S moke S ignals
april 1, 2014
7
Dobkins tells stories from Chemawa
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
SALEM — The Charles Holmes
collection from Chemawa Indian
Boarding School came into the
hands of the Grand Ronde Tribe
in 2012.
The collection had been stored in
40 boxes. It held more than 3,000
photographs and 50 years of school
yearbooks and newspapers, maps
and film.
Holmes taught industrial arts at
Chemawa and also served as stu-
dent adviser for the school’s year-
books and newspapers during his
more than 20-year career – from the
1950s to the 1970s – at the school.
His collection, however, spans from
1900 to the 1980s.
After he walked on in 2011, his
wife, Charlotte, bequeathed the
collection to the Grand Ronde Tribe
in the name of then Tribal Museum
Curator, now Tribal Historian, Da-
vid Lewis, and Cultural Collections
Specialist Veronica Montano.
From the Tribe, the photo collec-
tion went to Willamette University
Anthropology Professor Rebecca
Dobkins, who presented stories
culled from the collection to a full
house at Salem Public Library on
Wednesday, March 19.
Lewis has worked with Dobkins,
sometimes teaching her classes
when she is on sabbatical. He turned
to her when the collection arrived
with the idea that her anthropology
classes could help describe and ar-
chive the vast number of documents
as a teaching project.
Dobkins’ lecture, in the library’s
Loucks Auditorium, was one stop
on a traveling lecture tour derived
from this treasure trove to educa-
tional and civic groups across the
Northwest.
Among those in the audience were
Lewis and Grand Ronde Tribal El-
ders and sisters Violet Folden and
Gladys Hobbs. Indians from many
Rebecca Dobkins
different
backgrounds
attended, as
well as cur-
rent and past
Chemawa
students,
their descen-
dants and
descendants
of staff and
teachers who
worked there.
Joe Smith of Keizer remembers he
“was out there all the time” in the
late 1940s when his grandfather was
assistant superintendent. “It was
just a neat place to be,” he said.
Joe Coburn Jr. (Blackfeet) of
Salem said that his father was a
counselor at Chemawa in 1968-69.
For awhile, when the family lived
on campus, his brother recruited
Indian students. Coburn has main-
tained his ties to the school ever
since, he said.
“It’s very important to know your
history,” Coburn said.
In the personal history depart-
ment, he remembers when 200
sheep got away from the sheep
rearing program and roamed the
campus. Students and a black lab
shared the job of rounding them
up. A hundred or so were eventu-
ally corralled on somebody’s front
porch.
The first part of Dobkins’ lecture
was a tour through the Northwest
and, to some degree, national Na-
tive American experience. Dobkins
called it Native American History
101. It included historical and an-
ecdotal information about federal
Indian policy and colonization.
“It’s a pendulum between assimi-
lation and annihilation,” she said.
Indian boarding schools like Che-
mawa taught mainstream cultural
ideas like Christianity, on one hand,
and forbid Indians from practicing
their own culture on the other. The
Fund seeks Hatfield
Fellowship applicants
Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the philanthropic arm of the
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, is seeking applicants for the
Mark O. Hatfield Congressional Fellowship.
Each year, a Hatfield Fellow serves as an intern for a member of
Oregon’s congressional delegation. This year, it will be in the office
of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio.
The Hatfield Fellow is selected from adult Native American can-
didates who are enrolled members of a federally recognized Tribe in
Oregon. If there are no qualified applicants from Oregon, enrolled
Tribal members from Washington, Idaho and Montana will be con-
sidered.
The successful candidate will intern in Washington, D.C., for nine
months and receive a monthly stipend, as well as relocation and travel
expenses. The program also pays tuition for the American Political
Science Association orientation.
Fellowship applications, which are due by 5 p.m. Friday, April 25,
must be completed and submitted via the Internet.
To access the online application process, visit www.thecommuni-
tyfund.com. For additional questions, contact Program Coordinator
Louis King at 503-879-1462 or e-mail at fellows@thecommunity-
fund.com or by mail at 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR
97347.
The fellowship honors Mark Hatfield for his accomplishments as a
U.S. senator, Oregon governor and his mentorship of many leaders
in their own communities. n
land allotment policy, the Dawes
Act, broke up community lands and
divvied them among individual Na-
tives, though in western Oregon the
lands ultimately ended up in the
hands of timber interests.
In all the years since, Dobkins
said, “There has been very little
scholarly work published about
Chemawa, while unpublished
scholarly works and oral histories
have accounts of ‘heartbreaking’
boarding school life,” she said. “In
these schools, you could expect 25
percent of the students to run away
in any one month.”
Dobkins presented a short history
of Chemawa, from its beginnings
in 1880 in Forest Grove. In 1886,
thanks to 180 acres donated by the
people of Salem, the school moved
to its current location on Chemawa
Road in the northeast section of
the city.
Native students worked in hops
fields, building school buildings,
tending livestock, cooking and
doing other domestic work at the
school, ultimately saving enough
money to increase the school’s acre-
age to 426 by1920.
It was not until 1924 that Indians
became American citizens.
In the 1930s, when federal au-
thorities attempted to close Che-
mawa, Tribes protested, fearing
that Indian students would face
discrimination in public schools and
because students had purchased
much of the land themselves. The
school lived on.
Often, as shown in the photo-
graphic record, roles in vocational
education programs were not lim-
ited by gender.
The school’s trade classes were
“so highly regarded,” Dobkins said,
that they drew European children
during the Depression.
In 1939-40, the school reversed
direction and taught about Native
homelands and modeled classes
after Tribal councils. In World War
II, the success of Navajo code talk-
ers set the stage for the fight for
Native rights.
“Indians expected to be treated
with dignity,” said Dobkins.
In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, the
Holmes papers documented the era
of self-determination. The record
also shows innovations in Tribal
education that included student
councils, driver’s education classes,
a student bank and flight training
at Salem Airport.
In 1979, the federal government
opened an Indian Health Clinic at
the school.
From the 1970s, changes at the
school gave students an education
focused on Indian issues. Enroll-
ment swelled. Younger Indians
followed their older siblings to
Chemawa, some for a better educa-
tion, some to get away from a bad
situation at home.
In 2005, Willamette University
formed a partnership with Chema-
wa. Part of the partnership enabled
university students to mentor at
Chemawa.
The Holmes Collection was an-
other benefit of this partnership,
opening a new window into the
Chemawa boarding school experi-
ence.
The title of Dobkins’ lecture is
“The Chemawa Indian School,
From Assimilation to Affirmation,
1880s–2010s.”
“It is the raw material,” Dobkins
said, “of a massive history of Native
lands and peoples.” n
District seeking budget
Committee member
The Polk Soil and Water Conservation District’s Budget Committee has
one opening for a new citizen member. The appointed citizen member must
be a qualified voter of Polk County. The appointment is for a three-year
term.
The commitment is a minimum of two evening meetings to plan the
budget for the Polk Soil and Conservation District, along with other tasks
as assigned by the Budget Committee. Meetings are on May 7 and 21, if
needed.
If you are interested in applying, contact Debbie Miller at 503-623-9680,
ext. 101, or by e-mail at debbie.miller@polkswcd.com. n
Land & Culture offers classes
The Tribe’s Land and Culture Department offers adult Chinuk
Wawa language classes from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Chachalu
Tribal Museum & Cultural Center, 8720 Grand Ronde Road.
Language classes can be taken for college credit or fun.
For more information, call 503-879-2249. n
Tourney seeking players 50 or older
The Pacific Northwest Masters Basketball Tournament will be held
Monday, July 28, through Friday, Aug. 1, in the Eugene area and will
be the first premier competitive Masters Hoops tournament on the West
Coast for players 50 and older.
For more information, check out www.EugeneCascadesCoast.com/pacnw-
masters on the Internet or visit the Facebook page Pacific NorthWest
Masters Basketball.
Also, you can contact ahering99@gmail.com. n