Weekly Chemawa American., October 15, 1909, Image 1

CUeeHiv gbemawa American
VOL.12 OCTOBER 15, 1909. NO. 14
CHEMAWA.
As seen by William E.. Curtis, Special
Corrspondent of the Chicago
Record-Herald.
CHEMAWA, Oregon, Sept. 25, 1909.
The Salem Indian School is at Chemawa,
five miles north of the city and reached
by an electric railway. There i3 also a
; station On the Southern Pacific railroad.
The school was founded in 1880 .at
Forest Grove, near Portland, but was
removed here in 1885, because the
people of Salem made liberal induce
ments, including the gift of a farm of
177 acres of land where the institution
now stands. The superintendent sent
David Brewer, a full-blood Puyallup,
one of twenty-four boys, who were the
first to enter the school at Forest Grove,
'to clear up the new site, which was then
a primeval forest. They camped out
and worked for a year and a half in the
timber. In the meantime three build
ings were erected and the school was in
full blast with between three and four
hundred pupils. After a fewyears experi
ence the farm grew too small for the
demands upon it, and the students', both
girls and boys, went out to work for
wages. They earned enough in a year or
two to buy eighty additional acres adjoin
ing the original farm, which is all under
cultivation in grain, garden and fruit.
The institution is now complete, and has
as fine a plant as any industrial school
in the world. The shops, where the dif
ferent trades are taught, the chemical
laboratories, the stables, granaries, dairy
and other agricultural features are mod
els of their kind, both in equipment and
appearance, and the managers of other
industrial schools might learn valuable
lessons from the Indian boys and girls
who are in training here. In addition
to 341 acres belonging to the school, 125
acres have been rented and the crops
always provide sufficient food for the
stock and the pupils and leave a surplus
for sale. s ,,
The superintendent is Edwin L. Chal
craft, and his assistant is W. P. Campbell,
who was thirteen years at Carlisle and
has been longer in the Indian service
than any other man except Inspector
McLaughlin.
There were 775 students enrolled last
year. The average enrollment during
the last yea r was 615. The students come
from all the Indians tribes i i the Paci
fic Northwest, and vary in age from 10
to 21 years. About one-third are girls.
It was originally intended to make this
a school for older students, like Carlisle,
but peculiar circumstances have requir
ed the superintendent to take in a few lit
tle ones. The boys are trained in farm
ing, dairying, orchard culture and the
mechanical trades, with steam and elec-