THE CHEM AW A AMERICAN
PAGE 2
The CHEMAWA AMERICAN
Published Weekly at the Salem Indian Training School
Chemawa. Oregon. Please address all communications to
Ruthyn Turney, Manager.
OSCAR H. LIPPS
SUBSCRIPTION
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Superintendent
50 Cts PER ANNUM
ATHLETIC NOTES
The life of our 1927 foothall season was brought to a sudden
end last Friday on account of the conditions at the school,
just as the squad was about to entrain for McMinnville and
Albany where the Varsity was to play Linfield College and
the Hotshots were to entertain the Albany College eleven.
No one can tell just what the outcome of those two games
would have been, but we dare say that both of our aggrega
tions stood an equal chance to come home with the long end
of the scores. Both of these teams are considered out of our
class, but then our varsity has stepped out of its class on more
than one occasion this fall to play their opponents to a
standstill. By holding the Oregon Agricultural College rook
team to a 7 to 0 score and playing the Willamette University
eleven to a 6-to-6 tie game the team showed it had consider
able offensive as well as unusual defensive power. It was
only a last minute drive that won for the Rooks and a lucky
break that enabled the Bearcats to tie our score.
In many respects our team resembles the undefeated eleven
of two years ago. That team assembled with no particular
stars to boast of and by hard work and co-operation went
through the season undefeated and with only one tie game
marked up against them. The season opened this fall with but
a poor skeleton of what remained of a successful aggregation.
Seven of its regulars were missing and the prospects were all
but bright. But again hard work and co-operation brought
reward and a team of young and inexperienced players de
veloped into one of speed, power and determination, and the
won, lost and tied games all considered, made a record of
which they can feel proud.
To fill the places left vacant by seven varsity members and
still maintain a high standard, especially with new men, is not
an easy task. It requires hard and continuous work as well as
a willingness to be taught on the part of all concerned. There
is not one bit of it that is easy. It is every bit a man’s work
—a “he” man’s job. It takes hours, and days and weeks,
months and even years sometimes to master the knack of ex
ecuting just the fundamentals of football. It requires intel
lectual ability and almost perfect muscle co-ordination to per
form like some football players do in a single game. And
that is never done until it has all been dearly paid for by end
less hours of practice and honest sweat. And those who filled
the shoes of Captain Ole Strom, Reginald and Charles De Poe,
Raymond Haldane, Coquille Thompson, Paul Ketahand Sedan
Thomas, all of last year’s varsity, had no small task to per
form. Reginald and Charles DePoe and Raymond Haldane
have already won for themselves regular berths on the Wil
lamette University eleven as well as a place in the hearts of
the Willamette student body and Salem townspeople. By
their excellent playing they have made their service invalu
able to the W. U. varsity. It was the good work of one of
those boys that staved off a Willamette defeat here just re
cently.
Coquille Thompson has made a most impressive record on
the O. A. C. Rook team and is today regarded as valuable
varsity timber for next fall. So, as has already been said, to
take the place of such as these was a man-size job. Yet in
George and Clifford Meachem, and Eldred George, ends; Er
nest Brunoe, tackle; Percy Rush and Cecil Stagner, centers,
and Peter Cimino, our diminutive fullback; all of whom were
playing their very first varsity football, were seven boys who
came nearer filling those big shoes than any believed it would
be done or had any right to expect. They, with Peter Ras
mussen, tackle; Roy and Joe Peratrovich, guards; who by the
way were always a tower of strength in our line, and Captain
Solomon Fleury and Lawrence Pratt, our most consistent ball
carrying halfbacks, and Jake Atkins, veteran quarterback,
rounded out as formidable an eleven as has taken the field for
Chemawa in a long time. Their constant determination made
everything possible.
Yet there is another group who seldom come in for any of
the glory. They seldom if ever get to make any of the trips
and they have to work hard and long and take all the hard
knocks with only the promise that they may sometime be a
member of the varsity and have a chance to win a letter.
They get very little and yet the future of our football record
depends entirely upon the make-up of this group. If they
are good, hard workers the varsity is pretty sure to be pretty
tough. So after all much depends upon the man at the bottom,
if he fights those on top must fight too or get off the throne, so
to Bill Johnson, Francis Ross, Julian Smith, Leander Wilson,
Walter Howard, Moses George, Joe Webster, George Weeks,
Isaac Curley, Louis Pariseau, Edward Walker, Tom Bad Bear,
Tom Anayah, Joseph Alexander, Clifford Courville, Peter Mc
Clusky, James Oliver and Joe Ladderoutte, go much of the
credit for the way our varsity members performed and in them
we have good material to make replacements with next fall.
LITERARY SOCIETIES
The Reliance society enjoyed the following program
last Friday evening: Songs and yells, Society; jokes,
Cecil Stagner, Lester Freedlander and Reno Booth;
My Summer Vacation, Billy Williams; whistling solo,
James Kelly; closing song, Society.
The Excelsiors met in room seven on Friday even
ing. Henry Bowker presided, as President McLeod
was ill. Mr. Decora gave an excellent talk on Indian
Life and concluded his discourse by playing a very
old Indian flute. An apple-eating contest proved
highly amusing. Joe Webster won it. A challenge
was received and accepted for a bag rush with the Re
liance Society on Thanksgiving. Edward Walker
was elected captain. After a few words from our
critic, Captain Stacy, we adjourned.
A telegram to Supt. Lipps announced that Mr. Fred
Freeman had died last Saturday and that interment
would be at Siletz, Oregon, on the Tuesday following
—that was yesterday. Mr. Freeman was for many
years in the Indian Service as a tailor and bandmaster.
He was at one time a student at Chemawa and he was
certainly a credit to our school, for his was a life of
industry and honesty and of high morality in all of
his dealings. He left behind him, aside from his rel
atives, many friends both in the Service and out of it
who will feel sad to know that Fred was touched by
the “Grim Reaper.”