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, 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)

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

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)

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

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)


 * 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)


 * 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)
 * 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)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090201000809/http://photos.lib.state.or.us:80/search.htm to http://photos.lib.state.or.us/search.htm
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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)