“Kill the Indian to save the man” was the catchphrase of The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a boarding school opened in Pennsylvania in 1879. It became a grim epitaph for numerous native children who died there. In 2017, a delegation from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming attempts to retrieve the remains of three Northern Arapaho children buried far from home in the school cemetery, on a journey to recast the troubled legacy of Indian boarding schools, and heal historic wounds. This documentary film is produced by The Content Lab LLC, with support from The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, The Wyoming Humanities Council, and Wyoming PBS.
Direction
O'Gara lets silence and ceremony speak louder than narration.
Practical Effects
The physical journey — Wyoming to Pennsylvania — becomes its own character.
Writing
Yufna Soldier Wolf's words carry centuries of weight.
Director
Geoff O'Gara
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Carlisle's cemetery design — headstones facing west, toward 'civilization' — was deliberate propaganda, making the children's final rest a permanent advertisement for assimilation.
Jim Thorpe, the legendary athlete, attended Carlisle; his fame helped obscure the school's mortality rate for decades.
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