Carlisle, Cumberland Co., PA, was named after Carlisle, England, which was the former "county town" of Cumberland, one of the early English shires, or counties. Thus, the town and county in PA found their direct antecedents in the "mother country." The Act of 1974 altered the county boundaries for many English counties, eliminated some entirely, and created a few amalgams of previous counties. Carlisle is now in Cumbria, made up of the old shires of Cumberland and Westmoreland, as well as parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Like Cumberland before it, Cumbria is one of the most northern of English counties, situated along the Scottish border along with Northumberland (county town Durham). It can get a bit confusing, as Parliament in the interim has restored a little of what was lost in 1974, i.e. the return of Rutland! As to your question about the Carlisle Indian School, I'll copy and paste the opening paragraph from the article available on Wikipedia (just Google "Carlisle Indian School Wikipedia", and you'll get the proper link). I'd recommend reading the entire piece, as it's an easy to understand summation of its history. First, though, the opening paragraph: Carlisle Indian Industrial School, (1879 - 1918), in _Carlisle, Pennsylvania_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle,_Pennsylvania) , the first federally supported school for _Native Americans_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States) to be established off a _reservation_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_reservation) , was founded in _1879_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1879) by _Richard Henry Pratt_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Henry_Pratt) . Pratt had an intense distrust of the _Bureau of Indian Affairs_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Bureau_of_Indian_Affairs) , began to formulate a new school model based on the _Hampton Institute_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_University) . The first students arrived on _October 6_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_6) , 1879. Of the 15,000+ Indian children who attended the Carlisle school over its 39 year life span, almost all returned to the reservation; at the time, Indians were not generally permitted to live off of their reservation. Unfortunately, the skills they were taught at the school were difficult to employ on the reservations. Some of the returned students, much to Pratt's dismay, joined _Buffalo Bill Cody_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill) 's Wild West Show. Pratt disliked the Wild West shows and was upset that he was forced to share exhibition space with Cody at the _Columbian Exposition_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Columbian_Exposition) in 1893. Proud of the fine displays recognizing the stellar accomplishments of his Indian students, Pratt railed against the exploitation of Indians for show. Hope the above helps you out. David in Richmond, VA