Carlisle Journeys: Celebrating the American Indian Sports Legacy

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Carlisle Journeys: Celebrating the American Indian Sports Legacy

Friday, October 7- Saturday, October 8, 2016

Keynote Speaker: Billy Mills, 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist

   This conference is the second in a series of biennial conferences and is an initiative of the Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, PA. The CCHS houses the most complete collections for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which was the first off-reservation government-funded boarding school for Native American Indians (1879-1918). The school was located at the Carlisle Barracks, and the buildings are protected on the National Register of Historic Places. The Carlisle Indian School left an indelible mark upon the sports that Indigenous Americans have played over the past century and a half. Like the school itself, Carlisle’s legendary athletic teams and rigorous training programs influenced the complex legacies that used sports as a kind of propaganda tool and at the same time modeled the success of the track and football teams for other off-reservation boarding schools.  

   The 2016 Carlisle Journeys conference will provide a forum for exploring these tensions and achievements of Native Americans in athletics. To that end, Sally Jenkins, author of The Real All Americans, will open the Friday series. Amanda Blackhorse (Navajo) and Ray Halbritter (Oneida), will speak on "American Indians' Imagery in Sports." Ben Nuvamsa (Hopi) in answer to the conference call for papers, will give a presentation on his relative, the great Hopi runner and Olympian, Lewis Tewanima. Billy Mills (Oglala Sioux), 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist and keynote speaker, will give a talk titled, "Footprints." John Bloom, author of To Show What an Indian Can Do, will share "A Critical Exploration of the Legacies of Sports at the Carlisle Indian School." Shoni Schimmel and Jude Schimmel (Confederated Tribes of Umatilla) will talk about women's professional basketball (pending their involvement in the WNBA championships which might overlap with the conference). Sid Jamieson will give a presentation on lacrosse, and the series will end with the showing of the film, "Crooked Arrows," with commentary by one of the producers, Neal Powless (Onondaga).

   Tours of the Carlisle Indian School grounds will be available by appointment during the conference.

   We look forward to broad participation by the local community, Dickinson College students and faculty, local high school sports programs, educators and Carlisle Barracks personnel. All events are free and open to the public, although registration is requested by visiting the website at http://www.carlislejourneys.org. Events will be held at the Cumberland County Historical Society, 21 N Pitt Street, Carlisle PA 17013 / First United Church of Christ, 20 N Pitt St, Carlisle PA and Dickinson College. For more information please visit the web page or call the CCHS at (717) 249-7610.

Price: Free