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.
