Chemawa Indian School
Encyclopedia
Chemawa Indian School is a Native American
boarding school
in Salem, Oregon
, United States
. It was opened on February 25, 1880 as an elementary school, but as of 2005, served ninth through twelfth grades. It is sometimes referred to as Chemawa High School. The Chemawa Indian School is the oldest continuously operating Native American boarding school in the United States and numbers its graduates in the thousands. Former names for the school include United States Indian Training and Normal School, Salem Indian Industrial and Training School and Harrison Institute.
The history of the Chemawa Indian School dates back to the 1870s when the U.S. Government, based on the theories of Captain (later Brigadier General) Richard Henry Pratt
, authorized a school for Native American
children in the Pacific Northwest
region of the United States
. It was the second such school, after the Carlisle Indian School near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
. Pratt's philosophy was to integrate the Native American population into general society through education. This contrasted to the earlier philosophy, which assumed that Indians were inherently different from whites, and that no education could "civilize" them. The schools founded under Pratt's influence were deliberately located far from Indian reservation
s, in order to separate the students from traditional ways of life.
A site was chosen at Forest Grove, Oregon
on four acres (16,000 m²) of land rented from Pacific University
. Lieutenant
Melville Wilkinson, a member of the United States Army
and Secretary
to General
O.O. Howard, was in charge of the project. $5,000 was provided to start the school. Lt. Wilkinson, with the help of eight Puyallup
Indian boys began construction on the buildings in 1880. The initial class of students consisted of fourteen boys and four girls. All the students came from the State of Washington, seventeen of them from the Puyallup Indian reservation
on Puget Sound
and one boy from the Nisqually
Indian reservation
. These students were taught blacksmithing, shoemaking
, carpentry
, wagon
making, girl's industries, and advancement in studies.
Prior to 1883, the United States Congress
planned to appropriate a larger amount of funds for the Chemawa Indian School. Several factors led to the search for a new site for the school, including local resistance to the school, a need for more land to teach farming skills, and the destruction of the girl's dormitory
by fire
in 1884.
At this point, officials looked at the temporary leased nature of the land, as well as the poor drainage, and began considering alternative sites around the Willamette Valley
. Three sites were donated for the new school. Newberg, Oregon
offered 100 acres (400,000 m²) of heavily timbered land, 23 acre
s (93,000 m²) near Forest Grove, Oregon
with a pasture
parcel of 75 acres (304,000 m²) approximately four miles (6 km) away from the main site, and 171 acres (692,000 m²) partially cleared, sparsely timbered land in Salem, Oregon
, served by a spur of the main railroad through the Willamette Valley. School
officials chose the Salem site since it was close to Oregon's Capital and had the most land.
In 1885, the school moved to the site five miles (8 km) north of Salem, Oregon and began construction. The first buildings were made of wood, and were later razed to make way for more permanent brick
structures. On June 1, 1885, the Chemawa Indian School was opened with approximately half of the students moving to the new location and half staying behind in Forest Grove, Oregon. On October 1, 1885, Mr. John Lee became superintendent of Chemawa Indian School (then known as Salem Indian Training School). After a winter of separation, and after staff and students finished construction on three new buildings on the campus, he withdrew the remaining students from Forest Grove, Oregon and reunited them all on the Salem, Oregon campus.
The first graduating class completed the sixth grade in 1886. Subsequently, courses were added through the tenth grade. In 1900, the school had 453 students, the largest of its kind in Oregon with a federal budget of $57,182.62. The emphasis at that time was on vocational education
.
The 1913 report lists farming as one of the major areas of training. Dairy farming
, animal husbandry
, and other farm methods provided food which was preserved by the students for later use. A school library
provided reading material and students could participate in basketball
, baseball
, and American football
. There were 690 students enrolled with 175 Alaskan children.
By 1922, there were 70 buildings on the 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) campus. Most of the buildings were wood frame, but some of the newer ones were of brick construction. The land area of the school had grown to 426 acres (1.7 km²). Some of the land had been purchased by Native American students and given to the school as a token of their gratitude, with the money earned by picking hops
.
The year 1926 saw the peak enrollment at Chemawa with almost 1,000 students enrolled. 11th and 12th grades were added to the curriculum and all grades below 6th were dropped. In 1927, Chemawa became a fully accredited high school.
the school was threatened with closure in the early 1930s, as an economy move due to the Great Depression
. Interested journalist
s and Oregon's delegation to the U.S. Congress lobbied with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to keep it open, and it continued with 300 students.
Lawney Reyes
, who attended the school in 1940–1942 (as did his sister, Luana Reyes
), devotes two chapters of his memoir White Grizzly Bear's Legacy: Learning to be Indian to his experiences there. He wrote that his consciousness of being "Indian" was largely formed through his conversations there with other students.
He also wrote:
The 1940s and 1950s brought other changes, including a special program for Navajo Nation
students and changes in policy to bring back Pacific Northwest
students, particularly those from Alaska
. In the late 1970s, Chemawa moved to a new campus on adjacent land, with most of the original brick buildings being destroyed.
-style hospital and four other structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP) as the Chemawa Indian School Site in 1992. The buildings were remnants of the original brick buildings on the school's "old campus", most of which were demolished when the school moved to the adjacent "new campus" in the late 1970s. As of 2009, it is unknown whether any of the historic buildings still exist. The Chemawa Cemetery may be the only part of the old campus still intact.
since 1971.
, a private liberal arts college in Salem. Willamette undergraduates, along with Chemawa peer tutors, provide tutoring four nights per week on the Chemawa campus.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in Salem, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was opened on February 25, 1880 as an elementary school, but as of 2005, served ninth through twelfth grades. It is sometimes referred to as Chemawa High School. The Chemawa Indian School is the oldest continuously operating Native American boarding school in the United States and numbers its graduates in the thousands. Former names for the school include United States Indian Training and Normal School, Salem Indian Industrial and Training School and Harrison Institute.
History
Richard Henry Pratt
Richard Henry Pratt is best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.-Military career:...
, authorized a school for Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
children in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
region of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was the second such school, after the Carlisle Indian School near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
. Pratt's philosophy was to integrate the Native American population into general society through education. This contrasted to the earlier philosophy, which assumed that Indians were inherently different from whites, and that no education could "civilize" them. The schools founded under Pratt's influence were deliberately located far from Indian reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
s, in order to separate the students from traditional ways of life.
A site was chosen at Forest Grove, Oregon
Forest Grove, Oregon
Forest Grove is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, west of Portland. Originally a small farm town, it is now primarily a bedroom suburb of Portland. Settled in the 1840s, the town was platted in 1850 and then incorporated in 1872 and was the first city in Washington County...
on four acres (16,000 m²) of land rented from Pacific University
Pacific University
Pacific University is a private university located in Oregon, United States. The first campus began more than 160 years ago and is located about 38 km west of Portland in Forest Grove...
. Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Melville Wilkinson, a member of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and Secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
to General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
O.O. Howard, was in charge of the project. $5,000 was provided to start the school. Lt. Wilkinson, with the help of eight Puyallup
Puyallup (tribe)
The Puyallup are a Coast Salish Native American tribe from western Washington state, U.S.A. They were forcibly relocated onto reservation lands in what is today Tacoma, Washington, in late 1854, after signing the Treaty of Medicine Creek. The Puyallup Indian Reservation today is one of the most...
Indian boys began construction on the buildings in 1880. The initial class of students consisted of fourteen boys and four girls. All the students came from the State of Washington, seventeen of them from the Puyallup Indian reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
on Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
and one boy from the Nisqually
Nisqually (tribe)
Nisqually is a Lushootseed Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. The tribe lives on a reservation in the Nisqually River valley near the river delta. The Nisqually Indian Reservation, at , comprises 20.602 km² of land area on both sides of the river, in...
Indian reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
. These students were taught blacksmithing, shoemaking
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
, carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, wagon
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
making, girl's industries, and advancement in studies.
Prior to 1883, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
planned to appropriate a larger amount of funds for the Chemawa Indian School. Several factors led to the search for a new site for the school, including local resistance to the school, a need for more land to teach farming skills, and the destruction of the girl's dormitory
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
by fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
in 1884.
At this point, officials looked at the temporary leased nature of the land, as well as the poor drainage, and began considering alternative sites around the Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
. Three sites were donated for the new school. Newberg, Oregon
Newberg, Oregon
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 18,064 people, 6,099 households, and 4,348 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,599.4 people per square mile . There were 6,435 housing units at an average density of 1,282.2 per square mile...
offered 100 acres (400,000 m²) of heavily timbered land, 23 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (93,000 m²) near Forest Grove, Oregon
Forest Grove, Oregon
Forest Grove is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, west of Portland. Originally a small farm town, it is now primarily a bedroom suburb of Portland. Settled in the 1840s, the town was platted in 1850 and then incorporated in 1872 and was the first city in Washington County...
with a pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
parcel of 75 acres (304,000 m²) approximately four miles (6 km) away from the main site, and 171 acres (692,000 m²) partially cleared, sparsely timbered land in Salem, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
, served by a spur of the main railroad through the Willamette Valley. School
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
officials chose the Salem site since it was close to Oregon's Capital and had the most land.
In 1885, the school moved to the site five miles (8 km) north of Salem, Oregon and began construction. The first buildings were made of wood, and were later razed to make way for more permanent brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
structures. On June 1, 1885, the Chemawa Indian School was opened with approximately half of the students moving to the new location and half staying behind in Forest Grove, Oregon. On October 1, 1885, Mr. John Lee became superintendent of Chemawa Indian School (then known as Salem Indian Training School). After a winter of separation, and after staff and students finished construction on three new buildings on the campus, he withdrew the remaining students from Forest Grove, Oregon and reunited them all on the Salem, Oregon campus.
The first graduating class completed the sixth grade in 1886. Subsequently, courses were added through the tenth grade. In 1900, the school had 453 students, the largest of its kind in Oregon with a federal budget of $57,182.62. The emphasis at that time was on vocational education
Vocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...
.
The 1913 report lists farming as one of the major areas of training. Dairy farming
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
, animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
, and other farm methods provided food which was preserved by the students for later use. A school library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
provided reading material and students could participate in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, and American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
. There were 690 students enrolled with 175 Alaskan children.
By 1922, there were 70 buildings on the 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) campus. Most of the buildings were wood frame, but some of the newer ones were of brick construction. The land area of the school had grown to 426 acres (1.7 km²). Some of the land had been purchased by Native American students and given to the school as a token of their gratitude, with the money earned by picking hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
.
The year 1926 saw the peak enrollment at Chemawa with almost 1,000 students enrolled. 11th and 12th grades were added to the curriculum and all grades below 6th were dropped. In 1927, Chemawa became a fully accredited high school.
the school was threatened with closure in the early 1930s, as an economy move due to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Interested journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s and Oregon's delegation to the U.S. Congress lobbied with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to keep it open, and it continued with 300 students.
Lawney Reyes
Lawney Reyes
Lawney L. Reyes is an American Indian artist, curator and memoirist.-Life:Reyes' mother, born Mary Christian, was Sin Aikst ; his father, Julian Reyes, was Filipino, but had largely assimilated to an Indian way...
, who attended the school in 1940–1942 (as did his sister, Luana Reyes
Luana Reyes
Luana Reyes ) was an American Indian health care administrator. As executive director of the Seattle Indian Health Board 1972–1982, she grew that institution from a staff of five to nearly 200 and made it a model for urban Indian institutions; subsequently, she worked for the federal Indian Health...
), devotes two chapters of his memoir White Grizzly Bear's Legacy: Learning to be Indian to his experiences there. He wrote that his consciousness of being "Indian" was largely formed through his conversations there with other students.
He also wrote:
I did not experience any harsh restraint against Indian culture or tradition at Chemewa. Generations of Indians before me had already felt the full force of that practice. I learned that in earlier years, speaking the Indian language had been forbidden. White authority had dealt harshly with Indian dancing, singing, and drumming. Students were not allowed to braid their hair or wear any ornaments with Indian design motifs. During my time, efforts to teach the white way were still in force, but attempts to abolish or restrain Indian culture were past. The practice of Indian culture, however, was not encouraged or discussed.
The 1940s and 1950s brought other changes, including a special program for Navajo Nation
Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
students and changes in policy to bring back Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
students, particularly those from Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. In the late 1970s, Chemawa moved to a new campus on adjacent land, with most of the original brick buildings being destroyed.
National Register of Historic Places
The school's Colonial RevivalColonial Revival architecture
The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
-style hospital and four other structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
(NRHP) as the Chemawa Indian School Site in 1992. The buildings were remnants of the original brick buildings on the school's "old campus", most of which were demolished when the school moved to the adjacent "new campus" in the late 1970s. As of 2009, it is unknown whether any of the historic buildings still exist. The Chemawa Cemetery may be the only part of the old campus still intact.
Academics
Chemawa Indian School has been accredited through Northwest Association of Accredited SchoolsNorthwest Association of Accredited Schools
The Northwest Accreditation Commission , formerly named the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, is an organization based in Boise, Idaho which accredits a variety of schools, including K-12, elementary, middle, and high schools; schools offering distance education; non-degree-granting...
since 1971.
Notable alumni
- Bob GreeneBob Greene (Makah)Robert "Bob" Greene Sr. was an American Makah elder. Greene was the oldest living Makah man and the second-to-last surviving Makah veteran of World War II at the time of his death in 2010...
- Makah elder and second-to-last surviving Makah veteranVeteranA veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
of World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. - Spade CooleySpade CooleyDonnell Clyde Cooley , better known as Spade Cooley, was an American Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality...
- bandleader, "King of Western Swing"
2003 student death
Chemawa Indian School was involved in a controversy regarding the December 2003 death of a student who died of alcohol poisoning after she was locked in a cell while intoxicated. The controversy launched a probe by the US government.Partnership with Willamette University
In 2005, Chemawa Indian School formed a partnership with Willamette UniversityWillamette University
Willamette University is an American private institution of higher learning located in Salem, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest university in the Western United States. Willamette is a member of the Annapolis Group of colleges, and is made up of an undergraduate College of Liberal Arts and...
, a private liberal arts college in Salem. Willamette undergraduates, along with Chemawa peer tutors, provide tutoring four nights per week on the Chemawa campus.
External links
- Historic images of Chemawa Indian School and Chemawa, Oregon railroad station from Salem Public Library
- Historic portrait of boys in military uniform at Chemawa Indian School, date unknown, from the University of OregonUniversity of Oregon-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
digital collections - Oregon State Library digital photo collections has approximately 50 historic photos of Chemawa (search on "Chemawa")
- "Investigative Report on the Chemawa Indian School Detention Facility" from the Department of the Interior, Office of Inspector General
- Friends of Marion County: Minutes of General Meeting, 15th March, 2006, including presentation by Chemawa historian SuAnn Reddick
- Carolyn J. Marr, "Assimilation Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in the Pacific Northwest" from the University of WashingtonUniversity of WashingtonUniversity of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
Libraries - Pringle Creek Watershed Assessment includes extensive history of Chemawa tribe and Chemawa Indian School