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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1949)
The CHEMAWA AMERICAN VOLUME 39, MAY CLASS OF 1949, NUMBER 5 1949 VALEDICTORY Classmates, parents, teachers, and friends: Today it is my solemn duty to bid you and Chemawa fare well. It is one of the most im portant events in the life of each member of the senior class. No matter how many Chemawa graduations have gone or how many there are to come, this is the one day we will always re member. For 12 happy and sad years we have struggled to see our dream come true. As we leave here we are reluctant to say Good-bye. Every year Indians are grad uating from high schools and colleges. This graduation, we havA been looking forward to with pleasure and anticipation. To us thi° is not the end but merely the beginning, which is what commencement really means. So it is that today we begin tomorrow. We will no longer continue our work to gether under the faithful and understanding guidance of Miss Morse or our various vocational teachers, but as individuals we have new aims and purposes. In the future our paths will cross and enthusiastically we will tell one another of our experiences at Chemawa or what has hap- pened to each of us since then. Gradually as time moves on these chance meetings will be- come fewer and fewer, and we will meet new friends and gain new experiences. Life is like an atom bomb, which, if not used for the good of humanity, will destroy it, so we must find the best use for each talent we have or we will be regressing to a lower standard of living. The world is waiting with needs to be filled by Indian men and women as well as for other people of the world. In all fields m^n and women are asking questions and trying to find answers. Life today is not easy, nor has it ever been. Only a short century ago our own states were in pioneer stages. It is the young men and women of today who will determine 3 what it will be like in the future years to come. As we say farewell here, we are going out into a world mingled with tears and laugh ter. No doubt both will be ex perienced and, let us hope there may be more laughter than tears. We anticipate making our lives valuable to others as well as ourselves. We can do this task by thinking less of our selves and more about others. There remains much to be done to raise our own people from their ancestral ways to the mod ern ways of today. We need good doctors, teach ers, preachers, nurses, men and women in the professions. We also need good mechanics, farmers, ranchers, men and women in vocations as well as in every profession in life. When our own people can see what we have done and can do, they will have confidence in us and be proud of us, and, through this whole social, eco- (Continued on page 15)
