Henry Caruthers Roman Nose (ca. 1850–1917) was one of the Fort Marion prisoners Richard Henry Pratt brought with him to Hampton in 1878 and then to Carlisle when it opened in 1879. Roman Nose, who renamed himself Henry after Pratt, stayed at Carlisle for two years to learn the tinning trade. Roman Nose’s writings appeared in the School News from June 1880 through March 1881. His autobiographical essays are representative of student writing that was used by school authorities to recruit students and to demonstrate that students who returned to the reservations could continue to practice the teachings of Carlisle. In his autobiographical essays, Roman Nose chronicles his journey from Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida, to Carlisle. He also charts his progress from his Indian boyhood marked by hunting and battles to his success as a Carlisle student, which makes his writings an early example of what literary scholar H. David Brumble III calls the “Carlisle success story.” (Brumble, American Indian Autobiography, 143; Littlefield and Parins, Biobibliography: Supplement, 277–78; Smith, Indians of the United States, 181)
When I was ten years old in Indian Territory, I commenced to kill buffalo calves, shooting them with bow and arrows, and then when I grew up about fourteen years old, I had killed big buffalo good many.
One day that time I killed about seven buffaloes.
At my old home in Indian Territory I would go out and search for birds, and when I had found them I shot them with bows and arrows. I had to kill many of them. When I was a little boy I would like swimming very much and I had to catch a great many turtles in the water, that time I was very glad to catch it and we got to eat the turtles. When I was 13 years old my father he took me to war against the Pawnees. I was sick and I could not [get] good sleep every night but every day I [was] anxious to go back home in Indian camp.1
I had a pleasant visit to New York. I was very much delighted to see my friends in New York and Tarrytown. The people, they were very glad to see me also. I stayed there about ten days. I had a very jolly time. In three days I traveled very much in New York and I saw a great many beautiful things, the houses and everything. New York is a very good city, very handsome. I like it very much. Oh I forgot to tell what I saw there. I went to the top of the Equitable Life Insurance building on Broadway. I went upon an elevator. I saw three cities, New York, Jersey City, and Brooklyn. The top of building was nearly two hundred feet above the ground. Then I went to the aquarium. I saw a great many strange kind of fish, we call them spotted codling, Lake Dog, gar pine long nose, spot and lake cat fish very long, Gold and silverfish, winkle, Spotted sole, crabs, toadfish looks like frog, Spider crab, crab lively, Rock fish, Turtles, alligators and monkeys.
I cannot tell all that I saw in New York City, because I do not understand how to spell and call them.
When I returned here I was glad to see my Indian friends of different tribes in this Indian Training School at Carlisle Barracks. I went to camp at the Warm Springs and stayed a week. We had a very nice time at the camp in the woods. The Indian boys are making bows and arrows every day, and shooting with bows [and] arrows very much. Capt. Pratt told me that he would allow me to go to Indian Territory and see my old relations. I will stay there two or three weeks with my family and friends. Then I will come back again to Carlisle Barracks and stay here a few more years. I go to school here and acquainted some things each day. I am very anxious to learn my Bible. I will always try to work and learn something every day. When I get through school and work then I will return to my old home in Indian Territory. When I get there I think maybe I will help all my Indian people and teach them about the good way of the white man road and to love God. They will pray for him to make good Indian men and women. I will teach the Indians what I have learned at school and I will teach them how to work in the white man’s ways. I like tinsmith shop very much and I want to learn well how to make tin cups, buckets, pails, etc.2
August 2nd I went out west to the Indian Territory. First I arrived at Harrisburg and I found cars for Pittsburgh and I got there in the night about twelve o’clock. I changed cars again and went to Indianapolis. I arrived at Indianapolis in the morning about twelve o’clock and stopped there a few minutes. Then they went to St. Louis. The cars go very fast. I arrived at St. Louis in the night about nine o’clock and changed cars again. I got out there and I looked for the cars from Kansas City. I found them and I went in, and went to Kansas City. I arrived there at nine o’clock in the morning, changed cars again. I went out and I found cars going to Wichita and Wellington. I arrived at Wellington half past three o’clock in the morning and stayed in the depot all night. Then in the morning I went to Wellington and I told a man that I wished a stage to go to Cheyenne agency, Indian Territory. The man said they had no stage this time to go to Cheyenne agency. Then I went back again in depot and stayed there five hours. [When the] train came I went in the cars to Caldwell. I got there about one and half PM. I saw a good many of the Cheyenne young men and women in Caldwell and I was very much delighted to see them. I did not know any of them because I have not seen them for five years. I stopped in Caldwell a few minutes with the Cheyenne young men and they spoke to me where I was going. I told them that I was going to Cheyenne and Arapahoe agency. Then after I was through, I took mail wagon to Cheyenne agency, Darlington.
I had arrived at Cheyenne and Arapahoe agency at ten o’clock AM. I was very much pleased to see my father, brothers, and sisters and uncles, cousins, and all my relatives. Also they were happy to see me. I stayed in Darlington three weeks. I rode horse every day and I traveled all around the Indian camps when I stayed there I was very tired. All the Cheyenne chiefs and young men, I spoke to them about the good ways of the whites. I told them all about the Indian children at Carlisle Barracks, PA. I told them what they had learned here at school and at work. All the Cheyenne chiefs were very glad to hear that Capt. Pratt has taken good care of the Indian children here. All the Cheyenne chiefs and Arapahoe chiefs they thought Capt. Pratt a great and good man. I told them Capt. Pratt is a great man and I know his heart is true and faithful. I asked all the chiefs for the children to come here to Carlisle school. The North Cheyenne do not want to send the children to school here. But some Cheyenne and Arapahoe [were] kind to me and gave me twenty-one Cheyenne children and ten Arapahoe children to bring to this school. If I did not go down to Cheyenne agency, John D. Miles could not get the children to bring to Carlisle Barracks. Some Cheyenne do not want their children to come here to school. September sixth I came back here. I was very glad to see Carlisle Barracks and all my friends, the white people and different tribes of the Indian children. Under the instruction of Mr. Curtin who will try very hard to teach me to make tinware as soon as possible, I will then go home and open a business for myself at Indian Territory and prove to the Indians or to those opposed to Indian advancement that Capt. Pratt and his Training School has accomplished something and will accomplish more with proper encouragement and interest from those what are or ought to be most deeply interested.3
I will now endeavor to tell you of my experiences and travels from the time I was taken to Florida up to the present day.
It is very warm weather at the South, in wintertime it is not very cold and they have no snowing there. I often judge by Florida and St. Augustine, because I had commenced to find good friends there, all the white people in St. Augustine. When we stayed there, some time they told us they were very sorry and felt our hearts sadness. But Capt. R. H. Pratt helped us to support our sad hearts and took us away from all sadness and bad thoughts and sinners. He can show to us our hearts properly and he is anxious to make Indian men do right and guide them in the right way and he taught them all about the good ways of the whites. We promise to listen to Capt. R. H. Pratt to what is said. [We] stayed in prison there three years and we had no school, but Capt. Pratt showed us ABC and now we understand these letters. We did not know how to spell anything. It is not bad we stayed in prison three years there. But [we] have certainly been much benefited. We stayed altogether in Fort Marion. The white people call Indians Florida boys.4 Capt. Pratt had two small boats for Indians to go out on the ocean hunting birds and fishing. They caught very large sea fishes. Sometimes we rode in sail boat beyond St. Augustine about eighteen or twenty miles to camp, hunt and fish and swim in the ocean. We lived in tents like soldiers. We made bows and arrows and we were seeking for sea beans near ocean beach and we obtained lots of them and brought them to Fort Marion and we polished them and after necessary polishing, we sold them and bows and arrows also. And we drew Indian pictures for the white people who visited Fort Marion and they bought sea beans, bows and arrows, and pictures.5 Indians sold sea beans each at twenty five cents and bows and arrows one dollar and a half. Some two dollars and a half and best bows and arrows for five dollars. I commenced to learn how to row a boat there and some Florida boys learned very well. All the Florida boys commenced to learn to say Capt. Pratt when we anxious something to buy went in Capt. Pratt’s office and asked him if we could go down town to St. Augustine and he would say all right and he would give them the pass to St. Augustine.6
Capt. Pratt supported all the Florida boys in St. Augustine and he procured for the Indians everything. All the Indians were very glad and we like Capt. Pratt very much because he is a great good man and his heart is weight. They had a meeting in Ft. Marion every Monday evening to pray to God to guide us in the right way. We had very pleasant time the 4th of July in St. Augustine also in the middle of the winter we had more jolly times at Christmas day. We had shooting with bows and arrows the best shoot received three dollars and a half and some of them foot racing and who beat running got three dollar and a half. Capt. Pratt taught me, and I kept persevering and remember what he taught me in St. Augustine. After three years twenty-two young men desired to be educated at Normal Institute, at Hampton Virginia and some went to school in Syracuse New York, and some of them in Tarrytown NY. Then came a Hampton boat to St. Augustine and all the Florida boys went on steamboat and went to Hampton Normal School. Two Kiowa boys and I stayed in St. Augustine. Then after a while we rode in the cars and we came to a very small town and we took steamboat to Jacksonville and stopped there all night. Then in the morning we went on a steamboat to Savannah and arrived there at about six o’clock a.m. and we stayed one or three hours. We then took another large steamboat for New York and crossed the Atlantic Ocean three nights and three days we travelled on the ocean. I couldn’t see any land where I looked to the south and east and west. I thought the steamboat would drop beneath the waves but it did not drop. I was scared very much and I was very seasick on the ocean. I laid down all the time and I could not eat breakfasts, dinners or suppers. We arrived at New York City at evening about six o’clock and we go out and went in carriage and go to Depot and we stayed there a few minutes. Then we rode in the cars and go up the Hudson River and reached Tarrytown in the night and we rode in carriage to Dr. Caruthers’ house and sat down around table. We ate supper. That time I was very lazy because that I had been very seasick and felt very tired. After a few days I got strong again and well. I thought that perhaps I never was to see Capt. Pratt again but after a month he arrived at Tarrytown to see those three boys who was there. I was much pleased to see him once again and he stayed with us only one day. He said to us he would visit Hampton and see more of the Florida boys that [were] in Normal School before he went away. He wanted me to write to him and after he went away I wrote him a letter.7
He didn’t reply to my letter and I did not hear from him but he went out west and when [he] came back to Washington then he obtained my letter and he replied immediately and said in his letter, he wanted me and the other boys to go to Hampton School but I didn’t like to go to Hampton I wanted to stayed at Tarrytown, New York. I started to Hampton and we arrived at New York City a.m. and saw a great many of the white people in New York. We had a very pleasant time just the same as the 4th of July 1878, at Dr. Deems house we had dinner who is my friend, then after dinner I had to shake hands with him and also his family and I bid them good-bye. Then we went in a steamer and stayed a little while. Then the steamer left at half past three o’clock p.m. one night and one day we went on the ocean. We arrived at Norfolk near five o’clock p.m.
We took another steamer and went to Hampton. We arrived at the Fort in the night. We went in carriage to Hampton about a mile and a half from the Port. By permission we went through the cornfield and Capt. Pratt told us that this field and the other fields were all worked in by the Florida boys plowing and hoeing every day. We arrived at General Armstrong’s house and got out of the carriage and went to where the Florida boys stayed in two houses. I was very much delighted to see my Florida friends again and we shook hands with them all. Then we went into the room and stayed all together and they told me all about what they had been doing at Hampton Institute. We said that it is very hard toiling every day. We had hard work all the summer, learning how to work on the farm. The Normal School opened at Hampton on the first of October. Then we went to school every morning and afternoon and learned something every day and we worked very hard two days, in a week Friday and Saturday. One of the Kiowa boys learned very fast. His name is “Ki-e-sh-co-ly.” His English name is Hunting Boy. The rest of the Florida boys didn’t learn very fast. The reason that didn’t learn more rapidly was because some of them was too old to learn. We studied hard there one year and learned some thing every day in the spring. Capt. Pratt took several boys and went to Washington and saw President Hayes. He said he was very glad to see those boys. We stayed several days at the Smithsonian Institute and then returned to Hampton, Virginia and at the desire of Capt. Pratt and General Armstrong twelve of the Florida boys went to a small town called Lee in the state of Massachusetts. We left Hampton after dinner and walked to the Fort to where the boat stopped and waited there about one hour and then took the steamboat to Norfolk. We arrived there about half past 4 o’clock p.m.8
We then took another steamer for New York where we arrived safely. Capt. Romayn went with the boys to Norfolk and when we got out there he said to the boys, Capt. Pratt will meet you in New York. After we shook hands and bid him goodbye, he said, boys I hope all of you will have a good time where you are journeying. Then he returned to Hampton Normal Institute. In the night at about nine o’clock, we took the steamer for New York and after one day and one night on the ocean traveling, we reached New York. Some of the boys were very seasick and I [was] too. Capt. Pratt met us in steamboat and he said, boys you sleep in the boat until morning and called the boys to get up and get ready to start a restaurant to get some breakfast, then we took a walk to Grand Central Depot and took the train to Lee. We arrived at Lee at half past two p.m. We got out and went in the carriage to different places. We stayed there all summer and learned mowing with scythe and milking and churning butter and worked every day for months and in October 1879, we left Lee and arrived here at Carlisle Barracks. We saw the Sioux boys and girls had to wear Indian clothes. The Florida boys did not like that kind of clothes. It looked like wild Indian people who had learned nothing but just play every day and night and punishing each other and fighting with sticks and hurting their bodies. But Capt. Pratt threw away old Indian clothes and he gave them new white man’s clothes and assisted them very patiently to make the boys and girls of different tribes go one way that is the right way the white man’s way.9 Now we are following the white man’s way and endeavoring to get [an] education and do something useful and teach the red man [to] avoid temptation. First I did not know anything about the white man’s ways. I am very happy now that I can be useful, polite, and love God. I do not say I am always polite and good because I don’t know sometimes when bad thoughts come or sin. But God will keep us from sin and he will aid us in the right way and I pray that he will bless all our benighted race and show them their error and at last lead us with the white man’s good way is the prayer of Henry C. Roman Nose.10