.

Task force members Alison Clemens (Access Strategist, Beinecke Library), Elise Riley (Accessioning Archivist, Beinecke Library), and Meg Rinn (Archivist, Yale Center for British Art) first placed the descriptive front matter including the biography, scope and content note, abstract, and arrangement notes into a Google Doc to allow for review, basic edits, and notes about what parts needed follow-up or further research. In examining the level of highlights, questions, and annotations, it became clear that a significant rewrite was needed.

In addition to reviewing the library catalog and relying on the published work of American and Indigenous Histories scholars like Jacqueline Fear-Segal, we reached out to our Yale Library colleagues. Consulting librarian James Kessenides, Kaplanoff Librarian for American History, helped us locate additional resources about the conflicts on the Great Plains in the wake of the American Civil War. This period was an essential part of forming not only Pratt’s theories of education, but his opinions regarding the relationship between Native Americans and the United States government. Being able to provide this key background information made a huge impact in the redescription. We note that the RAD working group has community consultation as one of its guiding principles, and we felt that the extensive published literature on Pratt -- especially the availability of writings by Indigenous scholars -- and our work with our library colleagues helped us to meet the goal of that principle. Task force members also consulted the Pratt papers directly.  This allowed for clarification of specific details mentioned in series-level Scope and Content notes, as well as to examine how Pratt viewed his own actions. There is a strong contrast between Pratt’s perspective regarding assimilation and the reality that resulted in the loss of Native American culture and lives, as well as the proliferation of similar schools modeled after Carlisle, which compounded cultural destruction.

All changes were drafted in Google Docs, allowing for task force members to edit, comment, and finalize each other’s work. Both James Kessenides and Joshua Cochran, Curator for American History and Diplomacy, were consulted to provide subject matter expertise regarding the revisions, along with members of the library’s Archival Description Unit and the chairs of RAD. Once all changes were agreed upon, the updates to the description for the Pratt papers were made in ArchivesSpace, as well as Orbis and the Digital Collections Highlight on the Beinecke website. In the finding aid, a processing note addresses the updates made by RAD. The previous version of the finding aid was retained for transparency. 

The last step of the process was to contact the patron and alert them to the changes, as well as invite any further feedback. This open dialogue and engagement is an essential component of reparative work, regardless of repository. 

Pratt’s papers are likely not the only archival collection at Yale that contains outdated and harmful descriptions in relation to Native American boarding schools. The Task Force’s next step is to review other holdings to find similar issues and to make appropriate changes, building off of the knowledge gained through working with Pratt’s papers. This additional work may require more direct consultation with Native American communities, and our group is looking forward to that potential collaboration. As more and more archives reckon with the material related to Native American boarding schools in their collections, this review work is essential and shows commitment to upholding the principles that govern RAD.

Relevant resources:

Greene, Jerome A., "The Sioux Land Commission of 1889: Prelude to Wounded Knee." South Dakota History 1, no. 1 (1970): 41-72.

Fear-Segal, Jacqueline, White Man's Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of Indian Acculturation. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007)

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.  https://boardingschoolhealing.org/

Pratt, Richard Henry, Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1964)