OREGON STATE LIBRARY
W
CHEMAWA
1
1930
AMERICAN
P r i n t e d a t C h e m a w a , O r e g o n , a n d D e v o te d to t h e I n t e r e s t s o f I n d i a n E d u c a t io n
OREGON
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W edn esd ay, A p r. 30, 1930
T H IS IS IN T E R E ST IN G
Some few weeks ago Miss Elta Van Norman, li
brarian of the Canandaigua Academy, New York, in
a letter sent to Chemawa, expressed a desire to have
some of our students write to her. It was a nice re
quest, made in a modest and sincere manner. Mrs.
Eobdell and some of the girls of her class responded
and in due time they were rewarded by the receipt of
two letters from Miss Van Norman—one to Mrs. Eob-
dell and the other to the girls of her class. The fol
lowing letter was addressed to Mrs. Lobdell:
“ I want to express to you and to your principal my
appreciation for the letters from the girls. They are
not only of use to me, but of intense interest. I am a
high school librarian and I have given students in the
library the letters. It is needless to say that they found
them as interesting as I did.
“ You are to be congratulated on your school and the
splendid work it is doing. I would speak of these let
ters also from the standpoint of a teacher. It seems
to me they show a care in English and in writing
which is at least equal to that shown in the work of
our high school students here.
‘ ‘ I feel that one of the greatest needs in our second
ary schools today is instruction along sociological
lines—to try to understand other races, other nations
and other classes, so that whether we are white or
red we may have (to use the trite expression) a feel
ing of brotherhood.
“ In my letter to the girls I shall try to tell them
something of our town and its historical background
and I think they may find we have something in
common as far as interests are concerned.
“ Again let me thank you for your cooperation, and
if ever I have the opportunity to be of service to you
I shall be most pleased. ’ ’
Here follows the letter to the girls. No doubt it
was of great interest to them, and we feel that it will
please all who read it, as follows:
“ Your letters came to me this morning and I want
to extend to you not only my thanks, but my con
gratulations on your lovely school, on your splendid
English teacher, and upon this sample of your work.
While your letters are certainly evidence of careful
school training, it is not as schoolwork that I find
them of the most value or of the most interest. They
tell me something of yourselves, of your lives, and
No. 33
how you are getting an education, and for that I like
them most.
“ I think I now have a very good picture of the
Salem school and its program of activities, and I
agree with some of you when you say you have a
better opportunity for an education than many white
children have. Of course, in our state we do have
very good schools, but you and I know that is not
true of all sections of our country. So I am sure you
do appreciate your school and love it, and I am
doubly sure that when you leave it and you return to
your people you will have very much to carry back
to them from it.
“ Are you surprised to learn that I, too, am in
school? I am the librarian in Canandaigua Academy,
a school of five hundred boys and girls. And I was
so glad Anna Johnson told me of the library because
I believe a library is a great part of every school. I
hope some of you girls go on to college and become
librarians in some of your schools, or in any other
schools, for there are too few libraries and too few
people to care for them.
“ Our school is a day school, a regular public school',
but it is an exceedingly attractive one and this year
there has been added a new building containing shops,
gymnasium, auditorium, and a most beautiful swim
ming pool. I cannot send you a picture of that, but
I am sending a small print of the older part of our
building, as'well as a view of our beautiful lake.
“ I want to tell you a little about the lake and
about the town: Canandaigua is an Indian name and
m eans‘Sleeping Beauty.’ The name fits very well,
indeed, for it is a quiet town and I know all of you
would call it beautiful.
“ Canandaigua was settled by white people in 1786
and the region had long been the home of the Seneca
Indians. In fact, Bare Hill, which you can see in
this picture was for many, many years the council
place of all the Senecas. There are some very inter
esting legends concerning this historic spot. Many
other things of interest concerning the relations of the
white people and the Indians there are, but one may
be of special interest to you here. I suppose, even
though you are of the West, you have heard of Red
Jacket, the great Seneca orator. In Canandaigua he
had his headquarters for a long period of time, and
(C ontinued on page 4)