The Hampton Institute near Williamsburg, Virginia, was founded during Reconstruction as a normal school for the industrial education of Blacks. In 1877, the school began a program to educate American Indians. Although only 1,388 Indian students attended the Institute during its history, it significantly influenced Indian policy and Indian education. The introductory chapter overviews the history of federal Indian policy and provides a brief biography of General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the founder and first principal of the Hampton Institute. The second chapter traces the growth of Armstrong's interest in Indians and its translation into an Indian program at Hampton despite objections from school officials, the school community, and Black students. Chapter 3 examines Armstrong's views on Indian reform that made him a major figure in the Indian assimilation movement of the late 19th century. The Indian program's role in sectional reconciliation and the effect of Black emancipation on Indian reform emerged as central to Armstrong's involving Hampton in Indian education. Chapters 4-7 examine the Institute's use of comparisons between Indians and Blacks to mold student behavior, the extent of segregation at Hampton, personal relations between Blacks and Indians at Hampton, and the contradiction between the Institute's policy of studying and preserving its students' cultures and its biased social studies curriculum. The last two chapters deal with changes over time within the Indian program and the diverse forces leading to its eventual collapse in 1923. The book concludes that Hampton staff established acculturated Blacks as role models and teachers for Indians, thereby defusing Black bitterness about the betrayal of Reconstruction's guarantees and fostering acceptance among American Indians of treaty abrogations that allowed White exploitation of Indian land. Contains over 200 references, chapter notes, photographs, and an index. (LP)