The Indian Training School in Forest Grove, Oregon, opened in 1880. The first pupils to arrive were children from the Puyallup Reservation in Washington Territory. Federal policies supported the use of Indian training schools to assimilate Native children into Euro-American culture. The school was directed by Capt. Melville C. Wilkinson, who was a strict enforcer of federal assimilation policies and a believer in manual labor training. Native children were brought from Washington Territory, Oregon, California, Alaska, and Idaho, and enrolled at the school, but were not welcomed by the community in Forest Grove. The community's response, coupled with damage to school buildings from a large fire, eventually led to the relocation of the school near Salem in 1885, where it was renamed the Chemawa Indian School.
This collection consists of 24 black and white photographic prints taken by Portland photographer I. G. Davidson. The photographs depict Native American students and grounds at the Indian Training School in Forest Grove, Oregon, circa 1882. Most photographs show groups of children posing; other images show the buildings and grounds at the school, as well as students engaged in blacksmithing, homemaking, carpentry, and shoemaking.
Some of the photographs have printed captions identifying Native children as being from the Spokane, Paiute, Wasco, and Alaska tribes.
Collection is open for research.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
Forest Grove Indian Training School photographs, Org. Lot 1408, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
One photograph gift of C. A. Duniway (Lib. Acc. 365); others were likely purchased by the Oregon Historical Society in 1900.
Related materials can be found in the Indian Training Schools photographs, Org. Lot 736, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.