Carlisle Indian School Native American Success Story 1890s

S. H. Peters, known as Pete, the Indian Tailor and The Carlisle Presser, operated his tailoring business in Grand Rapids, Michigan, around 1905. The moniker Carlisle Presser strongly suggests Peters was an alumnus of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a prominent federal boarding school established in 1879. At Carlisle, Native American students received vocational training in trades like tailoring and pressing as part of a broader federal policy aimed at assimilating indigenous populations into American society by teaching them marketable skills and English.