Talk:Chemawa Indian School

"Integration"?

Integrate Native Americans into American Society is a delicate way to put it! Actually Native children were forced and separated from their families by the government... they were not allowed to speak their Native language or practice their cultural customs. These schools were an attempt by the US government to irradicate the Native American.. It is deplorable!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.163.100.130 (talk • contribs) 19:42, September 15, 2006

You are right, the history section would be better for including the idea of children being forced to leave their families. See Carlisle Indian Industrial School. There is great movie about how this happened in Canada called Where the Spirit Lives. It appears the current text of the article is a paraphrase (if not a copyvio) of the Chemawa history page [1], hence the delicate wording. However, I believe that now Chemawa and few other boarding schools attract people from all over the country who *choose* to attend an all-Native American school, so it would be good if the article mentioned this as well. Katr67 14:57, 12 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

pronunciation

Which syllable is the stress on (the 2nd?), and are the a's the sound in cat, or in father? kwami (talk) 00:20, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it is the 2nd syllable and "father". Katr67 (talk) 19:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]


The most plausible explanation that I have seen for the origin of the name is that it is a misspelling and contraction of the words "Che Wawa". In the Chinook Jargon, "Che" means "new" and "Wawa" means "language". So it makes sense for the name of an Indian school to be "New Language", it has been speculated that the initial "W" was accidentally converted to an "M", perhaps by a printing error -- with hand laid type, the M and W are interchangeable. Chinook jargon itself was widely known and used in that era by "White" settlers. It is a little bit odd that an Indian name would be given to a school by people who were intent on eradicating Indians, but on the other hand, maps are full of Indian place names. As far as pronunciation, "Wawa" is similar to "Mama" but with the "W" sound and the "Che" is similar to "Cheetah" without the ending. (comment by Manyshoes). 97.126.105.15 (talk) 16:07, 15 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

photo request

While there is a photo on the page, it'd be nice to have one of the school itself. Thus, I'm adding the reqphoto request. tedder (talk) 18:36, 11 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Found a bunch of photos. tedder (talk) 01:47, 24 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

school deaths and rape

a lot of people died at that school... something ought to be said about that. it was a form of murder. children kept in unheated rooms during winter. girls raped by the teachers. I have learned these things from people who were actually there. good luck trying to find written evidence about it though. (manyshoes) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.126.96.142 (talk) 23:24, 17 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What else have you heard about this? When did it happen? How many people involved? During the school year? How long did it go on? Any names? Any of these details would go a long way to discovering reliable reporting about it. —EncMstr (talk) 05:58, 18 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]
@EncMstr 13 years later I'm finally replying to you. I wrote the original post for this topic. One person I can tell you about is Vi Hilbert's brother. She told me the story of how her brother and other rebellious students were murdered by forcing them to sleep in an unheated room (in winter) without blankets (just a sheet) while also exposing them to other students in the same room who had pneumonia. She also told me about the nighttime rapes and beatings of the young girls. Like most survivors of sexual abuse she rarely spoke of it and never -- that I know of -- wrote any of it down. Vi told me that "at night the Nuns would come and select one of the girls, you just prayed that it wasn't your turn, it was hard to sleep because of the screams." I have also talked to a man who was raped as a boy. Remember it was the ~Good Christian~ Nuns and Ministers who were doing this.... I've been trying to find out which religion was running this school, probably the Catholics but I haven't found a reference yet. Canada has done a lot to come to terms with this horrific history, it is long past time for America to do the same. OldCodger2 (talk) 05:43, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It is no secret that terrible things happened over the decades at Chemawa. The cemetery adjacent to the school is filled with enough graves. Many, many children died at Chemawa. I was personally told terrible stories by school employees when I visited during the summer of 2008, that students were quite literally tortured for speaking their native languages instead of English. Of course this was a century ago. There are few written records. Fifteentholive (talk) 22:12, 8 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
@Fifteentholive: Wikipedia relies on written (or audio/video) records. From Wikipedia:Verifiability: "Wikipedia does not publish original research. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than editors' beliefs, opinions, or experiences." In other words, we can't cover it if it's not written down somewhere like a newspaper, an academic book (or a not-self-published book), an academic journal article, a magazine, etc. Also please bear in mind a source cannot be self-published. Now if say the employees approached a university program or author, an academic recounted their oral histories, and then the academic published them (with oversight from the academic), that would be admissible. WhisperToMe (talk) 15:22, 19 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@WhisperToMe@Fifteentholive@EncMstr Here are some links to videos about the abuse.
Video 1 Boarding Schools, Truth, Reckoning & Healing -- includes photos of Chemawa
Boarding School Healing
*American Genocide* The Reckoning: Native American Boarding Schools’ Painful History Unearthed -- at night someone would come in... "looking for little boys" [to rape]
Wow I found dozens of YT videos on this subject, hadn't looked before... it was the same treatment at all of the schools. I have ancestors who went to Chemawa. OldCodger2 (talk) 13:19, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I checked the first video. It was published by the official account of the The Klamath Tribes (account linked from the bottom part of the tribe's official website, account name "theklamathtribes7024"). My understanding is that you are welcome to directly cite that video. If you do cite the video, make sure you note the minute mark so a user can easily find the information that is being cited. Remember to only make claims being directly stated in the video. Also, on this article, please also only cite material specifically relevant to Chemawa Indian School.
The second video is from the Native American Rights Fund. That is also from their official YouTube channel (as identified from the organization's personal website) and the same advice on using the video applies here.
The third video was posted by NBC News. This is certainly a reliable source (see Wikipedia:Perennial sources), though I haven't checked if anything about Chemawa is specifically in this video.
WhisperToMe (talk) 00:41, 8 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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Additional partnership

The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution provide financial and material support to Chemawa Indian School. Hbochoa (talk) 19:17, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Contesting the Origin and meaning of the name Chemawa

currently (2025-11-04) this article says: Named after the Chemawa band of the Kalapuya people of the Willamette Valley, ... [5]

and [5] is Lawney L. Reyes, White Grizzly Bear's Legacy: Learning to be Indian. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2002; p. 118

However, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia Section: Chemawa, 1885–present -- “Chemawa” is a Santiam Kalapuyan place-name that means “low-lying, frequently overflowed ground.” Which is certainly plausible.

On the other hand, about 20 years ago when I happened to be studying Chinuk Wawa some linguists were of the opinion that the origin of the name of the school came from a printing error. The original name of the school was most likely to have been Che Wawa which in Chinuk Wawa means New Language. Printers used the same Type character for both "W" and "M" simply by flipping them. When you don't know what the words mean it would be an easy mistake to make.

as to the assertion that it was named after the Chemawa band of the Kalapuya people. This seems very unlikely due to no such Band is listed on the wikipedi page for the Kalapuya people. The Kalapuyan did speak Chinuk Wawa (among other languages).

The referenced book is still available so I will track down a copy and see what it says. Perhaps someone can track down the Santiam Kalapuyan language reference? OldCodger2 (talk) 05:18, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

allikas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Chemawa_Indian_School