Now that your journey through Ellen's life is over, reflect on what you learned. What were the hardest parts about this exercise? What were your favorite parts? Now that you have read multiple primary source documents about Ellen, including two letters that she wrote, what more would you like to learn?
Ellen was one of many Native Americans educated at the Carlisle Indian School. She began her life there already as an outsider, as a "half-breed" who was unwanted by one of the recruitment agents. At Carlisle, she was able to "learn the ways of the white man," as she put it herself, and then used that knowledge after her graduation to make a living for herself and her family. She took an interest in the plight of fellow indigenous groups, and used her knowledge and connections to help them. Do you think Ellen followed the advice given by Lippincott in 1898 to "let all that is Indian within you die?"