Cover letter from an archivist at the National Archives regarding copies of records on deaths and illnesses at Chemawa Indian School (see PUA_MS27_X.pdf). The letter is addressed to to Cynthia Straughn, a Pacific University student who was researching the Indian Training School.
Letter from the National Archives to Cynthia Straughn, a Pacific University student who was researching the Indian Training School. The letter describes student rosters and mentions that other records pertaining to the school were destroyed by water damage.
A letter from Hiram Price, a commissioner within the United States Department of the Interior, addressed to George H. Atkinson, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees at Pacific University. The letter discusses recent decisions made by the Secretary of the Interior regarding the location of the Indian Training School. He states that the land that had been offered thus far as a permanent site for the school was not suitable. He implies that the school will be relocated away from Forest Grove unless better land is donated.
A letter from Samuel Jordan Kirkwood of the United States Department of the Interior, addressed to George H. Atkinson, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees at Pacific University. It endorses a continuing relationship between Pacific University trustees and the Indian Training School.
A letter from Carl Shurz of the United States Department of the Interior, addressed to George H. Atkinson, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees at Pacific University. The letter acknowledges having received a report on the Indian Training School in Forest Grove. This letter dates from the first year when the school was in operation.
A letter from Carl Shurz of the United States Department of the Interior, addressed to George H. Atkinson, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees at Pacific University. The letter dates from January, 1880, several weeks before the school admitted its first students. It acknowledges the interest and support that Pacific's trustees have given to the aims of the school.
The 1884 diary of Samuel A. T. Walker (also known as "Saturday Sam" Walker), a resident of Forest Grove, Oregon. He was a shoemaker by trade with a significant side business as a fiddler at dances. At the time he was writing this diary, he was the shoemaking instructor at the Forest Grove Indian School. The diary has brief summaries of his daily activities, often just 1-3 sentences long. It provides insight into the everyday work done by Native students at the school. The diary is written into a blank booklet that was given away as a promotional freebie by Alanson 'Lant' Hinman Jr., who was selling insurance at the time.
A letter by an employee of the Warm Springs Indian Agency, Cyrus Walker, to his wife Mary Wheeler Walker. On the second page of the letter, he describes the fate of the children who had been sent from Warm Springs to the Forest Grove Indian School and its successor, Chemawa Indian School, between 1880-1890. "I have been at work making out a list of all the Indian children that have been sent to Forest Grove and Chemawa, when they went, when returned, for what cause, when died of those dead, present place of residence & health." The list itself is not attached, but he does provide a compilation of the figures, e.g. "Died 22. Graduated 8." He says that of the 35 who were originally sent to the Forest Grove Indian School campus, 14 either died at school or died soon after being sent home. Overall, a third of the children who had been sent to Forest Grove and Chemawa up through 1890 died at the school or soon after being sent home.
Cyrus Walker was the oldest son of the early Oregon Territory missionaries Elkanah and Mary Richardson Walker. He grew up at Tshimakain in the 1830s-40s, where he learned the native Spokane language. After joining the U.S. army during the Civil War and then attempting to make a living as a farmer, he became a teacher at the Warm Springs Indian Agency. These letters, documents and clippings shed light on his experiences as a missionary, a soldier, a pioneer and a teacher at Warm Springs. This collection was donated to Pacific University by Betty Thorne, a descendant of the Walkers.
A portrait of Peter Kalama, a former student of the Forest Grove Indian Training School, with his family. Peter was of Nisqually and Native Hawaiian ancestry. The woman is most likely his first wife, Lillie Pitt, a Warm Springs woman who also graduated from the Forest Grove Indian School. This photograph was probably taken on the Warm Springs Reservation, where the Kalama Family lived for many years. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph states that this photograph was given by the estate of Charles L. Walker to Pacific University in 1949. Charles L. Walker was the son of Samuel A. T. Walker, the shoemaking instructor at the Forest Grove Indian School in the early 1880s.
A portrait of G. W. Hutchinson, M. D., originally of Jamestown, Missouri. At the time that this photograph was taken at the W. P. Johnson Photography Studio in Salem, Hutchinson was serving as the School Physician for the Chemawa Indian School (see: Official Register of the United States. Washington: GPO, 1887. Vol. 1: p. 575). This photo was originally found with material relating to the Samuel A. T. Walker Family. The Walkers also worked at the Indian School.
A portrait of an unidentified Native American girl, most likely a student at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem. The photograph was taken by the W. P. Johnson studio in Salem, which was active from 1886-1888 (See: Robinson, Oregon Photographers, 1993, p. 394). It is dated November 11, 1886 on the back. The photo was found with material relating to the Samuel A.T. & Belle Walker family.
Four men dressed as cowboys, identified on the back of the photograph from left-to-right as: Albert Tozier, Henry Sicade, Ben Martin, and James Hopkins. Sicade was a notable member of the Puyallup Tribe. He entered the Forest Grove Indian School in 1880 before enrolling in regular high school classes at Tualatin Academy nearby around 1883. Later in life, he went on to found an integrated public school system in Fife, WA, near the Puyallup Reservation. Albert Tozier was also notable: He later became the editor of several newspapers in Washington County, Oregon. At the time that this photograph was created, the four young men had taken on work as cowboys and traveled together across the country. This studio portrait was made in Geneva, New York, in 1886.
An outdoor portrait taken in 1881 or 1882 of twelve male students from the Puyallup tribal agency who were attending the Forest Grove Indian School. Those pictured appear to be from the first group of students from Puyallup who were admitted to the school on February 25, 1880. Notes penciled on the back of the photograph identify several of them as: Augustus Kautz; Nugen Kautz; David Brewer; Henry Sicade; Peter Kalama; and Jerry Meeker. The Kautz brothers are the two standing in the back row, wearing similar darker-colored suits. A descendant has also identified Samuel "Spott" McCaw as the student sitting furthest left on the bottom row.
The remaining students probably include five of the other seven boys who were admitted in the same cohort from Puyallup: Charles Ashue, Samuel Ashue, Edward Richard, Andrew Richard, Peter Stanup, Harry Taylor, and Willie Wilton.
The back appears to be signed by Henry Sicade, who was one of the most successful former students of the school. This copy is water-damaged. This portrait was taken on the grounds of the Forest Grove Indian School by a photographer from the I.G. Davidson Studio, whose office was in Portland. It is part of a series of photographs of the school that were shot, sold and distributed by the Davidson Studio, with a portion of the sales going to support the school.
