150228 One Big Family

150228 One Big Family

Author: Bennett, Addison

Year: 1915

"One Big Family: Descendants of Once Warlike Race Study and Play as Wards of the Government Under Kindly Yet Stern Leadership of H.E. Wadsworth.'' by Addison Bennett Brief flyby review of life at Salem Indian Training School (Chemawa Indian School), located 4.5 miles north of Salem, Oregon. Established in Forest Grove, Oregon, in February 1880, the school was the second boarding school for Native Americans established by the US government in the United States and attempted to culturally assimilate, educate, and train its pupils in agriculture, industrial arts, carpentry, or as homemakers. This article, which was published in the Portland Sunday Oregonian of February 28, 1915, was quoted approvingly and at length in the March 1915 issue of the Chemawa American, official monthly magazine of the Chemawa school. The article indicates that Chemawa stood as one of the "Big Six" non-reservation Indian Schools operated by the US government, together with schools at Carlisle, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Riverside, CA; Chillocea, OK; and Lawrence, KS. There were 643 pupils (372 boys, 271 girls) at the time of this writing, with a staff of 51, 13 of whom were themselves Native American. ======= Publishe