The Hampton Indian Program

Hampton Institute began the Hampton Indian Program to “christianize and civilize” American Indians. The first students arrived at the Institute near midnight on 13 April 1878. They had been incarcerated at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida, in an attempt by the U.S. government to control their kinsmen. Later, government officials recruited males and females from 65 tribal groups from the Midwest and Southwest. Approximately 1,388 students participated before the program ended in 1923. Thirty-eight students from the program are interred in the integrated campus cemetery. The Hampton Indian Program became the model for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

Department of Historic Resources, 2008