Unidentified Native American woman at piano · Forest Grove Indian School

You remember this ugly girl. But remember her hard work although she is ugly. One of your Dress-maker girl. in your sew room. Also musician &c.

Title: Unidentified Native American woman at piano
Description: Portrait of an unidentified Native American woman. She is sitting in front of a painted studio backdrop of a piano, and is holding a magazine or newspaper. She was likely a former student at the Forest Grove Indian Training School. The choice of props may have been intended to symbolize her education in reading and music. The back of the photograph includes a handwritten note by the subject, describing herself as an 'ugly girl' who worked hard, did dress-making, and was a musician. The note may have been addressed to Minerva 'Minnie' J. Walker, whose husband Samuel was the shoemaking instructor at the school (see a similar inscription on the back of another photograph, PUApic_008315). The photograph is a tintype, a format that was uncommon by the late 1880s, but which was cheap and easy to send in the mail.
Date: 1885-1895
Identifier: PUApic_008381.jpg
Subject: Off-reservation boarding schools; Native American Studies; Chemawa Indian School
Source: Forest Grove Indian School Collection, Pacific University Archives
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
Type: Still Image

Item sets: Pacific University Historic Photographs; The Forest Grove Indian Training School; Pacific University Archives DPLA

Media: https://exhibits.lib.pacificu.edu/files/original/edaa4042dbbd0705fd31918434a6ef5a.jpg; You remember this ugly girl. But remember her hard work although she is ugly. One of your Dress-maker girl. in your sew room. Also musician &c.