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Chemawa Indian School research collection, 1879-2018

Overview of the Collection

Title
Chemawa Indian School research collection
Dates
1879-2018 (inclusive)
Quantity
6 linear feet, (6 boxes)
Collection Number
WUA128
Summary
The Chemawa Indian School research collection consists of original and photocopied records about the Chemawa Indian School, primarily compiled by SuAnn M. Reddick in the course of researching the history of the school. The collection also includes a large body of original photographs of Chemawa students and materials from the Chemawa Alumni Association.
Repository
Willamette University Archives and Special Collections
Archives and Special Collections
Mark O. Hatfield Library
900 State Street
Salem, OR
97301
Telephone: 5033706866
Fax: 5033706141
archives@willamette.edu
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to researchers.

Languages
Materials are in English.
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Historical Note

Chemawa Indian School, located just north of Salem, Oregon, is an accredited high school with grades nine through twelve. It is one of four remaining off-reservation boarding schools funded and operated by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Most of the students come from reservations and communities in the western United States, and some day students live in the Salem area. Enrollment at a BIE school requires membership in a federally recognized American Indian tribe or Alaska Native village.

Chemawa began in 1880 as the United States Indian Industrial and Training School on the campus of Pacific University at Forest Grove. The first eighteen "scholars" came from the Puyallup Reservation in Washington. By 1885, when the school moved to a new campus north of Salem, more than 300 children representing over forty tribes in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, and California had been enrolled at the school at Forest Grove. The new school was near a railroad station and post office named Chemawa, after one of the bands of the Kalapuya tribe that had lived in the area. Believing that the land would "belong to the Indians," students provided both money and labor to purchase the first parcel of land, but the deeds conveyed ownership to the United States. Initially known as the Salem Indian Industrial and Training School at Chemawa, and briefly dubbed the Harrison Institute, (after President W.H. Harrison), the institution eventually became known as Chemawa Indian School.

In the early years, children were forcibly removed from their families to be sent to boarding schools, and there are many accounts of abuse and neglect. Studies on the impact of the boarding-school movement reveal that Indian families still suffer the consequences of the government's assimilation programs. Boarding schools were also unintended models for cultural diversity and one of the vehicles for the persistence of Native identity. At Chemawa and similar institutions, children of many tribes were brought together. They united against school authorities, formed many lasting "Pan-Indian" friendships, and often sent their children and grandchildren to Chemawa.

Chemawa offered twelve grades by 1926. The next year, enrollment reached 1,100 pupils, although the recommended capacity was about half that number. Today the student body is between 300 and 400. By 1947, the school plant totaled 457 acres, with a landscaped campus, 35 acres of fruit trees, and a large farm where students raised chickens and pigs and operated a dairy. There were one hundred buildings, including administrative, academic, vocational, residential, and farm structures. In 1907, a hospital was built to serve the students and local Native people, particularly during the tuberculosis epidemic. The hospital burned in 1995, but the school cemetery still remains. Most of the more than 200 graves were for students—many Alaskans—who died from tuberculosis and the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. As the Salem region grew, interstate and local highway expansion reduced the campus to less than 300 acres. In the 1970s, the original school buildings were demolished and a new campus complex was constructed. An Indian Health facility was also built. In 2009, construction began on a new dormitory to house 400 students.

Information from Reddick, SuAnn, "Chemawa Indian School," Oregon Encyclopedia. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/chemawa_indian_boarding_school/

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Historical Note

SuAnn Murray Reddick is an independent historian whose work has focused on Chemawa Indian School, the campus land and cemetery, and Pacific Northwest Native lands and treaties. With Cary Collins, she has published articles on these subjects in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, and the Pacific Northwest Quarterly. Reddick volunteered as historian at Chemawa between 1996 and 2011. She is currently writing the history of Chemawa land and continues to advocate for the campus land to be placed in Trust to benefit the tribes whose children attended the school. She has shared her findings on the school land history with the many alumni, ATNI, NCAI, tribal councils, legislators, local civic groups and other researchers. Since 2000, with the help of the late Richard Reed, archivist at Pacific University, Cary Collins, John T. Campbell, Eva Guggemos, and many others, she has compiled a comprehensive list of Chemawa children and others buried at the school cemetery, including names of those who may be in unmarked graves.

Her publications include:

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Content Description

The Chemawa Indian School research collection consists of original and photocopied records about the Chemawa Indian School, primarily compiled by SuAnn M. Reddick in the course of researching the history of the school. The majority of these records are found in Series I, Research and correspondence. The records primarily pertain to the identities of students at Chemawa, and many were copied from other archival repositories such as the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Oregon Historical Society, the Oregon State Library, and from personal collections. Most were collected during a project identifying those people buried in the Chemawa Cemetery. Series I also includes correspondence and Reddick's research notes and preliminary findings from the cemetery project. Series II, Publications, consists mainly of materials published by the Chemawa Indian School, as well as other publications Reddick collected in the course of her research. The series also includes some of Reddick's published historical writings about Chemawa. Series III, Audiovisual materials and memorabilia, is predominantly photographs of Chemawa students. The majority of the photographs are from the 1960s, and there are photographs from as early as the 1910s and as late as the 1980s. This series also includes some letter jacket patches, and interviews with Don Pigsley on audiocassette. Series IV, Chemawa Indian School Alumni Association, contains materials pertaining to Alumni Association activities, including reunions, primarily from the 1980s.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Chemawa Indian School research collection, Archives and Special Collections, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette University.

Restrictions on Use

Library acts as "fair use" reproduction agent.

For further information, see the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.

Copyright Information: Before material from collections at Willamette University Archives and Special Collections may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permission. Persons wishing to quote from materials in any collections held by University Archives and Special Collections should consult the University Archivist. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into four series: I. Research and correspondence; II. Publications; III. Audiovisual materials and memorabilia; and IV. Chemawa Indian School Alumni Association.

Location of Collection

Mark O. Hatfield Library

Custodial History

This collection consists primarily of research materials compiled by SuAnn M. Reddick, with the intention that Willamette University would "assure preservation access to any interested scholars or Chemawa alumni or their families." Many of the materials were copied or collected by Reddick in the course of her research into the history of land use at Chemawa, especially the school cemetery. These materials come from other archival repositories, especially the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Oregon Historical Society, and the Oregon State Library, as well as from private collections. Reddick anticipated that this collection would support future research projects by her and others, including linking the existing collection to outside sources to facilitate online research on the school and its students, compiling a searchable database on the students buried in the Chemawa Cemetery, gathering and consolidating historical and legal records that support trust status for the entire Chemawa Campus, and authoring a history of the school land. Some materials were given to Reddick by various Chemawa alumni, expressly for inclusion in this collection. The Chemawa Indian School Alumni Association materials were given by Robert Thomas, a member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa who was an alumnus of Chemawa and the printer for the Chemawa American. The audiocassettes of interviews with Don Pigsley were given by Pigsley himself. Additional materials were given by Ed Bartlett. The Chemawa and Willamette University Tutoring Program oral history transcripts were given by Janet Lorenzen.

Processing Note

This collection underwent folder-level processing and description. Photocopied records from other repositories were kept, because this collection pulls them together in a meaningful way and includes material that makes those connections explicit (in the form of notes, charts, and spreadsheets). Duplicative material (primarily publications) was discarded, keeping one or two copies of each item. Photographic prints and negatives were placed in archival sleeves, cutting negative strips to fit, if necessary. Scrapbooks that only held photographs (rather than including additional information about the photographs) were dismantled. The remaining photograph scrapbook was interleaved.

Related Materials

Additional materials on the Chemawa Indian School in the Willamette University Archives can be found in the Charles E. Larsen Chemawa Indian School collection (WUA068).

Additional information and conclusions from Reddick's research in the Chemawa Cemetery can be found on this exhibit site, hosted by the Pacific University Archives.

The official records of the Chemawa Indian School are held in Record Group 75 at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which has a guide to accessing them.

Separated Materials

Original issues of the Chemawa American were removed from the collection to be catalogued with other issues already held by the Library. They can be found in the library catalogue.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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Corporate Names

Elizabeth Peters
2021

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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