Richard Platt was a civil war veteran and military officer.

He was also the leader

of the St. Augustine fort where Indian Warriors were sent to. Pratt started an experiment

to “kill the Indian and save the men” which was the goal of his philosophical plan. He

tried to get rid of the Indian culture by sending them on this journey to St. Augustine.

They were frightened and not ready for what was to come because they assumed that they

were going to be facing death at the fort because it was a “strange, mysterious place.”

They were required to remove their chains for U.S. Military uniforms instead of jail

uniforms, were starved for several days, forced to sleep on the floor, and to cut their hair

and change their names. Finally, they needed to learn white-men values, Christianity and

the English language. The Warriors did this for three years and were then set free to go

back home to their families. Pratt believed that he could submerge them into white-

society and taught them the proper culture of a typical white-man. So, this led to Pratt

traveling to Dakota Territory to try and recruit children to join a new school that he

created in Pennsylvania specifically to teach them American culture, language, and

traditional values. He convinced the Native American parents to allow their children to

come with him by refreshing their memories that the reason they lost the Black Hills land

was because their people were not capable of reading the treaty that they had signed.

Richard Platt cause many mental and physical changes to these children. Mentally, he

forced them to learn a new language. If they spoke their original Native language, they

would be punished. He gave them new identities by giving them new, Christian names.

Lastly, he forced them to attend church to change their spiritual beliefs. Physically, he

made these children move thousands of miles away from their families, which was hard

for the children because they had no upper hand or power of their own lives. They lacked
nutrition from a shortage of food, were dressed in military uniforms and cut their hair. In

Native American culture, the cutting of someone's hair shows a sign of mourning. These

were all changes that you could visually see just by the look in their eyes and face. By the

time this was over, most of the children never returned to their tribes or they completely

forgot all their normal customs, such as: language, culture, religion and values.

Resources:

Notes in Class

Lesiak, Christine. (Director). (1992). In the White Man’s Image. [DVD, TV SHOW].

American Experience Publishing.