THE NAVAJO SPECIAL PROGRAM IN THE : EDUCATING NAVAJO STUDENTS AT CHEMAWA INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL, 1946-1957

By RACHAEL RENEE JOHNSON

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of History

August 2010

To the Faculty of State University:

The members of the committee appointed to examine the thesis of RACHAEL RENEE JOHNSON find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted.

______Orlan J. Svingen, Ph.D., Chair

______Robert McCoy, Ph.D.

______Jennifer Thigpen, Ph.D.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank many people for their guidance and continuous support throughout the process of completing my thesis. First, I want to express my gratitude to the chair of my committee, Dr. Orlan Svingen who worked tirelessly to help perfect my thesis. His extensive knowledge of American Indian history was invaluable to the foundation to my argument and his work with American Indian policy added another dimension to the relevance of my research. I consider it a badge of honor to say that I have survived a thesis under the direction of Dr.

Svingen.

Next, I wish to recognize the other members of my committee, Dr. Rob McCoy and Dr.

Jennifer Thigpen who worked diligently to assist my research. Dr. McCoy’s knowledge of

American Indian history, specifically with the Navajo stock reduction program, was particularly beneficial to my argument. His insights contributed to the completion of this work. Dr. Jenny

Thigpen was always encouraging, whether it was during a meeting or just quick words of wisdom while passing each other in the hall. Her unwavering support bolstered my spirits in the darkest hours. She pushed me to develop a deeper analysis of my sources, ultimately creating a stronger thesis.

There were several other scholars that helped me throughout my academic career that need mentioning. Dr. John W.W. Mann, my former mentor, played an important part in helping me complete this project. Without his early faith in my ability and pushing me to achieve a higher level in my education, I would not have been at Washington State University. Patty

McNamee at the National Archives and Records Administration at the Pacific and

Regional Branch in Seattle, Washington deserve special mention. When I travelled to Seattle on

iii a research trip her knowledge of Record Group 75, specifically BIA education files on the

Chemawa Indian School and the Navajo Special Program, were instrumental in discovering the sources for my project. Her assistance in navigating through the overwhelming RG 75 files was the reason my research trip was a success.

Early in my time at WSU, Dr. Svingen advised me to contact Dr. Cary Collins as a resource about the history of American Indian education. Dr. Collins received his Ph.D. from

WSU and wrote his dissertation about the early school administrators of the Chemawa Indian

School. He was the first to suggest that I investigate the presence of the NSP at Chemawa. I want to thank him for his willingness to listen to my ideas and his help in defining my argument.

I especially want to acknowledge how thankful I am to my personal support network. My fellow graduate students were consistently there to listen to my frustration and fears as I endeavored to finish my most challenging academic feat to date. Finally, I would not have achieved all that I have without the unfaltering support of my family. My mother, Rita Stegall, has never let me doubt myself or my ability to meet this challenge, without her there would be no thesis to acknowledge. Lastly I wish to recognize the important role that my father’s memory continues to play in my life; I know he would be proud.

iv

THE NAVAJO SPECIAL PROGRAM IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: EDUCATING

NAVAJO STUDENTS AT THE CHEMAWA INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL, 1946-1957

Abstract

By Rachael Renee Johnson, M.A. Washington State University August 2010

Chair: Orlan J. Svingen

In 1868, the Navajo tribe and government negotiated a treaty that, among other things, obligated the federal government to educate Navajo children. The Dawes Act of

1887 and its assimilationist policy form the background to this study, as do Indian boarding schools that had their beginnings in the 1880s. The Meriam Report of 1928, the Johnson-

O’Malley Act and the Indian Reorganization Act, both passed in 1934, dramatically altered

American Indian Education. World War II created a severe funding deficit for Navajo education, and the Navajo Special Program (NSP) established in 1946 aimed to mitigate the educational short falls on the Navajo . Inaugurated at the Sherman Institute at Riverside,

California, the NSP expanded to eleven schools throughout the nation, among which was the

Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Salem, . Chemawa’s first Navajo students arrived in

1948 and by 1957 it discontinued its non- Navajo program and became an all Navajo Indian boarding school. Its polytechnic educational framework stood in contrast to the traditional academic schooling.

Chemawa remained a vocationally-driven school until the 1960s when it began to accept non-Navajo students, which corresponded with the steady decrease in the Navajo student

v population. Advancements in the education system on the Navajo Reservation allowed more

Navajo children to attend school closer to home. In 1966 the opened the Rough

Rock Demonstration School in Chinle, Arizona, becoming the first Indian tribe to operate an

Indian-controlled school on a reservation. The Navajo Community College opened in 1968 and solidified the Navajo Nation as a leader in Indian-controlled education.

The primary documents that distinguish this work are from collections found at the

National Archive and Records Administration at its Pacific and Alaska Division located Seattle,

Washington. Specifically they include materials from the Chemawa School-Navajo Program,

Education Administrative files; the Navajo Program Files from the Decimal Files 1924-1955; and the Chemawa-General 1950-1951, Tribal Operations General files.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….iii

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………....v

List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………...viii

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...... 1

Chapters

1) The Historical Background to the Navajo Special Program, 1868 to 1947…………………………..…………....7

2) Chemawa Indian Boarding School: From an Assimilationist Boarding School to a Polytechnic Institution, 1885-1948…………………….38

3) Adjusting to a New Way of Life for NSP Students and Chemawa, 1948-1957………………………………………………………….72

4) Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….109

Appendices

A) Bi-Lingual Curriculum Par One, For Adult Navaho Beginners……………...120

B) Specific Goals of the Navajo Special Program……………………………….146

C) Guidelines for Classgroup Work……………………………………………...166

D) Principles and Features of the Navajo Special Program……………………....169

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….174

vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATION

1) Figure 1: A typical classroom for the Navajo Special Program………………………. 28

2) Figure 2: Example of NSP bank at the Phoenix Indian School……………………….. 31

3) Figure 3: Main Entrance of Chemawa Indian School, circa 1933……………………...42

4) Figure 4: Navajo students loading bus for off-reservation schools…………………….76

5) Figure 5: Fifth year Navajo Students outside of Chemawa…………………………….103

viii 1

Introduction

In the span of a few decades, the Navajo tribe transformed itself from a tribe lacking in educational opportunities to one that was a leader in tribally controlled education. The tribe’s journey was complex and it reflected a change in federal Indian education philosophy and, on a larger scale, federal Indian policy. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) educational leaders stepped forward to help revive the struggling educational system found on the reservation, but their solution was not easily accepted by Navajo parents. At the end of WWII, most federal Indian boarding schools began closing in favor of local public schools or reservation day schools. In contrast to this trend, Navajo parents began sending their children to numerous boarding schools across the west to participate in a newly developed system of education.

The Navajo Special Program (NSP) began in 1946, and it marked a new approach to education undertaken by the BIA. Navajo children represented a unique challenge to the BIA education division. Most of the children in need of education were between the ages 12-to-18- years-old, well past the standard age of enrollment, and many could not speak English. The NSP became a case study of how to create a bi-lingual system of education to support an accelerated course of study. The appearance of the NSP and its impact on the Navajo tribe and the boarding schools it was implemented in, raise a number of questions. What sparked the establishment of the Navajo Special Program? What was its impact on the Navajo children who attended NSP schools such as Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Salem, Oregon, and how did Chemawa change in response? Finally, what lasting changes occurred because of the NSP at Chemawa and within the Navajo tribe? 2

The Navajo Indians entered into a contractual relationship with the federal government on

June 1, 1868, when they signed the Navajo Treaty. With the ratification of this treaty the

traditional homeland of the Navajo tribe was severely reduced, and in return, the treaty

guaranteed certain provisions as compensation for the tribe. One of these provisions dealt with

integration of non-Indian education onto the reservation. There was a gradual increase in

educational opportunities on the Navajo reservation by the turn of the twentieth century, but by

1908, only 10 percent of Navajo youths were enrolled in school. Enrollment numbers for

reservation day schools did not increase over the next several decades as parents chose to keep

their children at home.

The outbreak of WWII and the high rates of enlistment of Navajo men changed how the tribe

viewed education. Soldiers wrote letters home, recounting places where they had travelled and

describing their adjustment to white society. Women also wrote letters home that offered insight

into their new setting based on their nursing experiences. As letters flooded the reservation, tribal

leaders worried that the lack of non-Indian education on the reservation would place Navajo

youths at a dangerous disadvantage when they left the reservation. Historian Margaret Szasz

investigated the change tribes underwent during the 1940s, focusing on the Navajos’

perspectives on non-Indian education. Indian parents stopped looking at Euro-American

schooling as a supplement to traditional education, and they started to set aside funds and passed

tribal laws for compulsory school attendance. They did so after witnessing their sons, brothers,

and friends rejected for entry into the armed service due to their inability to understand English.1

Navajos hoped a new focus on education would provide greater opportunities for advancement

1 Margaret Szasz, “Listening to the Native Voice: American Indian Schooling in the Twentieth Century,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 39, (Summer 1989), 42-53. Szasz’s article was reprinted in Roger Nichols 5th edition of his The American Indian Past and Present (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999), 276-279.

3

and success. Solutions to the Navajo education problem, however, did not easily fit into the new

agendas of BIA educational directors.

In the spring of 1946, a determined group of Navajos arrived in Washington D.C.,

demanding that the federal government fulfill its promises made in the Treaty of 1868. An

important aspect of their agenda involved a demand for the education of thousands of Navajo

children with no prior schooling. Director of Education for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Willard

Beatty met with concerned tribal leaders and called for a commission to investigate the needs of

the Navajo children. According to Hildegard Thompson, Beatty “pointed out that he would have

to get proof that the Navajo clamor for education was genuine and that, given the opportunity,

Navajos would enroll their children in school.”2 They decided instead to create the Navajo

Special Program (NSP) or also known as the Special Navajo Program, once the commission discovered how costly it would be to rebuild the educational infrastructure on the reservation.

Navajo students could not enroll in public schools, as historian Robert Trennert explains, because age restrictions in Arizona prevented students from reservations to continue on in public schools if they had already surpassed the cutoff age for each class. Age provided the greatest obstacle for Director Beatty because more than 10,000 of the Navajo children fell between the ages of twelve-to-eighteen, and they had limited exposure to any type of education.3 The Navajo

Special Program represented the educators’ and bureaucrats’ best effort for bringing sound

education to thousands of children over looked by the bureau.

2 Hildegard Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education: A History of Navajo Education (Tsaile: Navajo Community College Press, 1975), 89.

3 Richard Trennert, The Phoenix Indian School: Forced Assimilation in Arizona, 1891- 1935 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988), 116. 4

Under the auspices of the Navajo Special Program, the BIA sent the first Navajo students to the Sherman Institute at Riverside, California. Eight more schools joined the NSP in the next two years as the number of eligible students increased. Chemawa Indian School in Salem,

Oregon, entered the program in 1948, with over 200 children allotted to it the first year.4 For the next nine years, the school hosted a growing number of Navajos while its non-Navajo population decreased. In 1953, Chemawa graduated its first NSP class; the NSP advisory board closely monitored the adjustment graduates faced. By the end of the 1950s the urgency of the NSP had lessened as the objectives of the NSP had been achieved. Correspondingly, Navajo children who entered boarding schools were now essentially mainstreamed and placed in age-appropriate class levels.

Chapter Overview:

Chapter one provides an overview of Navajo education prior too WWII, set against the stipulations found in the Navajo Treaty of 1868, and it includes an introduction to the boarding school experience at Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. The onset of WWII shifted the outlook of many Navajo tribal members who realized the deficiencies and the growing educational needs of their children. The objective of the NSP was to provide relief for parents as their children gained access to education but at the cost of leaving their families. After the BIA budget committee learned of the vast amount of money needed to upgrade the Navajo day school

4 Madison Coombs, Doorway Toward the Light: The Story of the Special Navajo Education Program (United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs: Branch of Education: 1962), 4. For Coombs later research on American Indian Education see: Madison Coombs, “The Indian Student is not low man on the Totem Pole,” American Indian Education 9, no. 3 (1970), 1-9.

5

system, it decided to send the children to boarding schools across the West. Sherman Institute received the first 290 Navajo students for the 1947-1948 school year. After they arrived, the students took the California Achievement Test to determine their level of comprehension compared to the other Navajo students who entered the program. At the end of the year the children retook the same test to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and the growth of the students.5 This chapter will end with an assessment of the NSP’s first year Sherman and an explanation for why the NSP expanded its program to nine additional schools in 1948.

Chapter two details the transformation of the Chemawa Indian School from an

assimilationist-driven institution to a polytechnic campus. Chemawa’s student population shrunk

significantly during the 1930s as the BIA debated whether to continue funding the school. For

this reason, Chemawa Indian School saw the NSP as a means for keeping its doors open. Central

to this chapter is the dialogue between Chemawa School Superintendent Kelley, Director Beatty, and Regional Supervisor Hildegard Thompson as they discussed the transition of Navajo students, the progression of the program, and whether the program would expand in the upcoming years. The interaction between the Navajo and non-Navajo students provides examples of the complex nature of American Indian relationships within the boarding school.

Chapter three focuses on the early years of the NSP as it developed at Chemawa. In 1953, the school held its first graduation of the NSP. Leaders in the program were particularly interested in the first graduates and where they found work based on the skills they mastered in the program. The graduation ceremony for these students produced a great deal of fanfare, with the graduation address being delivered by Thompson. The annual evaluation report of the

5 Madison Coombs, Doorway Toward the Light, 4; Hildegard Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 78. 6

program contains detailed descriptions of the employment profiles of the new graduates,

including the locations, positions, salaries, and marriage status of the graduates. Many did not

return to the reservation but instead found employment in and around Salem. The chapter ends

with a discussion of the last year of the regular program at Chemawa in 1957, when the school

became solely a NSP school.

The conclusion assesses the impact of the program on the Navajo reservation after it required 50,000 children to leave home for several years. How did the program affect the Navajo students? Was it a shared common experience or was the impact mixed, individual, or gendered?

What impact did the NSP have on how the BIA viewed its education division? And finally, what was the impact of the NSP on Chemawa Indian School? Answering these questions will offer a level of historical coherence to the complicated interrelationship between Navajo education and

the Chemawa Indian School. It will also offer something of a case study for targeted, off-

reservation American Indian education in post-WWII America. 7

Chapter One

The Historical Background to the Bureau of Indian Affair’s Navajo Special Program, 1868 to 1947

If I do not believe The things you say, Maybe I will not tell you. That is my way.

Maybe you think I believe you That thing you say, But my thoughts stay with me My own way.

Anonymous, Navajo Student ca. 1937

Navajo lifestyle was transformed throughout the twentieth century as economic

opportunities and a growing trade market slowly replaced the tribe’s traditional subsistence

farming. Isolated on many levels, the Navajo tribe occupied a semi-arid and arid landscape that

in the 1930s appeared to have reached its ecological limits. By the end of World War II, both the

government and the tribe understood the dire situation of the Navajo economic and educational

systems. Sociologists Dorothea Leighton and Clyde Kluckhon arrived on the Navajo reservation

in the 1940s to conduct extensive research examining tribal life. The team analyzed multiple

aspects of Navajo culture to better understand how Navajo people interpret white society. Their

findings highlighted for Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officials the complex relationship

between tribal and non-native education. “Chances are good,” Leighton observed, “that any

given Navajo will respond to some circumstances in a manner that is characteristically distinct

from what might be expected from white men or from Indians of other tribes.”1 With education,

1 Dorothea Leighton and Clyde Kluckhon, Children of the People (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947), 95.

8

the uneasy and uncooperative attitude displayed by Navajo parents reflected mistrust and

suspicion of BIA influences on the reservation. By 1946, the inadequate educational

opportunities reached a critical point for the tribe, and the government answered with a dramatic

solution. The Navajo Special Program (NSP) evolved as an off-reservation boarding school

program designed specifically for the Navajo tribe. A special feature of the program involved the

use of multiple locations throughout its thirteen-year duration. NSP school sites important to this

study include the Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, the first school to begin the program, and the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. This thesis will address the critical

questions of: why was a special program for the Navajo necessary and how was the program

shaped and planned? Further, what were the trails and successes of the NSP’s first year at

Sherman Institute, and how did the program come to arrive at the Chemawa Indian School?

Conditions of the Navajo Reservation Pre-WWII and BIA policies

After the Treaty of 1868, the Navajo tribe lived on a portion of its former sacred land

called Dine. For the rest of the century its people lived a subsistence lifestyle supported by

farming and sheep herding. Historian Colleen O'Neill defined the Navajo lifestyle as, "a

noncommercial, precapitalist existence completely cut off from surrounding wage and

commodity markets."2 Navajo families were semi-nomadic with summer residences located near their farm land and winter camps in areas with access to a steady wood supply at higher

elevations.3 By the 1930s the traditional ways of the Navajos changed with the implementation of new BIA directives that regulated farming practices on the reservation. The reservation was

2 Colleen O’Neill, Working the Navajo Way: Labor and Culture in the Twentieth Century (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), 19.

3 Ibid., 19. 9

plagued with drought and crop failures. In the 1930s, Commissioner of Indian Affairs John

Collier sent experts to investigate the extent of the ecological limitations of the reservation and to

develop applicable solutions. Soil experts, climatologists, agricultural economics, and

sociologists, arrived to test the capacity and viability of the land to continue to support the

traditional farming techniques. "They assessed the carrying capacity of the reservation land,"

O'Neill explained, "and divided it into eighteen land management districts and calculated how many sheep, goats, and horses each could support."4 Their official recommendations eventually

reduced Navajo herds to half their size, hoping that the reduced strain on the land would revive

the area. The solution advocated by the experts failed to take into account the devastating effect

the herd reduction would have on struggling families. The Navajo reservation suffered both from

the economic crisis of the and a debilitating drought in the 1930s. Collier's

decision to initiate the Stock Reduction Program created new jobs through the U.S. Civilian

Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Soil Conversation Service (SCS), but it dramatically altered

traditional Navajo life and education.5

Collier's decision to reduce the sheep numbers attacked not only how the Navajo

supported their families but their traditional native education as well. "Navajos used herding as a

way to teach self-reliance to their children," O'Neill explained, "They would learn tremendous

life lessons from taking out the sheep in the morning and bringing them home at night."6 Sheep played a central role in Navajo culture and with the role of women in the tribe. Women maintained control of the sheep as part of their personal property, and they passed sheep herds

4 Ibid., 23.

5 Klara Kelley, Navajo Land Use: An Ethnoarchaeological Study (Orlando: Academic Press, Inc., 1986), 99.

6 O’Neill, Working the Navajo Way, 25. 10

down to daughters and granddaughters. Doing so provided women with a source of income that

was not controlled by their husbands. This sphere of matrilineal power decreased as herds

diminished from Navajo land. Enrollment numbers showed that gender responsibilities on the

reservation remained an issue for NSP administrators when they tried to incorporate a greater

number of females into the program. Whether male or female, the students of the NSP became

part of the federal boarding system steeped in tradition and methodology. Navajo students shared

a similar experience to other boarding school pupils while at the same time unwittingly initiating

reform for the BIA off-reservation schools.

Overview of American Indian Education Policy

A prominent federal policy that affected Native American education in the late nineteenth

century was the Dawes Act of 1887. Established to transform American Indians into yeoman

farmers, the act divided the Indian reservations into individual land allotments. The ultimate

goal of the policy was to press Europeans values of individualism and the importance of private property onto American Indians who were used to communal living.7 Senator Henry Dawes

intended to create a system that would emancipate Indians from their dependency on the federal

government. He considered himself a friend of the Indian and believed that farming provided the solution to the troubles faced by American Indians. Lawmakers believed that by directing

American Indians into , they would provide “the only escape open to these people from the dire alternative of impending extirpation.”8 The act allotted 160 acres to each head of

7 John Reyhner and Jeanne Eder, American Indian Education (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 81.

8 Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1986), 227. 11

family and 80 acres to a single person.9 Policy makers initiated the Dawes Act for three specific

reasons: to break up tribal life, to enable Indians to receive the benefits of civilization, and to

protect their remaining landholdings.10 Education became a key component in the conversion process outlined in this federal legislation. In his epic work, The Great Father, Francis Paul

Prucha analyzed the legislative history of federal Indian policy with a discussion of the reasoning for lawmakers’ actions and the impact it had on Indian tribes. “There was a fundamental agreement," he argues, "that neither homesteads nor legal citizenship would benefit the Indians if

they were not properly educated to appreciate the responsibilities as well as the benefits of

both.”11 Policy-makers turned next to the Indian boarding schools which they believed provided

the best means to “help” American Indians understand their new role in society.

Applying the key concepts of assimilation, Captain Henry Pratt opened the first federal

Indian boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His primary goal there was to instruct Indian

children on how to survive and flourish in white society. He fervently believed that complete

immersion in white society would teach American Indian children how to live Christian,

productive lives, while killing the tribal spirit within the child before it had a chance to mature.

In 1895, Pratt publicly proclaimed that the objective of boarding schools was to, “Kill the Indian,

to save the man.”12 To those responsible for developing the boarding school philosophy, the only way to ensure their survival was to strip away their tribal heritage. Pratt looked to new European immigrants as a model for assimilating American Indian tribes, for he saw their successful

9 Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 81.

10 Prucha, Great Father, 235-239; Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 82.

11 Prucha, Great Father, 232.

12 Richard Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964). 12

integration as proof that assimilation could be achieved. The Dawes Act dominated Indian

policy well into the twentieth century, and its policies of allotment ultimately saw the land base

of American Indians diminished from 138 million acres to fifty-two million acres.13 Education,

both on and off Indian reservations, continued to undermine tribalism because its goal was to

turn Indian people into yeoman farmers and educated citizens. After WWI and the Indian

Citizenship Act of 1924, however, policy makers and social critics began to question the effects

of the allotment period.14 The Dawes Act remained in effect until 1934, when the Indian

Reorganization Act (IRA) brought allotment to a close.

The Problem of Indian Administration, more commonly known as the Meriam Report,

was published in 1928 under the supervision of Lewis Meriam for the Secretary of the Interior.

The study investigated how the Indian Administration was failing in its goal of caring for the

Indians and provided recommendations for improvement. The massive report—845 pages in

length—covered all topics associated with American Indians. Federal education for Indian

children was an area of heavy criticism for the survey group, and it cited several potentially

dangerous problems within the boarding school system. Diet, medical care, insufficient funds,

and overcrowding were discussed as threats to the children’s welfare. The survey group stated,

“Even less has been done toward finding profitable employment for Indians. As has been said the

schools do little for their graduates.15 Students leave schools with little chance of finding jobs

and without sufficient knowledge of what to expect when they return to their reservation. The

13Prucha, Great Father, 305. After allotment around 100,000 American Indians were totally landless as a result of the parceling and selling of tribal property.

14 Ibid.

15 Lewis Meriam, The Problem of Indian Administration (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1920), 15. Commonly known as the Meriam Report. 13

report called upon the Indian Service to remember its obligations for the “social and economic

advancement” of Indian people. “To achieve this end the Service must have a comprehensive,

well-rounded educational program, adequately supported,” the report continues, “which will

place it at the forefront of organizations devoted to the advancement of a people.”16

The Johnson-O’Malley Act of 1934 (JOM) preceded the Wheeler-Howard Act (IRA) by

several months. It was “An act authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to arrange with States or

territories for the education, medical attention, agricultural assistance, relief of distress, and

social welfare of Indians, and for other purposes.”17 The JOM Act provided funds that were

intended to equip area schools with the necessary staff and materials needed to enroll local

Indian students. School districts around reservations or centralized Indian populations were the

most affected by the JOM. It was at this point that federal Indian education began shifting away

from boarding schools to public and day school options.

Assimilation into white society had remained the unchallenged goal for non-reservation

boarding schools until the publication of the Meriam Report in 1928. John Collier, the

commissioner of Indian affairs under President Franklin Roosevelt, embraced the Meriam Report

as a sign of failure of allotment and assimilation. The federal report made it blatantly obvious

that American Indian children lacked the necessary knowledge to succeed in either the white world or their native society. The federal government reluctantly conceded that tribal participation ensured greater success of educational programs directed at their youth. Reservation schools became more numerous while boarding schools slowly disappeared and assimilation receded little by little from the forefront of education. Indian parents, encouraged by Collier’s

16 Ibid., 21.

17 Francis Paul Prucha, Documents of United States Indian Policy, ed. Francis Paul Prucha, 3d ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 222. 14

recommendations, enrolled their children in the public school systems in unprecedented numbers during the early half of the twentieth century. The movement into the public school system displayed another strategy of Collier’s that allowed Indian children to become part of white society without being removed from their own heritage.18 Not everyone within Collier’s

administration agreed with public school enrollment for Indian children. Willard Beatty, the

administrator of Indian education under Collier, began to doubt the benefits that American Indian

children received in rural public schools. “There is nothing in the administration and curriculum

of the average rural school,” Beatty argued, “that is better for children than what is offered by a

Federal school.”19 Beatty's lack of confidence in public school education for Indian children

played an important role in the development of the Special Navajo Program when he asked for

an alternative for a day school system that required massive funds and years to develop.

Administrator of Indian Education Carson Ryan, followed by Willard Beatty, reshaped

Indian Education during their respective tenures from 1930 until 1951. The directors continued

to advance the efforts of the long-time Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, who

worked to reform Indian education. American Indian education historian Margaret Szasz wrote,

“They [Carson and Beatty] tried to move Indian education away from the drudgery of

institutional maintenance toward practical vocational training…and a celebration of their diversity and uniqueness.”20 Their solution included building day schools on reservations and

promoting the enrollment of Indian children in public schools. Low enrollment at day schools

18 Prucha, Great Father, 329.

19 Ibid., 319.

20 Margaret Szasz, “Listening to the Native Voice: American Indian Schooling in the Twentieth Century.” Montana: the Magazine of Western History, 39 (Summer 1989): 44. Ryan held the position of director from 1930-1935, and when he retired Beatty took his position. 15

was reflective of deficient federal funding for education and the lack of safe schools built on the

Navajo reservation. In 1936, the reservation had a total of forty-six schools operating at different

levels of capacity; by 1946 the school board was forced to close nineteen of them.21 An entire

generation of Navajo youth was in danger of entering adulthood without any formal educational

training. Their special needs became the reason behind the BIA and the tribe formulating a plan

that contradicted many of the new policies affecting the rest of Indian education in the post-

WWII era.

The Earliest Frameworks of Navajo Education

Treaties between the United States and Indian tribes were legal contracts that documented

the land the tribes ceded to the federal government in return for various forms of compensation.

Prucha has examined how treaties defined the relationship between Indian tribes and the federal

government. “The Indian tribes, either willingly or because forced to do so, acknowledged in the

very treaties themselves,” he explains, “a degree of dependence upon the United States and a

consequent diminution of sovereignty.”22 The Treaty of 1868, signed by the Navajo at Fort

Sumner, established the first boundaries of the Navajo reservation which encompassed four million acres—a mere 10% of the aboriginal land once occupied by the tribe.23 By 1934 the

reservation had grown to 7.5 million acres and encompassed land in four states. Educational

stipulations outlined in the treaty stated:

21 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 86, 52.

22 Prucha, Great Father, 21.

23 O’Neill, Working the Navajo Way, 21. 16

In order to insure the civilization entering into this treaty, the necessity of education is admitted, especially of such of them as may be settle on said agricultural parts of this reservation, and they therefore pledge themselves to compel their children, male and female, between the ages of six and sixteen years, to attend school; and it is hereby made the duty of the agent for said Indians to see that this stipulation is strictly complied with.24

The treaty language required Navajo parents to “compel” their children to attend school, but until

the 1930s most Navajos showed little interest in promoting BIA education. In the treaty, the

United States promised to provide a proper structure, elementary teachers, and English

instruction for every thirty children enrolled in school. The number of day schools constructed

on the reservation correlated to school age childrens' attendance.25 Education remained in the background of Navajo concerns throughout the nineteenth century, with the tribe focused on farming and sheep herding.

Meanwhile, World War II brought significant changes to the Navajo reservation. Non- native education remained ineffective because most Navajo children never started their education. In 1924, Commissioner Charles Burke tried to enforce education on Navajo land through compulsory attendance. Burke's plan required students to complete the first three grades of elementary school at reservation day schools before moving them on to BIA boarding schools throughout the West to finish their education. Burke’s plan failed to recognize the role children occupied on the reservation. “Almost as serious in the Navajo mind as the forced removal of their children," Lawrence Kelly explains, "was the threat to their economic existence which the

24 “U.S. Treaty with the Navajos, 1868.” http://www.lapahie.com/Dine_Treaty.cfm. Accessed 2/23/09.

25 Lawrence Kelly. The Navajo Indians and Federal Indian Policy (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1968), 171. 17

compulsory school attendance posed- some children were needed at home to tend the sheep.”26

Parents chose to keep their children at home, surrounded by traditional knowledge and engaged in family occupational responsibilities.

By 1934, the BIA began building day schools on the Navajo reservation and as their

construction was completed and teaching staff expanded, Navajo student enrollment increased.

Suspicion remained for Navajo parents who viewed the developing day schools as an extension

of the hated Stock Reduction program. Their quick construction also proved to be a source of

problems due to poor planning and inadequate building supplies. Up to four schools were built in

the traditional style of the hogan, something the community appreciated.27 Students were

reluctant to accept all that they learned at school. Historian Davida Woerner described a young

Navajo student who used poetry to illustrate the community’s resistance to BIA education.

“Maybe you think I believe you/ That thing you say/ But my thoughts stay with me/

My own way.”28 The resistance experienced of parents to non-Indian education eroded

throughout the 1930s, but just when seemed that education was heading in a positive direction,

America entered WWII. Once again drastic changes reshaped the Navajo way of life.

WWII opened up employment opportunities for the Navajo people, either as enlistees in

the military or in the booming war production economy. Out of a population of 50,000 eligible

inductees, only 3,600 enlisted during WWII. Selective service agents found that over 88% of

eligible Navajo men were illiterate.29 Other tribal members left to find work off the reservation,

26 Kelly, The Navajo Indian and Federal Indian Policy, 174.

27 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 52-55.

28 Davida Woerner, “Education among the Navajo: An Historical Study” (Ph.D. Diss., Columbia University, 1941), 173.

18

and they typically sent money home for family members who were tending farms and livestock.

Soldiers wrote letters home recounting their travels, and they described their adjustment to the

military. Women wrote letters home offering insight into their military nurse training and

experiences. Their letters persuaded tribal leaders that the lack of non-Indian education on the

reservation would place Navajo youths leaving the reservation at a dangerous disadvantage. With

the growing awareness of the importance of a complete education, tribal leaders encouraged children to enroll in day schools.

As Navajo parents enrolled their children in reservation day schools, the glaring insufficiencies of the system became apparent. “The war brought the Navajo school system to its knees," Thompson explained, "Plants deteriorated, equipment broke down, funds were curtailed and teachers were scarce.”30 Nineteen day schools closed during the war years, and the trend

continued throughout the decade. Historian Margaret Szasz has argued that the divergences of

funds due to wartime costs led to school closures. When this was coupled with a population

boom on the reservation, the number of children without the ability to obtain an education

ballooned.31 Funding and support limitations due to the war and the movement of parents off the

reservation for wartime jobs forced day schools to meet in temporary, makeshift boarding

schools. This pushed teachers and resources past their limits. Longtime Navajo educational director Hildegard Thompson described one incident that illustrated the danger of these

“boarding schools.” “The chapter house,” she explained, “serving as a makeshift dormitory, heated by oil stoves and lighted by kerosene lamps, caught fire from a leaking stove and burned

29 Ibid., 97.

30 Ibid., 79.

31 Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 116-119. 19 to the ground.”32 No one was injured by the blaze, but it highlighted the dangers of the times and the circumstances. A traveling nurse who visited the reservation during these difficult years recounted her experience to Thompson in a letter:

Then some of the dormitories I got into! Some with bunk beds sleeping four children, one child at the head and one at the foot in each bed. As I look back I remember seeing few sheets at all. The schools that rotated top and bottom sheets were proud to point it out. The truck that carried the sick to the hospital just had a bare mattress in it- no sheet on it at all.33

The childrens' welfare remained at risk as long as inadequate educational facilities filled the need of both school and home. After the war ended, the troops returned home, and the long neglected educational system once again became a focus for the tribe and the federal government.

In 1946, the BIA sent Dr. George Sanchez to conduct a survey of the educational needs on the Navajo reservation. His findings further supported the numerous accounts provided by tribal members and educational workers of the desperate situation that was quickly eliminating opportunity for an entire generation of Navajos. He discovered that two-thirds of Navajo children had received no schooling, and that the median education for the entire Navajo population was one year. He estimated that to rebuild the reservation education infrastructure so that it could educate just three-fourths of potential students would cost 90 million dollars, which would still leave the remaining children (one-fourth) with the only option of being sent to off-reservation boarding schools.34 His findings supported Collier's claim that the Navajo reservation could only sustain a total population of 35,000 people, with the excess population needing to relocate to cities. His finding led Allen Harper, General Superintendent of the Navajo Agency, to address

32 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 75.

33 Ibid., 81.

34 Ibid., 78. 20 the Tribal Council and outline several options to combat the staggering statistics.35 While the debate continued over how to develop the reservation, thousands of Navajo children needed immediate assistance.

Developing a Solution for the Navajo Children

Dr. Beatty understood the urgency of the situation and in the summer of 1946 called for a study to outline the difficulties experienced under the current education system. He wanted to

“provide proof that the Navajo clamor for education was genuine and that, given the opportunity,

Navajos would enroll their children in school.”36 Before Beatty received the report, the Bureau of Budget announced it was refusing to allot money for new school construction until the vacant spaces available at western boarding schools had been filled. This would require children to fill these open spots in schools located from the West Coast to Oklahoma. Beatty doubted whether parents would allow their children to be taken so far from home. The Bureau of Budget's announcement was a drastic solution that contradicted the goals of the BIA which focused more on the strengthening of day schools and promoting public school education.

From August 26 to September 6, 1946, educational workers selected to work on this new project met at Fort Wingate, Arizona, to formulate a new curriculum specific to the special needs

35 Harper findings included; Of the 24,000 Navajo Children of school age, only 10,000 were at the time enrolled at school. His planned was based on anticipating the required Congressional appropriations; the expansion of the school system over the next three years was planned as follows: the day schools would be converted and expanded; the Intermountain facility at Brigham City, Utah, would be completed to provide for some 2,000 students. School Facilities at the Colorado River Irrigation Project would be built to provide for resettled Navajos. And finally, increased numbers of teenagers would be sent to various off-reservation boarding schools. Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 84.

36 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 81. Dr. Beatty used the report complied by Dr. Sanchez as proof of the determination and dedication felt by Navajo parents to provide their children with educational opportunity. 21

of Navajo youth at off-reservation school sites. For two weeks teachers, teacher-interpreters, and

administrators met to discuss the goals of the NSP. In five short years, children between the ages

of 12 to 18 needed to be equipped with the equivalent of a 12-year curriculum. Organizers

believed that limited exposure to non-Indian education prohibited Navajo youths from, "coping

with the customs and manners of society in general."37 The NSP hoped to solve these problems

with an all-encompassing curriculum focused on all aspects of the students’ lives, not just

academics.

The goals of the NSP were outlined in a pamphlet published in 1950 by the Department

of the Interior. It was titled "Adolescent Navajos Start School." The board of advisors stated that

the program's primary goal was "to give adult Navajo beginners an education that will equip

them to earn a livelihood either on or off the reservation."38 For years boarding schools had

promoted a motto of assimilation and acculturation. Because of the influence wielded by Collier,

Beatty, and Thompson, however, the NSP did not mirror earlier educational goals or curriculum.

One significant change in the BIA's approach involved its recognition of the importance of the

Navajo language. Using the student's native language, teachers introduced new concepts and

ideas to the children without the hindrance of a language barrier. The Navajo language was used

for three purposes: “a medium through which new ideas can be acquired more rapidly, a basis for

37 “Reports to Schools on Progress of the Special Five-Year Program,” was published regularly throughout the program. The information was gathered from the annual reports that each school submitted. The BIA published a few of these reports as pamphlets that were distributed into the public. This particular pamphlet is twenty-six pages in length, and it contains graphs demonstrating the progress the students had made.

38 “Adolescent Navajos Start School: United States Indian Service,” October [?], 1950, Chemawa School-Navajo Program, Box 29, Folder 2, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 4. This was another pamphlet published by the BIA, totaling 18 pages; it is illustrated with photos of Navajos children on the reservation and at the Sherman Institute. 22

learning English, and for testing the understanding that pupils have gained through English.”39 It

was significant that the program incorporated the use of the Navajo language, at this time and into the 1970s, Navajo students were not allowed to use their native language while on school grounds. Reyhner and Eder described an interview given by a school recruiter on the Navajo reservation in 1967. Pamela Cook remembered, “none of them [Navajo children] spoke English.

It was constantly drilled into us that the students were not allowed to speak Navajo.”40 Besides

using Navajo, student classrooms were divided into small groups of 4 to 5 students. Group work

allowed teachers to guide each group to its unique level of challenge, thereby promoting the

maximum level of learning.

Each year saw a steady progression toward a basic English vocabulary and the mastery of

comprehensive skills necessary for a vocational trade. During the first year of the program,

students received instruction on how to “develop good working habits and desirable attitudes

toward work,” and instructors and administrators focused on instilling a "proper" work ethic in

their students. When dealing with new students, teachers used interpreters during their lessons to

achieve maximum retention. By the second year, students began to acquire general vocational

skills, and for one-and-half hours a day they learned practical vocational skills for on and off

reservation use. The third year followed the same routine, but with a greater emphasis placed on

exposing children to a variety of "exploratory experiences" that exposed them to professional

skills.41 Not until the fourth year of the program did students devote more time to their

39 “Adolescent Navajos Start School,” October [?], 1950, Chemawa School-Navajo Program, Box 29, Folder 2, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 5.

40 Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 246.

41Ibid., 5. 23

vocational training. This contrasted with the traditional curriculum in boarding schools where

pupils spent the first half of their day with academic lessons and the second half in vocational or

home economics classes. The final years of the NSP focused on teaching students about "an

honest day's work," and the "requisites of good living in any community."42

Program officials believed that program expectations needed to be clear. “The most important phase of a pupil’s school program," one official wrote, "is the development of good attitude towards other people, towards himself, towards his work, and toward the problems he is learning to cope with daily.”43 Developing a poor attitude in any of these categories prevented

the students from receiving the full benefits of their schooling. Instructors also stressed the social

component of the program as a tool to teach Navajo children how society operated outside the reservation. To train pupils with skills without teaching them about the social expectation of their new environment negated the program.

All students entered the first level of the program whether they had prior schooling or not, but the curriculum was to test the students early in the program to discover their comprehension level. Completing the program provided students with a “Certificate of

Completion” or, if students did not meet the requirements of the program, they were awarded a

“Certificate of Attendance.” Students awarded the latter were encouraged to find jobs in the local area around the school and to continue their schooling. Program officials believed that “the difference lies in the rate at which pupils learn and in the time required to complete certain

42 Ibid., 5.

43 “Reports to Schools on Progress of the Special Five-Year Program at Eight Off- Reservation Indian Schools,” October [?], 1952, Sherman Institute- General 1946-1949, Box 2, Folder 2, [BIA] Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 24

learning’s [sic].”44 Not all Navajo students who enrolled in the program left with the same degree of knowledge, but teachers hoped that the skills developed while attending would open new opportunities for them.

In first year of the program, the majority of the planning fell to the teachers and

administration at the Sherman Institute. They took the goals of the program and tried to build

them into a working curriculum. The first year at Sherman provided a “live testing” of a bi-

lingual approach to education as-yet unused in America. The experiences there helped to shape

how the program functioned for the next thirteen years.

Preparing for the First School Year

Historian Madison Coombs submitted a report to the Department of the Interior in the

early 1960s which examined the successes, failures, and outcomes of the Navajo Special

Program. “The following pages attempt to tell the story of one experience in curriculum building

beginning in 1946. The children involved were not ordinary children,” Coombs explained. “They

had very special needs and problems which had been in the making for at least 60 years before

they were born.”45 Coombs investigated the formation of the program at its inception under the

guidance of program leader Hildegard Thompson.

The Sherman Institute at Riverside, California, welcomed its first group of Navajo

students in the fall of 1946. Administrators worried that parental prejudice against non-native

education might limit enrollment. Moreover, a traditional practice of Navajo families was that

44 “Reports to Schools on Progress of the Special Five-Year Program at Eight Off- Reservation Indian Schools,” October [?], 1952, Sherman Institute- General 1946-1949, Box 2, Folder 2, [BIA] Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

45 Coombs, Doorway Toward the Light,ix. 25

they generally permitted only one child to attend school for a season; the others stayed home to do farm chores or herd sheep. The following year, the children were rotated to allow all family members to have a limited amount of education.46 Communication between the school administrators and the Navajo tribe was problematic because few tribal members spoke or read

English. School officials relied upon the “Moccasin Telegraph” to carry the information about school registration from village to village, and there was no reliable means to track registrants.

As registration day approached, instructors met a final time to determine what criteria to use when evaluating a child. The group decided that any child would be accepted as long as he or she met the age requirements. “Upon completion of such a course, a 12-year-old child would be 17; a 14-year-old would be 19," Coombs explained. "It was recognized that there was small chance of holding most of them in school until a later age.”47 Elementary children were not

accepted because it was determined reservation day schools would be more appropriate for their

enrollment. Administrators began to investigate which schools best fit the needs of these

students and those of the program.

The First Year of the Navajo Special Program at Sherman Institute, 1946

The first school chosen for the relocation of Navajo students was the Sherman Institute

located in Riverside, California. The school allotted 208 spaces for Navajo students in 1946, and

early enrollment began that summer. The response was so overwhelming that Sherman

46 Ibid., 15.

47 Ibid., 17. 26

scrambled to accommodate more students. By the middle of October, 1946, another eighty-two students were admitted, bringing the total number of Navajo students to 290.48

Traveling from the Navajo reservation to Riverside, California, was an adventure for the

students because for many it was the first time that they had ever left the reservation. The first

year saw children from five different reservation locations needing transportation to a central

location before embarking on their trip to California. The vast size of the Navajo reservation

made this a logistical problem, for children were spread out over 18 million acres. Children

began amassing at Fort Wingate in New Mexico, and Tuba City, Arizona.49

Their arrival set in motion an extensive series of tests and paperwork. School officials

examined each registration form to ensure that a parent or guardian had given his or her consent,

and determined whether the child fit within the age restrictions. With the paperwork completed,

the children underwent chest x-rays to screen for tuberculosis, a disease with a high infection rate

on the reservation. Taken in a movable x-ray trailer, the children’s films determined whether or

not they would be accepted that year. No child with an active case of TB could leave the

reservation, but a student with an arrested case was allowed to enter the program. For those

students, the school issued instructions to monitor them closely. At times parents tried to enroll

underage children – those not yet twelve. When one parent was told to take the child home to

grow for two or three more years, the Navajo parent humorously responded by “telling the

interpreter to ask the supervisor, a person of petite stature, how she ever got in school.”50 During

48 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 94-95.

49 Coombs, Doorway Toward the Light, 24.

50 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 97. 27 these preparations which took several days, children stayed in makeshift housing until they boarded the trains for Riverside.

After saying goodbye to their loved ones at the gathering points of Fort Wingate or Tuba

City, the children boarded Santa Fe Railroad train cars for their long journey to the Sherman

Institute. On the heels of WWII, only limited numbers of boxcars were available for non- government transit, so the students and their chaperones were assigned to five “vintage” coach cars that had no air conditioning, the intense desert heat notwithstanding. One chaperone reported: “It is a matter of record that one young lady inadvertently dropped her purse, containing her entire wealth of $2, out a window. This was tragic but the supervisor commented the money and the purse could be replaced and she was only thankful that the young owner did not follow the purse.”51 As night fell, adults waded through the packed coaches, pulling students’ legs and arms from open windows as they slept in an effort to prevent any more unfortunate accidents involving the windows.52

For many, the excitement of the trip and settling into a new routine helped to ward off the first stages of homesickness, Thompson observed. Children began their studies immediately after arriving at the school in October. Class work began with students devoting three-fourths of their day to academic studies and one-fourth to vocational training. In order to monitor the progress made by the students, any pupil who understood English well enough took the California

Achievement Test. The results helped teachers to organize small groups that matched children with similar educational abilities. School officials discovered that forty-five students had scored at a rate comparable to their non-Indian peers, so they were placed in mainstream classrooms. Of

51 Coombs, Doorway Toward Light, 24.

52 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 97. 28

the other 290 students, over 35% had no formal schooling, and 45% scored at a comprehension level between first-to-fourth grades. Ten percent scored at a fifth-to-sixth grade level which meant they could read and speak at a “conversational” level of English, though almost entirely in

Navajo.53

Teachers and teacher-interpreters met daily to discuss lesson plans for each small group

to ensure a cohesive curriculum. For most groups, teachers outlined the day's work for the

Navajo aides who taught the lesson in Navajo. Teachers then taught simple sentences in English

Figure 1: A typical classroom for the Navajo Special Program54

53 Coombs, Doorway Toward Light, 29.

54 “Adolescent Navajos Start School,” October [?], 1950, Chemawa School-Navajo Program, Box 29, Folder 2, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 9. 29

that corresponded to their lesson to ensure that students grasped the meaning behind the words

they were asked to repeat. To end the lesson, a Navajo aid questioned the children in Navajo to

ensure that the pupils understood the instruction.

Teachers discovered that Navajo pupils reacted differently in classroom settings Teachers

discovered that Navajo pupils reacted differently in classroom settings compared to most

American students. “Striving to get ahead in the world, to rise above the crowd by dint of ability,

energy, and ambition is held to be a high virtue." Coombs explained. "The opposite had always

been true in Navajo culture. To try to outshine one’s peers, to attract special attention to oneself

as an individual was considered to be in very bad taste.”55 The competitive edge that sprang from

American individualism clashed with the collectivist ethic that typified their traditional upbringing, and this required teachers to find other forms of motivation.

The intense academic structure of the NSP prohibited the Navajo students from completing the same level of “school chores” compared to the rest of the student body. Most non-Navajo Indian children spent their days in a half-and-half pattern; half their day was devoted to academic training, while the other half focused on vocational exercises, including school chores. Non-Navajo students and faculty complained that the Navajo students did not carry their share of the work load, but NSP supervisors opposed any alteration to the program. “Every minute must count in this special program to accomplish in five years the goals outlined,"

Thompson stated, and "therefore, they could not afford to waste a half day doing chores.”56

Navajo students' days differed from the other students in the amount of time spent on chores, but they completed their assigned tasks. Ultimately the academic/vocational ratio involving these

55 Ibid., 30.

56 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 101. 30

Navajo children led to boarding school reform in the years that followed, favoring a shift from

vocational training to more standardized academic work.

While most of the school day focused on academic or vocational training, teachers and

aides encouraged children to become active in organizations and clubs to help them adjust to

non-Indian work settings. Students joined a number of clubs, with some involved in six-to-

twelve clubs. Weekly assemblies allowed teachers and dorm matrons to monitor the pupils to

assess how their work in the classroom, dormitories, and clubs had progressed.57 Gathered

together, the students presented reports and delivered speeches on what they learned about basic

behavior and mannerism associated with white culture. A cornerstone of the program was

preparing students for the workplace. For example, Navajos traditionally greeted people with a

limp handshake and a lowered gaze as a sign of respect, but instructors feared that white employers would view these mannerisms negatively. Continuing with the practice would prevent

them from making a favorable first impression.58 Teachers and instructors, moreover, operated

under the assumption that most students in the program would find work away from home.

The administration also hoped to prevent “poor living habits” by coordinating an

everyday living course. The interdisciplinary program demanded cooperation between the home

economics department, the "advisory department" (known today as school administrators),

teachers, and teacher-interpreters (these were native Navajo speakers that were used as teacher

aids).59 In this course of study students learned general housekeeping duties, how to care for

57 “Reports to Schools on Progress of the Special Five-Year Program at Eight Off- Reservation Indian Schools,” October [?], 1952, Sherman Institute- General 1946-1949, Box 2, Folder 2, [BIA] Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 5.

58 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 104.

31

personal clothing, proper dining room behavior, and correct table manners. The need for

interdisciplinary cooperation was integral to the success of the program.

An important element of the program that students engaged in on their arrival involved

learning how to spend and save money. Student banks helped Navajo pupils to learn how to

deposit and withdraw money, and there were “no staff restrictions on amounts pupils can

withdraw from their personal funds and no requirements on spending it.”60 Although most

aspects of the program focused on academic, vocational, or social aspects, students managed to

participate in other club events and other activities meant solely for enjoyment.

Figure 2: Example of NSP bank at the Phoenix Indian School61

59 “Reports to Schools on Progress of the Special Five-Year Program at Eight Off- Reservation Indian Schools,” October [?], 1952, Sherman Institute- General 1946-1949, Box 2, Folder 2, [BIA] Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 5.

60 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk for Education, 104.

61 “Adolescent Navajos Start School,” October [?], 1950, Chemawa School-Navajo Program, Box 29, Folder 2, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 7. 32

Students at Sherman became innovative when it came to enjoyment. The Bicycle Club

started after a group of Navajo boys “borrowed” a bike from a grounds keeper. They returned the

bike and then asked, “If we can get five dollars can we buy a bicycle?” Their interest prompted

several teachers to seek ways for them to acquire bicycles. A supervisor found a stock of old

bicycles for exactly five dollars a piece, and he persuaded authorities in Washington, D.C. to advance the funds to purchase the bikes. The boys repaired the bicycles and got them in working order. To prevent them from being used too roughly, the boys set ground rules for when and where the bicycles could be used.62 The Bicycle Club "caught on" and remained active for

several of years. Instructors used the “borrowing of the bike" model and the resulting Bicycle

Club to illustrate the importance of eliminating the causes of delinquent behavior. The B.C.

illustrated an innovative response to behavior which might have otherwise been punished.

Eliminating poor behavior and preventing the degradation of the Navajo culture were

minor details of the NSP compared to the intense homesickness and separation anxiety students

experienced while being bombarded with new ideas and customs at every turn. Either through

the success of the program or the resilience of the students, only five of the 290 failed to finish

their first year. When teachers asked students about returning in the fall, most appeared eager to

resume their studies and to finish their program. One boy was uncertain about his return. When

asked why he replied: “I’m worried about my women.” The boy was only twelve, so his

confused teacher asked him to explain who his “women” were. The answer shocked his teacher,

but it reminded her of the sacrifices made by families that sent their children away. The boy took

care of his grandmother and his younger sister, and he worried about their wood and water

supply during the winter. The teacher contacted a BIA agent on the Navajo reservation who

62 Ibid., 105. 33

visited the home to ensure the child’s family’s well being. That same individual made

arrangements with a neighbor to keep his grandmother and sister warm and supplied with water

throughout the winter. Reassured, the boy completed the year and planned to return. His story,

however, illustrated the heavy burden carried by many of these Navajo youths.63 Teachers,

instructors, and interpreters received special instruction for NSP students in an effort to help the

adjustment of the new students and prevent painful and overwhelming experiences.

While the teachers tried to instill in their students an understanding of how to maneuver in mainstream society, the program took special precautions against degrading their culture.

Before the school year began, staff members underwent instructions on how to handle Navajo culture with respect and understanding. The plan outlined four policies intended to place the children’s best interests first. When Navajo children first arrived, the staff paid special attention to preventing the child from feeling inferior or apologetic for not understanding customs they

had not yet been exposed to. To help them adapt to their new environment, teachers explained

each new lesson thoroughly, so students grasped what they were learning, why they were

learning it, and the importance of the lesson. The use of their native culture and language also

helped the students with their lessons. To help address the problem of homesickness, the school

served familiar foods such as mutton and fried bread.64 Whether the staff succeeded in creating

a positive environment for the Navajo Students varied from location to location, but the

program’s acceptance of Navajo culture stood in stark contrast to the boarding schools of the late

nineteenth century. The children’s willingness to return for another year of school encouraged

the NSP’s executive board to start programs in two more schools the following year.

63 Coombs, Doorway Toward Light, 35.

64 Ibid., 31. 34

The End Results of the First Year

After the first year, students re-took the California Progressive Achievement Test so teachers and administrators could measure their progress. In the initial planning stages of the program, educational instructors believed that older children would have a higher rate of comprehension, thereby enabling them to learn at an accelerated rate. Teachers expected the older students to master three years of material in one school year so that in the first three years these pupils reached goals set for students entering high school, with the two remaining years directed toward developing trade skills. The test results verified their intellectual capabilities, and they allowed for adjustments to be made for the next year. For comparison purposes, administrators created three categories: the entire student population, beginning level students, and advanced students. Results for the 86 girls and 189 boys can be seen in the following figures taken from Madison Coombs’ Doorway Towards the Light:

Greatest Progress: Median Progress

Girls------3 years 9 months 1 year 4 months Boys------3 years 9 months 1 year 6 months 65

The results for students considered beginners at the start of the program (Students with no prior academic exposure):

Greatest Progress Least Progress Median Progress 2 years 8 months 2 years 0 months 2 years 5 months66

65 Ibid., 33.

66 Ibid., 34.

35

The results for students considered more advanced academically before they arrived:

Greatest Progress Least Progress Median Progress 2 years 4 months 3 months 1 year 3 months67

The smaller increase of the more advanced learners suggested to instructors that students at the more advanced levels needed instruction to be delivered at a slower pace, with more time for understanding the significance of their lessons. Children at the beginner level quickly integrated basic English vocabulary, but as the lessons increased in difficulty teachers had to be certain that each student understood the lesson. The plan to keep the program at five years remained unchanged, but both administrators and teachers recognized that curricular changes and the academic timeline had to be fluid.

Program instructors closely followed the Sherman class of 1952 even after its graduation, to monitor the effectiveness of the program outside the school setting. One reason for the program’s continued interest was in tracking the dropouts and non-returnees explanations for their decisions not to return to their studies. Administrators hoped to eliminate obstacles that prevented full participation in the program. Reasons for non-completion varied. Students in their early twenties found employment with road construction crews when they returned to the reservation; some got married; some remained at home for family reasons; others simply chose not to return.68 The school monitored the graduates by checking on their current positions. The official reason stated for the intrusive post-graduation follow up was to detect weaknesses in their training. School officials checked with the students’ employers, landlords, and neighbors, and they inquired about former students’ level of assimilation into the dominant culture. They even asked landlords about their housekeeping habits. “At one such follow-up," Thompson

67 Ibid., 34.

68 Thompson, The Navajos’ Long Walk, 107. 36

observed, "the landlady had only one complaint – the boys never washed the bathtub after

bathing.” This prompted teachers to instruct children not only in proper showering techniques, but also “the proper care of home bathtubs.”69 The demanding standards placed on these graduates illustrate the commitment of the instructors to provide the best education they could offer. It also indicated the school's interest in the personal success of its students after graduation.

In its first year, the only school to receive NSP students was the Sherman Institute, but the program's success persuaded officials to expand the program to ten other schools.

With the perceived success of the first year of the NSP by administrators, a search began to locate other possible schools. In 1947 the Chilocco Indian School located near Newkirk,

Oklahoma, the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Carson Indian School

(Stewart Indian School) in Carson City, Nevada, accepted Navajo students and expanded the program by several hundred children. Planning and construction continued on the Navajo reservation, but the need for immediate education continued to grow. By 1948 the program added three more schools: Albuquerque Indian School in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Cheyenne-

Arapaho School in Concho, Oklahoma; and Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. The arrival of the Navajos at Chemawa in 1948 drastically altered the demographics and mission of the school.

In 1933, Chemawa teachers and local citizens were fighting to keep the school open at a time when the major trend in federal Indian education focused on sending Indian children to public and/or day schools. Boarding schools were slowly being closed, and by 1933 Collier had alerted Director Ryan about Chemawa’s impending closure. For the next decade, teachers administrators, lawmakers, and local citizens lobbied continuously for enough funds to keep the

69 Ibid., 113. 37 school open. The arrival of the first 200 Navajo students in 1948 ended the year-to-year battle to keep the school open and brought a new challenge to the staff and community members of

Chemawa. 38

Chapter Two

Chemawa Indian Boarding School: From an Assimilationist Boarding School to a Polytechnic Institution, 1885-1948

By the time I was ten they (parents) were both passed away...[Coming to Chemawa] was the best thing that ever happened to me...I always said I thought I died and went to Indian heaven (laughter). To see all the Indian kids all in the dining room together, or all in the auditorium, all in the bleachers at the game.

Harriet (Grand Ronde/ Aleut) ca. January, 1996 to April, 1997

There was a lot of animosity between the Navajos and what we called the regulars,that was us. They were like a little tribe sitting right there in the middle of all of us. They had their own Navajo instructors...They were a pretty strong entity. It’s like me and my brother and sister in a white school, we had to put your backs to each other. That’s kinda what they did. So the relationship between the Navajos and regulars wasn’t all that strong.

Walt (Siletz/ Yakima tribe) ca. January, 1996 to April, 1997

The twentieth century brought change and uncertainty to Chemawa in the aftermath of

the Meriam Report (published in 1928), and the BIA’s shift away from boarding schools. Tribes,

community members, and politicians joined in the effort to preserve Chemawa and the services it

offered, which went beyond its educational opportunities. The negative image of federal

boarding schools did not deter parents from sending their children to the school from as far away

as Minnesota and southern California. The motivated school staff, tribal members, local

community activists, and politicians’ support of the school uncovered a variety of interests

served at Chemawa. For some, the students were not the primary concern, because some feared

the strain placed on state agencies by a flood of new dependent children. For many students at

Chemawa, the school became a haven, where they felt secure in their Indian identity around other students. Harriet, a Grand Ronde/ Aleut, said that, “I thought I died and went to Indian 39

heaven.”1 Meanwhile, BIA officials failed to recognize the important role that Chemawa

fulfilled for the Northwest tribes. By 1933, Chemawa was in danger of being closed. For the next

fifteen years, the school and its many supporters would argue for the continued services of

Chemawa. The school managed to survive the attempts to reallocate its funding, and by 1948 it

began serving another function for the BIA with the installation of the NSP.

The BIA chose to place the NSP at Chemawa because it could accommodate the program quickly and efficiently. The Chemawa campus had once hosted the largest Indian student population in the Northwest, and it had the facilities to accept new students immediately.

Because Chemawa had never closed its doors, the program did not have to wait for support staff

to be hired and for buildings to be refurnished. It also had experience dealing with specific

groups of native children with special needs. Until 1930, for instance, Alaskan Native children

from isolated villages had been sent to Chemawa, but the BIA suspended that relationship

because it hoped to send them to schools closer to home. By the 1950s, however, the BIA

resumed sending Alaskan Native students to Chemawa.

The introduction of the NSP at Chemawa met with resistance from the school's

administration, and staff and teachers balked at complying with BIA Education Director Beatty

and NSP Director Thompson’s demands because of their concerns for their regular students. The

influx of NSP students created conflicts with the regular students who resented the privileged

status of the NSP students. Navajo students slowly displaced the regular program. Between 1949

and 1954, records show that the number of children in the lower grades at Chemawa declined to

make room for the older NSP students. Chemawa’s relationship with Northwest Indian students

was long-standing, but with the introduction of the NSP its relationship with the pre-NSP student

1 Sonciray Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School: The First One hundred Years, 1880 to 1980” (M.A. Thesis, Dartmouth College, 1997), 78. 40

population was drastically altered. The non-NSP students lost their place at a school they once

called home.

Early History of Chemawa, 1880-1933

The federal government commissioned the establishment of two American Indian schools

in 1879: the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, and the Forest Grove Indian Industrial and

Training school in Oregon Territory.2 The beginning of the federal Indian education system was

both welcomed and resisted as opposition questioned the effectiveness of the education and

training that the students received. Others balked at using federal funds for Indian education.

Treaty provisions between Indian tribes and the federal government mandated that education be

provided for Indian children, but frequently they failed to specify in what manner.3 After

Congress approved funding for the school, the responsibility for finding students fell on regional

Indian agencies and military officials. Officials recruited Indian children from the Western

United States, specifically from Washington and Oregon territory.4

2 Historians SuAnn Reddick and Cary Collins have both published materials that trace the start and early development of the school that would be later known as Chemawa Indian School. By their understanding the word Chemawa is a Chemeketa word that could mean, “happy home,” “gravelly soil,” or “a place where no one lives.” Chemawa has also been attributed to other tribes, but the most commonly accepted form is a variation of the Chemeketa word. The multitude of meanings for the word reflects the complex history it has as a place of forced assimilation and as an unexpected refuge for Indian children.

76. Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 10.

4 SuAnn Reddick, “Evolution of Chemawa Indian School: From Red River to Salem, 1825 – 1885.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, 98 (Spring 1997): 444. Reddick worked closely with historian Cary Collins to publish complimentary articles in the Oregon Historical Quarterly in Spring 1997. Her research focuses on the formation of the school, where the location was finally allocated, and how the BIA convinced Northwestern tribes to send their children to Chemawa. 41

In 1880, Lieutenant M.C. Wilkinson brought the first group of pupils from the Puyallup

Reservation in Washington Territory. Forest Grove Indian School had been established in 1880 at in Forest Grove, Oregon, but, due to the location of the school, deficient funding, and the rejection by the Forest Grove local community, the school struggled until 1885, when the school officials decided to move the school to its present site, on the outskirts of Salem,

Oregon Territory.5 Congress allocated $20,000 for the move, and Salem residents donated 177

acres five miles north of the city. Salem residents were eager for the relocation of the school to

their community because of the influx of federal money to the area. Construction began on

February 20, 1885, with Indian boys providing much of the labor. The school, which came to be

known as the Chemawa Indian School, opened on October 14, 1885, with over 200 students in

attendance. The school bought an additional 82 acres to bring the total to 262 acres, most of

which was bought with students’ wage money and developed by student labor.6 The student

work force slashed and burned the land for the buildings, plowed five acres, built numerous

buildings, including a laundry, woodshed, shoe shops, blacksmith forge, bake ovens, outhouses, and a road. After completing these projects, the workers began the construction of school

buildings in the summer of 1885. Superintendent John Lee purchased the last 82 acres using the

5 Ibid., 455. For more information about the early political development of Chemawa, see Reddick’s article. The main focus of her research is the motivation behind moving the school to its permanent location in Salem.

6 Ibid., 462. Cary Collins, “Through the Lens of Assimilation: Edwin L. Chalcraft and Chemawa Indian School.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, 98 (Spring 1997): 398. Collins listed the various names associated with Chemawa as: Normal and Industrial Training School, Forest Grove Indian School, Salem Industrial School, and Harrison Institution; for this paper it will simply be referred to as Chemawa Indian School. 42 students’ wages earned working local hops field during the summer. When Chemawa opened, it was a school primarily bought and built by its Indian students.7

Figure 3: Main Entrance of Chemawa Indian School, circa 19338

7 Ibid., 463.

43

In 1894, Superintendent Edwin Chalcraft arrived at Chemawa, intent on assimilating the

students into American society by using regimentation, student labor, and discipline. Chalcraft

had already gained a reputation in the BIA for his work with Indian children. As a reward for his

service he was given the leadership of Chemawa. After only four months in his position, political maneuvering caused Chalcraft’s termination as superintendent; he successfully lobbied for a return to his old post in 1904.9 Chalcraft expanded enrollment to over 600 students, with a staff of fifty people. His assimilationist attitude typified early BIA superintendents administering federal policy at Indian boarding schools. “Attention...[was] about equally divided in training both the hand and the mind,” Chalcraft explained, “the object being to prepare the students to go forth after graduation and take their place with other citizens of our country.”10 The equal split

between the vocational and academic curriculum at Chemawa prepared students for future

employment and provided them with fundamental academic knowledge. In 1910, Chalcraft’s

tenure ended over an episode involving corporal punishment, which had been outlawed in federal

Indian schools since 1904.11

8 Chemawa Indian Boarding School, The Tepee, Chemawa Annual, (Chemawa, Oregon: Chemawa Print Shop, 1933), 28.

9 Collins, “Through the Lens of Assimilation.” 397. Cary Collins earned his Ph.D. at Washington State University, and focused his research for his dissertation on Edwin Chalcraft, one of Chemawa’s Superintendants. Collin’s book, Assimilation’s agent: My Life as a Superintendant in the Indian Boarding School System ( Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), recounts the work of Chalcraft at Chemawa from 1894—1910.

10 Ibid., 404.

11 Ibid., 414. The incident involving corporal punishment occurred when thirteen female students left their dormitory building past curfew and walked about a mile from the school. Chalcraft suspected that the girls left to meet up with boys who lived close to the school. For punishment, Chalcraft struck the girls across their backs and shoulders with a switch and forced the leaders of the group to whip the other girls until they cried. 44

With Chalcraft’s dismissal, Chemawa shifted from assimilation and “old type college preparatory schools,” to a polytechnic degree focus.12 Between the 1912 and 1933, the school accommodated the changing philosophies in Indian education. Course offerings at Chemawa for male students included farming, gardening, horticulture, dairying, harness making, tailoring, steam engineering, electric work, and plumbing for trade jobs. Domestic classes for the female students included training in cooking, dress making, housekeeping, and nursing.13 Educational courses beginning at the elementary level included English, science, math, U.S. history, government, citizenship, and music.14 Teachers also offered courses for fourteen-to-twenty-year- olds who needed additional training in remedial arithmetic, reading, writing, spelling, English, citizenship, and health.15 Chemawa emphasized vocational training, hoping that its students' experience and knowledge would increase their job opportunities after graduation.

Chemawa gradually moved away from its focus on the first-through-eighth grades approach for a vocational school. In 1928 the school adopted the outing system that had been

12 Patrick McKeehan, “The History of Chemawa Indian School” (Ph.D. Diss., , 1981), 146. McKeehan takes on the formidable task of providing a comprehensive narrative of Chemawa. Much of his primary research is based on “The Chemawa American,” the regularly published school newspaper. Calendars of events, school elections, clubs and athletic programs, and student and teacher-submitted columns were printed in the newsletter. McKeehan’s research provides a broad and general description of Chemawa’s history, including the years of the NSP.

13 Ibid., 121.

14 Ibid., 153-154.

15 Burton Lemmon, “The Historical Development of the Chemawa Indian School” (M.A. Thesis, Oregon State College, 1941), 60. Lemmon’s paper is a study with three aims: offering authentic data about the school; tracking the school’s growth; and evaluating the objectives of the institution. His work provides insights into the school’s pre-NSP years, focusing on lesson plans and student schedules. He also provides primary documents administrative personnel and BIA officials’ discussions about funding, attendance, and the effectiveness of the program.

45

developed at Carlisle Indian School by Captain Pratt. The plan sent Indian students into non-

Indian homes where they learned “those homely virtues of thrift, honesty, industry, and

perseverance that are the dominant characteristics of our best American home life.”16 In addition

to the new outing program, the school started a new curriculum that “favored practicality over

pure academics.” An editorial in The Oregonian urged boarding schools to recognize and

appreciate the culture of their Indian students by shifting away from assimilationist agendas to

economic training. “The better method now in prospect holds promise of a uniform raising of

the general level of economic efficiency,” it read. “This, we take it, is the larger purpose of

Indian schools.”17 To provide a more modern secondary vocational school, Chemawa offered

auto-mechanic training, baking, barbering, power house (stationary engineering), farm mechanics, shoe repairing, tailoring, welding, and restaurant cooking.18 As Chemawa

implemented new courses to develop a greater likelihood for future student employment, in

1931, BIA officials and Congress began questioning the relevance of Chemawa Indian School.

As reservation day schools and public schools attracted more children in the 1920s, the

federal government began closing boarding schools across the West. Meanwhile, Chemawa tried

to postpone its impending demise by restructuring itself as a vocational school. In 1931, Charles

Moore, BIA Supervisor of Indian Education, visited Chemawa to evaluate its performance and to

survey nearby reservations. Moore suggested eliminating all grades under grade seven, and

limiting its enrollment to Indian children from the Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and California.19

16 McKeehan, “The History of Chemawa Indian School,” 141.

17 Ibid., 145.

18 Lemmon, “The Historical Development of the Chemawa Indian School,” 56 – 57.

19 McKeehan, “The History of Chemawa Indian School,” 154. 46

In response to Moore’s recommendation, BIA officials ordered the school to discontinue its

grade school classes and to focus on vocational training. In putting that policy into effect, the

student body enrollment declined precipitously; in 1927, 1,100 students were enrolled. That

number dropped to 650 in 1931, and to only 200 in 1933. The largest boarding school in the west

was no longer the largest.

In the spring of 1933, rumors circulated that Chemawa might close, prompting a

campaign by Indians and non-Indians to stall its closing. Pastor Fairweather, a Baptist Minister

on the Umatilla Reservation, wrote to Representative Pierce, outlining why the school should not

be closed. The first objection detailed in Fairweather’s letter described Indian parents’ fears over

the preferential treatment white students received in public school. They complained that

integrating Indian children into public school systems was generally a failure for Indian children.

Tribes also asserted that closing Indian boarding schools was a violation of treaty provisions.

Finally, McKeehan explains, “Chief Gilbert Minthorn, very vehemently stated, that they

[Indians] had always been treated as a bunch of children, and never were asked what they wanted, not what they thought they should have.” Other community members claimed that the closing was a “Breach of Faith” that violated the treaties that promised Indians an education.20

Chemawa supporters' immediate and intense reaction demonstrated their understanding of the

positive functions of the school.

Education was not the only need filled by Chemawa. The school became something of a

foster home for some children who no longer had homes. In 1934, Chemawa was home for 42

orphans, 243 students from isolated areas, and 310 students from problem homes.21 State

20 Ibid., 162.

21 Ibid., 163. 47

officials and community members worried about who would become responsible for those

children if Chemawa closed. Several states' welfare and foster care systems would be flooded by

Indian children no longer being cared for by federal funds. Support for Chemawa was not solely

inspired by advocating federal responsibility for Indian children, but out of concern over

allocating larger amounts of state funding.

Chemawa students understood the economic disadvantage they would face if they were

placed in public schools. Julia, a student between 1938 to 1941 from the Puyallup tribe, was

interviewed in 1997 about her experience at the school.22 “There wasn’t any income and I

wanted to continue school,” she explained. “Not having any income I couldn’t go to public

school.”23 School officials argued that the only chance that these neglected students had for an

adequate education was at Chemawa. The school waited anxiously to hear if officials in

Washington, D.C. would keep the school open one more year or if the students would have to

make other arrangements.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier told Superintendent Carson Ryan that

Chemawa would open in the fall of 1933, but at the reduced enrollment of 200 students. Before

the school year started, though, Senator Charles McNary of Oregon met with President

Roosevelt and secured funding for 300 students by special allowance.24 Senator McNary

personally met with President Roosevelt to discuss the future of Chemawa, and he asked for

22 Although Julia would be enrolled at Chemawa later than the time period discussed, her experience was reflective of students at the schools a few years earlier.

23 Bonnell, “Chemawa Boarding School,” 61. Bonnell’s thesis is an oral history account of the school from various students that attended. Bonnell collected numerous oral histories that she developed into a narrative from the perspectives of the children and their experiences at the school from 1917 to 1985. Bonnell refers to her oral history participants by their first names only. 24 McKeehan, “The History of Chemawa Indian School,” 166. 48

extra funding to be set aside to allow 300 students to be admitted. The President agreed to

McNary’s request, and Commissioner Collier was informed that the “President had agreed to

continue to operate Chemawa as a vocational and polytechnic school.25 In a letter detailing the

school’s importance, Ryan wrote: “The objective in mind for the Salem School is to provide training that will assist Indian youth to earn a living in the area served by this school.”26 This

goal notwithstanding, Chemawa struggled to place its graduates in paid positions in the Salem

area, which left them in a vulnerable position for securing funding.

Talk of closing the school continued from 1933 to 1948, with local community members

and politicians lobbying for adequate funds to keep the doors open. Opinion in the Washington,

D.C. BIA education office was typified by Ryan’s assessment: “It is my [Ryan] feeling that

unless we can proceed to build up the school it will be better to end the agony and have it

close.”27 Through perseverance by its supporters, the school did not close the next year,

maintaining an enrollment of approximately 300 until the beginning of the NSP in 1948. With

the existence of the school in question from year to year, the superintendent and school officials

worked on strengthening their vocational program and placement along with implementing a

new course of study.

Administrators thought that if they provided more knowledge of reservation life students

would retain their cultural connection with their various tribes. During the 1939-40 school year,

students were offered the opportunity of taking the Reservation Survey Course. Teachers used

the course to inform their students about employment opportunities on their reservations and in

25 Ibid., 166.

26 Ibid., 167.

27 Ibid., 176. 49 surrounding areas to help guide them in their choice of vocational training. Historian Patrick

McKeehan described the program: “Each homeroom had a council that was patterned on and followed parliamentary rules observed by the actual tribal councils of the tribes from which they came,” McKeehan explained. “They studied minutes of actual tribal council meetings and then had their own discussions on the same issues.”28 Focusing on the children’s native heritage demonstrates how far the school had progressed from its assimilationist roots. Chemawa had been criticized for failing to prepare its students adequately for employment after graduation, and teachers hoped that this new approach would make students more employable at home. Getting students employed temporarily near Salem, however, was fraught with economic and cultural problems.

Even as the school emphasized vocational training and economic advancement, a polytechnic program was not its singular goal. Superintendent Evans reported that Chemawa continued to be “maintained primarily for orphans, wards of the courts, children from broken homes, delinquents, children who do not have public school facilities available in their home areas, and other special cases.”29 Children depended upon Chemawa for shelter and security as did several state welfare agencies. The demands on Chemawa prevented it from complying with

Washington’s expectation of converting to a polytechnic high school, because Oregon and surrounding states did not have the resources to support the children at Chemawa. Many students fell below the appropriate age for a polytechnic school, precluding Chemawa from becoming a

28 Ibid., 183. McKeehan listed the goals of the program as follows: teaching the students to learn about and participate in the solving of problems on their reservation; providing knowledge about Indian feasts, celebrations, legends, customs, traditions, religion, and history; informing the students about the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934; and educating students about tribal lands, allotted lands, alienated lands, heirship lands, and individual and cooperative lands.

29 Ibid., 184. 50

vocational educational center. Its role continued to be problematic as the NSP students arrived on

campus.

The Challenge of the NSP to Chemawa

Before the arrival of the Navajo children in 1948, Chemawa’s regular students waited anxiously to hear if their school would be open for one more year. The strain this placed on them was recorded in the “Chemawa American,” the Chemawa student body newsletter. The

December 1947 issue reported that a total of 400 students were enrolled at Chemawa, with 198 children in grades one-through-six, and 211 students in grades seven-to-twelve.30 The list of

student organizations included art club, music club, dancing club, drama and speech club, Junior

Red Cross, charm club, pep club, handcraft club, and ag club.31 One hundred percent of the

students participated in at least one club during their time at Chemawa. Teachers believed that

clubs helped students develop a fuller understanding of American culture and that they kept them

busy and out of trouble. Classes remained on a half-and-half program, with academics and

vocational training sharing equal portions of the students’ day. The rest their day was spent

completing chores around the school. Being busy helped, but the threat of the school closing

loomed over them.

The threat of closure was a worrisome theme for Chemawa students and staff. Aloysius

Slickpoo wrote an editorial in the December 1947 “Chemawa American” that expressed his

pleasure at returning, but it issued a warning to students about their educational opportunities at

Chemawa. “Now that we possess such a great opportunity let us all in our best [sic] efforts to get

30 “Chemawa American,” December 7, 1947, Chemawa General File, 1946-1949. General Subject Files, ca. 1935-1951, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 1.

31 Ibid., 1. 51

all the education we can in order that we may help develop an unproved [sic] Indian race,”

Slickpoo wrote. “For some day we will face the task of being on our own. The world is

changing-let us change with it. We have the opportunity. Let us make the best of it. Climb or

Drop,” he intoned.32 Slickpoo’s challenge to his fellow students contained a message that

promoted American Indian unity. “Boarding schools-by concentrating youth from different tribes

for years away from their parents and requiring them to speak English-helped to create a pan-

Indian movement," Reyhner and Eder contend, "that finally gave Columbus’s inaccurate term

'Indian' some semblance of meaning.”33 Students created bonds at schools such as Chemawa that went deeper than tribal affiliation, and those bonds advanced a cohesive movement that

promoted equal rights for American Indians. Differences among Indian tribes were many, but in

boarding schools children from tribes across the country met and connected with one another. A

source of pride for Chemawa was the diversity of its students which was threatened with the introduction of the NSP. Although Navajo students added yet another tribal group to Chemawa, their appearance marked the start of the demise of the regular program.

Chemawa first received word to begin phasing out non-Navajo students in 1947.

Opposition to the program appeared in 1949 from area social worker, Consuelo Gosnel, who sent a detailed report to the Branch of Welfare and Placement in Washington, D.C., about the possible impact of the NSP at Chemawa if the regular program was suspended. “We would like to see a bang-up, highly diversified program, developed at Chemawa, geared to the aptitudes and capacities, including the mental ability, of the children, to see the children given broad opportunities for learning through experience in general living,” Gosnel wrote, “while mingling

with other groups, and to see specialized attention given to individual needs of children by the

32 Ibid., 2.

33 Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 199. 52

boarding school itself.”34 Gosnel objected to Hildegard Thompson and Director Beatty’s

suggestion that Chemawa should reduce its regular enrollment and eliminate its elementary

program. Correspondence between Chemawa, the NSP, and Washington officials demonstrated a

dilemma over the eagerness for the program to grow and flourish on the one hand, and school

officials’ reluctance to forsake their roots on the other. Chemawa came under heavy scrutiny

from NSP officials Runyan, Hall, and Thompson in 1948-1949, as the school was evaluated for

its readiness for the NSP.

After the publication of the Meriam Report in 1928, Chemawa entertained visitors from

the BIA regional offices based out of Portland, who conducted a variety of studies and reports

that were sent back to Washington, D.C. In October of 1948, ninety- three Navajo students

arrived at Chemawa, with a total of 76 boys and 17 girls. The students were gathered from all

parts of the Navajo reservation, and they arrived at the school after two days on a train. With the arrival of the Navajo students, NSP officials expressed more pronounced urgency for Chemawa to develop workable solutions for the program’s success. Thompson and her staff knew previous reports had questioned the school’s success in placing its graduates in the workforce and the effectiveness of the half-and-half day schedule. Chemawa school officials responded to the criticism by trying to adapt to the new trends in Indian education, hoping to keep their school open. When the staff was informed that Chemawa had been selected as a location for the NSP, more studies and reports were completed to determine the school’s capability to implement the program. Beatty advocated for discontinuing the lower grades at Chemawa and for providing more housing and materials for the Navajo students. Over the first months of the program at

34 Gosnel to Gifford, August 27, 1951, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 4. 53

Chemawa in 1948, Chemawa and BIA education officials debated how large a role Chemawa

would play in the NSP.

For years Chemawa's secondary role was one that involved providing an unofficial foster

home for American Indian students. Principal Pryse sent a memo to the Agency Superintendents

that detailed which students the school took in and why. Students still admitted at Chemawa

included orphans or children from parents who were not married, children from broken homes

that were deemed unfit by County Welfare Departments, children who could not adjust to public

schools, and those who failed to meet public health and sanitary standards.35 Pryse’s depiction of

Chemawa’s student body profile was very similar to the one used to keep the school open

thirteen years earlier. The needs of the Navajo children, a top priority for the BIA, did not negate

Chemawa’s obligation to its younger non-Navajo students. Day schools and public schools throughout the northwest had become more accessible to all minors at the turn of the century,

resulting in a lower enrollment at Chemawa. Nonetheless, the school’s staff believed that non-

Navajo students who remained at Chemawa had special needs that needed to be considered.

Reservations served by Chemawa recognized that the threat of termination of Chemawa’s regular program would force the integration of their children into mainstream public education, which would likely strain state welfare programs. Chemawa staff members lobbied for more time before terminating the lower grades, thereby giving the states responsible for the students more time to gather the appropriate resources.

Starting in 1948, the first year of the program at Chemawa, NSP officials sought to eliminate the lower grades at the school. The NSP knew the needs of the Navajo children would

35 Pryse to Agency Superintendents, June 8, 1949, Programs and Supervision Chemawa 1948-1953, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 2.

54

tax the school’s resources beyond its capacity. In 1951, Assistant Commissioner of the BIA John

Proviuse wrote to Morgan Pryse, now the Area Director in Portland, Oregon, addressing

Chemawa’s reluctance to eliminate its lower grades.

This will acknowledge your letter...in which you point out the difficulties of making any application of the proposed elimination of elementary youngsters from the Chemawa School because of the shortness of time this fall...We hope... however, that it will prove possible over the next year to completely eliminate the elementary grades from the Che mawa School.36

School officials knew that time was short before their young charges would be transferred into the state systems, and they feared that their younger non-Navajo students would not flourish in a

system that did not understand their needs.

Pryse responded to Proviuse’s letter by writing to Beatty. In the letter, he asked for certain

measures to be met before releasing their students. For starters, communities and local state

agencies needed to assume the responsibility for providing foster home care. He also demanded that local authorities accept Indian cases of juvenile delinquency, and he expected efforts to be made to enforce truancy laws on reservations. “The difficulty in effectuating this concept,” Pryse explained, “is out of lack of detail, basic information about the education problems of Indian children, the facilities and programs of local public schools in relation to individuals needs, the extent and ability of State Welfare programs to meet increased work loads.”37 Pryse questioned

whether state programs understood Indian children and their unique emotional, mental, and

intellectual needs.

36 Proviuse to Pryse, August 21, 1949, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

37 Pryse to Beatty, August 8, 1951, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 55

In response to Pryse’s memo, Beatty wrote directly to Chemawa Superintendent Martin

Kelley, outlining an enrollment reduction plan for non-Navajo students. The number of elementary children, Beatty recommended, could be reduced gradually through the non- acceptance of new students below the ninth grade. Beatty reminded Kelley that it was the

responsibility of welfare officers in the children’s home state to secure foster home care.38 If the school followed his suggestions, Beatty hoped that Chemawa could accept fifty additional

Navajo students for the 1950-1951 school year. Before agreeing to Beatty’s “suggestions,” school officials wrote a detailed report that outlined the circumstances under which Chemawa would agree to send children into foster care and how they were working toward creating more spaces for future Navajo students.

Gosnel cautioned Selene Gifford of the Welfare Board to consider “the importance and need for services to children particularly foster home placement for small children and services to children in their own home instead of placement at Chemawa.”39 She recommended

contacting the local agencies that would be involved, to determine how they might accommodate

the students for whom they would be responsible. In Gosnel’s letter, she suggested conducting a

study that would consider specific social factors that affected the child’s educational

achievement. She also wanted to determine what a “healthy” rate of change was for children

concerning their physical environment and their need for security and affection.40 Gosnel noted

that one of the states “recently revised its foster home standards—It is no longer required that a

38 Beatty to Kelley, August 10, 1951, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

39 Gosnel to Gifford, August 27, 1951, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

40 Ibid. 56

child have a room of his own—only a bed of his own.” Kelley was critical of sending children

into homes ill equipped to care for children who had already been taken away from their homes.

Gosnel also acknowledged that some state programs may have used Chemawa as a foster home.

“Foster care facilities are always at a premium. It has often been easier,” she claimed, “to use

Chemawa as a resource than to develop a new one.”41 Gosnel called for backing from

Washington, D.C. officials and asked them to remind local agencies of their obligation to the

Chemawa children. The only recourse the school felt it had at this point against state programs

was to be “uncompromising and unyielding on the basis of principle alone.”

Among the many grievances in Gosnel’s report was a complaint against Beatty’s

suggestion to eliminate all grades below ninth grade. “Present information indicates that the 7th

and 8th grades should be retained for some time,” Gosnel explained, “as numerous children have

considerable difficulty in these grades and a specialized program to meet their educational needs

would mean the salvaging of many.”42 In grades seven and eight, students reached a critical point in their education, and teachers not equipped with the proper tools and techniques to guide

American Indian children through this challenging stage could expect high failure rates.

Chemawa argued that states had not yet developed programs to ensure improved success rates for American Indian students, which, in Gosnel’s opinion, undermined the states’ ability to be a suitable substitution for Chemawa.

Another problem with Beatty’s plan was that gradually phasing out the elementary

curriculum would make elementary class sizes too small to hold class. As the school slowed its acceptance of elementary aged children, the diminishing number of younger students created

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid. 57 smaller and smaller classes. This failed to benefit the students, nor was it helpful to the already overextended teachers. To counter this problem, Gosnel proposed boarding these students at

Chemawa, but sending them to public school in Salem. Their familiar surroundings would give the children stability, but it would allow them to attend schools with class sizes that enhanced their education. But if Chemawa was forced to abruptly end its program at the end of the school year, Gosnel warned that planning should start immediately. “The welfare departments need time to develop resources for the ones not returning to their families,” Gosnel argued, “and the schools need to plan for larger enrollments.”43 Tribal members also needed time to adjust to the idea that their children might not be returning to Chemawa, Gosnel continued. That meant preparing for having their children home all year long. The children also required time to adjust to the idea that they might not be returning to their friends or teachers. Bonnell interviewed a former Chemawa student, Maude (Sioux/ Clatsop), who explained her feelings about returning to

Chemawa.

In my case I thought they [boarding schools] were super. We came from a poor family, a lot of kids and I’m sure it was a great help to my folks to know that I could go to a free boarding school and get a good education. And we followed in their [parents] footsteps....If it was my choice I would not have gone. I’m glad that she [mother] made the wise choice to send me there.44

Gosnel closed her letter by reiterating her hopeful outlook for the school’s future. Chemawa focused on providing a highly diversified program that emphasized learning experiences “in general living and mingling with other groups,” and she believed the school’s mission would be threatened by the arrival of the Navajo students.

43 Gosnel to Gifford, August 27, 1951, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

44 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 61. 58

The Arrival of the Navajo Students, Fall 1948

The NSP and Chemawa continued to negotiate the school’s role in the new program. The

Navajo children arrived in 1948, and the Chemawa staff was attentive to the Navajo students during their adjustment to their new environment. Martha Hall, a supervisor for the NSP, visited the school in 1949. She described the students’ reaction in a letter to Beatty. “It was encouraging to see how quickly the boys and girls, new to Chemawa, were becoming part of the school,” she wrote.45 NSP staff worried that Chemawa’s student body might reject the Navajo children, but

Superintendent Martin Kelley reassured Beatty that the students were trying to adjust to their

classmates. “The Northwest population segment of the total enrollment has accepted the Navajos

admirably,” he intoned, “and has helped a great deal in making their transition a success.”46

The staff faced the challenge of introducing the Navajo students to a school population

with a variety of tribal affiliations. The structure of the Navajo program, moreover, prohibited

Navajo students from participating in the normal school chores. Plus, many Navajo students had poor English skills, which created formidable barriers against their easy integration to the larger student body and threatened school cohesion. Wilma (Blackfeet) admitted her confusion about the Navajo, and she wondered who the Navajos were and why they were there. “We always thought they got special privileges and there were a lot of conflicts with that,” Wilma explained,

“between Northern Indians and the Southwest Indians.”47 Meanwhile, program supervisors

45 Hall to Beatty, November 22, 1948, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

46 Kelley to Beatty, October [?] 1948, Chemawa School – Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

47 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 89. 59

chose to place Navajo students in their own separate dormitories to prevent them from feeling

overwhelmed. Teachers hoped to increase the Navajo students’ English vocabulary before

allowing increased contact with the other students. While the plan was intended as a safeguard

for the Navajo children, it created divisions. Walt, Siletz/Yakima tribe, explained:

There was a lot of animosity between the Navajos and what we called the regulars, that was us. They were like a little tribe sitting right there in the middle of all of us. They had their own Navajo instructors... They were a pretty strong entity. It’s like me and my brother and sister in a white school, we had to put our backs to each other. That’s kinda what they did. So the relationship between the Navajos and regulars wasn’t all that strong.48

The difference between the Navajo children and the Northwest population was jolting. The

inclusiveness the school had fostered among its regular students did not initially extend to the

Navajo newcomers. Navajo students’ clothing, for example, stood in stark contrast to the other

students’ school uniforms. Clarence, a Blackfeet student, recalled his reaction to their arrival.

“The Navajos came...in their traditional dress, which was always amazing.”49

The division between the two groups created social friction typically found in a school atmosphere. Former students remembered bullying, name-calling, and even physical altercations at the school. Clarence of the Blackfeet tribe recounted:

The first year, we abused them. They couldn’t speak English.... Mostly the Navajos took the blunt [sic] of the [abuse]...They made them do things for them, their details, bully them around. Normal Kid stuff. But they abused them like fighting them, beating them up. Most of the Navajos didn’t know how to fight.50

When NSP education specialist Martha Hall and Superintendent Kelley reported back to Beatty, they painted a rosy picture of the Northwest students’ acceptance of the Navajo students. In

120 Ibid.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid., 89. 60

doing so, they either failed to notice or chose to ignore the tension between the two groups. The length and intensity of the bullying is unclear, but by 1957, Chemawa’s regular program had been suspended and the Navajos represented a seasoned majority instead of a frightened minority. Even with the discontinuation of the regular program, Chemawa sustained a non-

Navajo population of 150 students for the next several years.

Reasons for the Installation of the NSP at Chemawa

The decision to locate a branch of the NSP at Chemawa was based on several factors, not the least of which was that it allowed for the transportation of Navajo students to begin immediately. Thompson and other NSP leaders needed a school that could immediately absorb a significant number of Navajo students, with a starting class of at least one hundred. Because

Chemawa had never been forced to close its doors, it did not have to go through the process of hiring teachers, support staff, or administrators. Specially trained teachers and teacher- interpreters were sent to the school, but it had ready access to matrons and vocational teachers.

The size and physical condition of Chemawa also allowed for the rapid accommodation of students to its campus. Chemawa offered other advantages as well: the BIA did not have to invest much money repairing its dormitories and classrooms, and Chemawa was experienced in dealing with children entering school with extreme economic disadvantages.

Indian boarding schools were also geared to help students earn degrees at varying ages.

Chemawa teachers had developed curriculum that catered to older students in need of remedial skills in math, English, and spelling. These were skills their students would need to succeed in 61 their professions.51 Native Alaskans also required special attention. Like the Navajo students, they too had been forced to leave home to obtain an education.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Chemawa commonly accepted students from western tribes and from Alaska Territory. By 1916, its student population reflected a growing number of

Alaskan students, but in 1924 an appropriation act established tight restrictions on sending

Alaskan children to the lower 48 states. “Except upon the individual order of the Secretary of the

Interior,” it stipulated, “no part of this appropriation shall be used for the support or education at said school [Chemawa] of any native pupil brought from Alaska who enters after July 1,

1924.”52 The act authorized funding to begin construction of schools in Alaska Territory. The reasons for prohibiting the continuation of Alaskan Native attendance at Chemawa included culture shock, traumatic separations, and the climate of western Oregon; Senator McNary believed that the damp weather left students vulnerable to tuberculosis. Superintendent Hall denied the charge, claiming that the weather on the Oregon coastal climate resembled Alaska’s.

Salem community members speculated that prohibiting Native Alaskan attendance was generated by white Alaskans who did not like the educational outcome for Native Alaskan students educated at Chemawa. “We are told,” Superintendent Hall observed, “that the Whites of

Alaska have stated that the Indians do not with docility return with their former relations in

Alaska after years spent in the Chemawa School.”53 Education and vocational training had opened new opportunities for Alaskan Natives who returned to their communities with a broader understanding of non-Indian culture. In Hall’s opinion this created conflicts between the two

51 Lemmon, “The Historical Development of the Chemawa Indian School,” 14.

52 McKeehan, “The History of Chemawa Indian School,” 136.

53 Ibid., 137. 62

groups, and it persuaded the white community to pressure the government to prevent Alaskan

Natives from leaving. Whatever interests were served by ending the admission of Alaska

students to Chemawa, the Appropriation Act of 1924 passed, and by 1930 special exceptions

were no longer given to Alaskan natives. The restrictions against Alaskan Natives enrolling at

Chemawa did not last, as politicians and education leaders realized the advantages of having

Alaskan students at Chemawa. Their numbers at Chemawa continued to grow. In 1961-1962

academic year, for example, over 300 Alaskan students were enrolled at the school.

The Native Alaskan students’ relationship with Chemawa closely resembled the Navajo students’ experience. They came from isolated logging, fishing, and mining villages, with limited access to schools, leaving few options for staying close to home while in school. Both the

Navajos and Native Alaskan students left their families and traditional homelands to enroll at

Chemawa, where they learned to negotiate a relationship between their native culture and the non-Indian customs taught at the school. For many, Chemawa was their first prolonged exposure to non-Indian or non-Native culture and educational expectations. Although Alaskan children did not have a program designed for their specific needs, their presence helped to prepare Chemawa for the NSP. By the 1960s, the predominant student groups at Chemawa were Navajos and

Alaskan Natives.

Attendance Records: Before and After the enrollment of the Navajo

School attendance records for the years between 1949 to 1954 help to explain Chemawa’s composition at the start of the NSP, and who was left after the program’s first five years.

Chemawa’s regular student body was a collection of children from tribes in the Northwest to the

Midwest. Seventy-one tribes sent children to Chemawa, but some sent greater numbers than 63 others. Twenty-two children came from the Blackfeet Tribe; thirty-four from Colville

Reservation; fifty-five from Karok Reservation in California; twenty-two from the Klamath

Reservation in Oregon; and fourteen from the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation in Idaho. The largest concentration outside of the Navajo Reservation was from the Yakima Reservation in

Washington with seventy-four students.54 Larger numbers from certain tribes can be attributed to the relative isolation of those reservations, the lack of day schools located near population centers, or a large number of children without guardians. Students from California were indicative of the transformation of the Sherman Institute from a regional boarding school to a

NSP school—a fate that Chemawa would soon experience.

The federal government’s desire to eliminate grades one-through-six at Chemawa made slow headway because, in 1949, it still had over 181 children in the lower grades. Grades seven- through-twelve had approximately 470 students. Students in the upper levels included a significant number of Navajo students: 148 boys and 63 girls.55 The imbalanced sex ratio among the Navajo was a challenge for Chemawa administrators who struggled to find adequate housing for Navajo boys while waiting to fill empty beds in the girls’ dormitories.

In the spring of 1950, seventeen students from the non-Navajo student body population earned their high school diplomas: two boys and fifteen girls. With a degree from Chemawa, the students received a high school education that complimented their chosen vocational profession.

This meant that not all students leaving Chemawa earned a fully- accredited high school

54Annual School Report, September 9, 1949 to May 22, 1950, Attendance Reports- September 1946 to August 1955. Education Administrative Files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. The attendance record also reported on the school’s blood quantum: there were 265 full-blood students, 98 three-quarters students, 101 half-blood students, 65 one-quarter blood students.

55 Ibid. 64 diploma. Chemawa students often took classes in English, math, and science that corresponded with their professional training, instead of class structure on the state high school curriculum.

This type of degree was typical of many boarding schools with a polytechnic focus, for it allowed students the option of earning a technical degree.

Boarding school curriculum was criticized heavily in the Meriam Report of 1928, which stated that, “The uniform curriculum works badly because it does not permit of [sic] relating teaching to the needs of the particular Indian children being taught.”56 When W. Carson Ryan was appointed Director of Education in 1930, he became an advocate for implementing the

Progressive Educational movement found in the non-Indian education system into the federal

Indian education system. Progressive education in the Indian boarding schools forced teachers to build curriculum suited to the needs of the students, which meant dismantling the “Uniform

Course” of study found at boarding schools.57 The Uniform Course was an assimilationist curriculum that expected Indian students to adopt white culture. American Indian students were enrolled in classes such as English classics, geometry, and ancient history, and they had little relevance within their own Native culture.58 Ryan also criticized some of the vocational courses offered at boarding schools. Many were outdated or reflected work settings not found near the students’ reservation. Ryan, and then his successor Beatty, used the growing prominence of

Progressive Education philosophy during the New Deal era to allocate funding for the development of new courses of study for American Indian education. This approach included the

56 Meriam, The Problem of Indian Administration, 13.

57 Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 48.

58 Ibid., 32. 65

gradual closure of boarding schools in favor of reservation day schools, but such an approach

was problematic at the Navajo Reservation.

The NSP did not employ a “Uniform Course” of study that was infused with the goal of

assimilation. Rather the NSP’s curriculum focused on teaching Navajo students how to deal

effectively with non-Indian society and on training them for vocational work near Salem. The bi-

lingual curriculum guide was first used at the Sherman Institute, and it was then disseminated to

other NSP schools, including Chemawa. From the list of goals described in the packet, it is

evident that NSP officials wanted to instill in Navajo students traditional non-Indian customs,

such as “saying ‘I beg your pardon’ when I [sic] in front of any one.”59 The packet included

vocabulary words and practice exercises aimed at helping them adjust to life away from the

reservation. For example, teachers emphasized the concept of “personal property” with sentences

such as, “I have work clothes, I have dress clothes, and these are my things.”60 Navajo students were raised in an environment of communal living where concepts of personal and public property had little relevance. Teachers also used vocabulary lessons to teacher Navajo students about the mechanics of living in a town or city. “How to Clean the Bathroom” and “How to

Wash Clothes” became part of the children’s curriculum, with step-by-step instructions on how to complete various tasks.61 The curriculum packet lessons introduced students to new customs

that were uncommon to the Navajo reservation. NSP students’ exposure to these new customs

was critical to the program, for administrators hoped it would help them find work off the

reservation.

59 “Bi-Lingual Curriculum Guide Part One for Adult Navajo Beginners,” Sherman Institute- General 1946-1949, Box 2, Folder 2, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. See appendix A.

60 Ibid., 20.

61Ibid., 23-24. 66

Termination and its impact on American Indian education began in 1946 when Congress

began to fundamentally alter its policies toward Indian affairs. For education, termination changed the expectations for Indian students’ lives after they completed school. It encouraged

“the relocation of Indians off reservations and into the cities,”62 and the NSP assisted by

transforming traditional students into young urban adults with the tools and knowledge to

succeed off the reservation.63 Unlike the more aggressive assimilation programs used at

reservation day schools and traditional boarding schools, the NSP was more flexible, while still

being intent on preparing its students for urban employment. Beatty looked at BIA schools as a

“vehicle for cultural change” that if used correctly would provide Indian youth with the

opportunity to escape poverty. Assimilation drove Beatty’s “benevolent” ideas during the years

of termination as he rationalized his desire for Indian youths to function effectively within non-

Indian society.64 Under the leadership of Thompson, the NSP acknowledged the reality of termination, but without forsaking the cultural recognition gained during the Collier era. For

example, language and traditional ceremonies remained an integral part of the NSP at Chemawa.

It can be argued that the Navajo Special Program tried to preserve Navajo culture while

prompting an assimilationist agenda for employment.

During the first year of the NSP, Navajo students were not listed by grades; instead, they

were listed by age. There were 28 thirteen-year-olds, 38 fourteen-year-olds, 40 fifteen- year-

olds, 38 sixteen-year-olds, 30 seventeen-year-olds, 20 eighteen-year-olds, 4 nineteen-year-olds,

62 Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 236.

63 Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 119-121.

64 Ibid. 67

and 1 twenty-year-old.65 Chemawa’s first NSP class demographics were typical for a program whose students varied in age and school experience.

Demographic information illustrates Chemawa’s shift from a regular boarding school to a predominately NSP location. At the beginning of the 1950-1951 school year, the student population was balanced between regular and Navajo students. Over 58 tribes were represented at the school with an enrollment of over 650 children; 217 of them were Navajo students.66 The school graduated a small class of only eleven students that year. Sixty-nine students failed to

show up for the school year. This was an increase over the forty-seven students the year before.

After the 1950-1951 school year, the attendance records no longer listed the number of students

that left the school, only those who were expelled. The dropout rate raises questions about the

atmosphere at the school when Navajo students were first integrated. Grade school numbers

(ages 4 to 11) continued to grow during 1950-1951 school year, with an enrollment of 195

children. The school ignored the BIA “suggestion” to close down its lower classes for one more

year. The following year, however, fewer grade-school-aged-children and non-Navajo students

were enrolled. Reasons for the lower numbers varied. In some cases parents chose to keep their

children at home enrolled in public schools. Orphans placed in foster care homes in communities

away from Chemawa went to public schools closer to their new homes. Pressure by the BIA to

slow the acceptance of non-Navajo students also influenced how many new students Chemawa

could enroll.

65 Annual School Report, September 9, 1949 to May 22, 1950, Attendance Reports- September 1946 to August 1955. Education Administrative Files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

66 Ibid. 68

The 1951-1952 school year opened at Chemawa with a smaller regular student body and a

growing Navajo students population: 463 non-Navajo students compared to 203 NSP students.

The decreased enrollment reflected the admission of fewer young children, indicating that the

school was in the early stages of cutting its regular program. Only 101 elementary-aged children

were enrolled that year, with the majority of students being nine or older. All Navajo students

were over thirteen, and the majority were between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. While many

of these students were close in age, the NSP grade divisions were based on test scores and prior

educational experience. This accounted for twenty-year-olds and thirteen-year-olds participating

in the same small groups based on their own unique needs. The male-to-female ratio remained

unbalanced: 130 boys to 73 girls. There were no NSP graduates, but its regular program students

earned twenty-one diplomas.

During the summers of 1952 to 1954, Chemawa conducted summer school programs for

its students. It enrolled 146 regular program students and 25 Navajo students. Summer programs

helped children make up academic ground so they could be promoted to the next grade. Some

elected to stay for summer school so they could earn money as local farm laborers. Bob, a

member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe from North Dakota, recounted that: “One of the

first jobs I had was picking prunes.”67 Thompson, however, was reluctant to allow Navajo

students to stay all summer. She feared that they might become too homesick the following year

or that their families needed their assistance on the reservation.

As Chemawa’s role in the NSP evolved, the number of regular students continued to

decrease. For the 1952-1953 school year, there were 388 regular program students enrolled at

Chemawa, with 248 in the NSP. Blackfeet, Colville, Klamath, Lummi, and the Yakima tribes

67 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 66. 69 continued to represent the largest portions of non-Navajo children at Chemawa, for children from these tribes often needed additional educational opportunities. The 1952-1953 school year was particularly important, because 26 NSP students were entering into their fifth year and were preparing to graduate.68

When the 1953 school year began, the number of the students in the NSP nearly equaled the regular program student body, with 264 and 298 students respectively.69 The NSP graduating class also grew from the previous year, with a total of 35 diplomas awarded to students between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one. The success of the first two graduating classes reassured

NSP officials that their theoretical models were producing tangible results. Grade school classes in the regular program continued to decline, with only a handful of children between the ages of six and eleven remaining at Chemawa. The debate between the BIA and Chemawa officials over

Chemawa remaining a fully-functional boarding school was coming to a close because younger students were no longer admitted.

The acting area director for the Northwest region wrote to the BIA Commissioner, outlining the planned enrollment of Chemawa. Acting area director Towle requested funding to supplement a Navajo population of 400 to 425, with the expectation that 200 to 225 Northwest students would also be enrolled. “We believe we have made progress in making other plans for children enrolled in Chemawa because of social problems,” Towle explained. “Most of the children now enrolled at Chemawa are children whose primary needs are educational.”70 What

68 Annual School Report, September 1, 1952 to May 18, 1953, Attendance Reports- September 1946 to August 1955, Education Administrative Files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

69 Ibid.

70

Towle meant by “educational” was unclear, but most of the children in the regular program were

either orphans, children diagnosed with a mental disability, or those who had failed to adjust to

public schools. They represented the same group of children Chemawa had fought to keep since the 1930s.

The struggle to keep Chemawa open during the 1930s and 1940s illustrated the clash between traditional and modern movements in Indian education. Indian education, together with

Indian policy, was in a state of flux after the publication of the Meriam Report in 1928. Its criticisms of boarding schools motivated congressmen and BIA officials to favor the advancement of tribal schools directed by tribal members and located near a child’s home.

Chemawa resisted this shift and fought to retain its program. Support for the school from the

local community was unique, and it demonstrated the complex relationship that had formed

between the school and the surrounding non-Indian community. The support extended as far as

Senator McNary who personally lobbied President Roosevelt for additional funding in 1933.

Non-Indian support could have been a sign of goodwill toward Indian children that had been part

of the community since 1885, or their attitude could have been driven by the economic

advantage of having federal dollars spent in the area. Perhaps after 1930 they had a desire to see

that tribes treated with respect and dignity. State welfare programs also argued against the negative consequences of closing the school, and local agencies saw the orphans and dependents

at the school as too taxing for their meager funding. Finding foster care for the children with no

home to return took time, and it was a process that consumed resources that most welfare

programs lacked.

70 Annual School Reports, September 5, 1953 to May 14, 1954, Attendance Reports- September 1946 to August 1955, Education Administrative Files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 71

Northwest native children dealt with a great deal of uncertainty throughout these years, wondering whether they would be allowed to return to their former school or not. According to

Slickpoo’s article, most children were eager to continue their education at Chemawa. “I owe

Chemawa everything that I know today,” Maude said.71 Despite its NSP designation, the school seemed to have secured funding that continued its existence, but its NSP status reshaped the school’s role for the regional tribes.

The BIA responded to the educational needs of the Navajo tribe, creating the NSP as an emergency program while day schools were being constructed. Chemawa staff, students, and community members wanted assurance that the regular students, the non-Navajo students, would be given the same consideration. Letters and memos from Chemawa to BIA officials reflected a theme of resistance to the quick NSP takeover. Chemawa staff was very much aware of its regular students’ needs, and staff members demanded certain provisions before agreeing to the transfer of their students to the public school system. Orphaned and vulnerable children had relied upon Chemawa as a home and a safe haven for years, and it was not until 1957 that

Chemawa suspended its regular program and fully embraced its designation as a NSP school.

71 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 63. 72

Chapter Three

Adjusting to a New Way of Life for NSP Students and Chemawa, 1948-1957

All of this is important and basic to the prevocational training of these pupils, and I left Chemawa with the belief that the Chemawa staff, all of whom have had some experience in this kind of thing with other pupils, will develop opportunities as slowly as necessary, but surely, for Navajo pupils to have the same experiences.

Nor ma Runyan, Navajo Education Specialist

Helpful, it helped me a lot, yeh [sic]. How we live, how to survive...It helped me a lot.

Frank, (Navajo) ca. January, 1996 to April, 1997

Navajo students arrived at Chemawa in 1948 to learn English, to gain skills at a profession, and to find jobs. The NSP provided a new approach to American Indian education for a specifically targeted population with unique needs. The formative years of the NSP program at

Chemawa lasted from 1948 to 1957. The first Navajo class had arrived at Chemawa in 1948, with a total of 93 students, and 26 students graduated in 1953. In May, 1957, the regular program was suspended at Chemawa when the school became a sole repository for Navajo students. For the next decade the school admitted an average of 100 non-Navajo students, but only with special circumstances.1 Chemawa staff and NSP officials met regularly between 1950 to 1954 to

plan the final stage of the NSP program. Superintendent narrative reports, letters of progress

submitted by NSP officials, and transportation records describe how the students and Chemawa

adjusted to their new roles. Chemawa had entered into a new phase of development when it

accepted Navajo students in 1948, beginning a new program, forming stronger bonds with the

surrounding community, and slowly transferring its non-Navajo student body to public schools.

1 McKeehan, “The History of Chemawa Indian School,” 195.

73

The Framework of NSP curriculum at Chemawa

When Chemawa received its first class of NSP students, NSP officials sent a copy of the

“General Outline of Vocational Work in the Special Navajo Program” to the NSP staff located

on the Chemawa campus. The document provided a basic framework for what the students

would be expected to learn and when. The report dictated that first year students would spend

only an hour-and-a-half per day on vocational work where they were expected to develop “good

work habits, proper attitudes towards work, and correct use and care of hand tools.”2 Learning

for both female and male students included mending, ironing, washing, cleaning, making simple

equipment for living quarters, and replacing broken window panes. Second year students also

devoted an hour-and–a-half per day on vocational training. Boys spent their time in shop class

and girls in homemaking. Teachers emphasized a general vocational experience directed toward

each student’s future occupation. Students’ interests and aptitudes for certain vocations were

carefully monitored during their second year, in hopes of guiding them toward the right

profession. Vocational classes such as home carpentry, auto mechanics, child care, sewing, and

home improvement and beautification were offered.3 The third year continued in the same vein,

with an hour-and-a-half per day spent on vocations not found on the Navajo reservation.

Classroom work provided the necessary skills needed to perform each of the vocations. It was at this point in the program that each school tailored its classes to fit local employer’s requirements.

Chemawa chose to offer auto mechanics, electrical engineering, farm mechanics, plumbing, painting, truck driving, quantity cooking, cafeteria work, matron, seamstress, and hospital

2 “General Outline of Vocational Work in the Special Navajo Program,” Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 1.

3 Ibid., 1. 74

attendant training, clerking, domestic work, and laundry duties.4 The training students received

was decided by gender, with girls and boys only allowed into certain vocational programs. The

gender division of labor at Chemawa and other boarding schools was reflective of mainstream society’s gender expectations. Girls became responsible for the cooking, cleaning, and sewing for the school, while the boys worked on the physical maintenance of the school buildings. They also took care of the farm animals at Chemawa.

Navajo students had to adjust to vastly different gender roles. The traditional family structure for the Navajos included a wife, husband, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren living in a family cluster, with their sons leaving once married to reside in their wives’ families.

Women owned the sheep and the grazing lands which the husband worked. When money was scarce men left the reservation to earn added income and then returned to help in the fields. Men also helped their mothers by collecting firewood and shearing sheep.5 Navajo mothers

controlled the home and carefully watched over their sheep and fields. Once at school, however,

girls and boys were expected to conduct their lives in ways that were very much at odds with

their traditional upbringing.

The students’ fourth year split their time equally between classroom instruction and

vocational training. At this point, vocational instructors taught the students vocational math,

science, and English related to the students’ chosen profession. Classroom teachers focused on

producing students who would be “good citizens in any walk of life” through reading, general

math, general science, social studies, and personality development.6

4 Ibid., 1.

5 O’Neill, Working the Navajo Way, 20-21.

6 Ibid., 2. 75

Fifth year students entered the final year of the program with the goal of finding

employment by the end of the school year. To prepare students for their future employment,

most of their day was spent in vocational training. The instructors emphasized, “putting in a full

day’s work for a day’s pay and performing the skills of the vocation without direct

supervision.”7 One way teachers evaluated students’ potential job performance was to assign

them to complete a task from the maintenance department’s “to do list.” This allowed instructors

to evaluate their students while having them “play a part in getting some of the production and

maintenance of the school done.”8 Vocational teachers also familiarized their students with vocational English, labor laws, and union regulations. Classroom instructors concluded the students’ academic work by emphasizing consumer education (budgeting, merchandise quality), community facilities (banks, electricity, water, health), understanding and cooperating with community organizations (Red Cross, Parent and Teacher Association or PTA), and fulfilling community responsibilities (voting and obeying laws).9 In the final two years of the program,

classroom instruction focused on helping students develop the social knowledge they needed to

live off the reservation.

Travel Time: Dusty Roads and Restroom stops.

Navajo students started their NSP experience with their trips to their designated Navajo

school. Students enrolled at Chemawa travelled approximately 1,000 miles. Officials were aware

7 Ibid., 2.

8 “General Outline of Vocational Work in the Special Navajo Program,” Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 1.

9 Ibid., 1. 76 that the lengthy journey might potentially overwhelm the Navajo pupils and delay their schooling — the very thing the program could not afford to let happen. Accordingly, the program carefully planned how it would move 1800 children to eleven different school locations.

Each school sent a certain number of chaperones, depending on the size of the group, who were responsible for the children while they travelled. NSP officials required detailed reports about the children’s reactions, the efficiency of the move, and an evaluation of the transportation company.

Although the reports appear to be mechanical and largely logistical, they provide insight into how the school, chaperones, and NSP officials looked after them. In 1952, the NSP first tried to move a smaller group of Navajo students by bus to Chemawa. The reports filed by the chaperones demonstrate how the school and the NSP worked to alleviate the stress of travel for the students. NSP officials understood the anxiety of the students and their parents, and they tried

to eliminate hardship where they were able. 77

Figure 1: Navajo students loading bus for off-reservation schools.10

Parents and children typically crowded the departure locations for several days before

registration in the hopes of ensuring that their child got a spot on the roster. Parents were anxious

about their children’s acceptance into the program because this was not determined until three

days before the departure date.11 Quotas for the various schools were met quickly, and parents

feared they would be left sending their children to schools farther from home or that siblings

might be separated. Chemawa-bound students were picked up at two locations, Tuba City,

Arizona, or Fort Wingate, New Mexico. The federal government provided transportation to the

schools, chaperones to accompany the children, and meals. Arranging for thousands of students

to travel to multiple locations took months of planning, ensuring that each student got onto the

right bus or train. The task was time consuming and complicated. The NSP negotiated contracts

with transportation companies to see to the students’ comfort and well-being. When problems

arose in 1952, chaperones for the Navajo children going to Chemawa submitted a detailed report

outlin ing several complaints.

One female chaperone who accompanied students from the Navajo reservation was Velma

Ackels, who wrote a lengthy report regarding a bus trip from Gallup, New Mexico, to Chemawa.

She criticized the type of transportation, not the quality of the Greyhound Bus Service. This was

the first time that the NSP used buses for an entire trip from the Navajo reservation to Chemawa.

Chaperones commented that at all times the bus drivers were “most courteous, and most

considerate,” and “as far as the effort of the Greyhound people is concerned,” Ackels explained,

10 “Adolescent Navajos Start School,” October [?], 1950, Chemawa School-Navajo Program, Box 29, Folder 2, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 3. 11 Requirements Covering Off-Reservation Pupil Transportation, August [?], 1949, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 2. 78

“no finer cooperation or greater effort could be asked for.”12 The excellent customer service of the drivers, however, was outweighed by the negative aspects of bus transportation. For example, bus travel required stopping at rest areas for the use of bathroom facilities. Waiting for large groups of children to use a limited number of toilets made an already long travel day longer.

Occasionally children were too embarrassed to ask the driver to stop, resulting in “accidents.”13

Stopping for timely meals at restaurants along the way was also problematic. Ordering that many meals took too much time, and for many Navajo students this was their first experience ordering a meal in a restaurant, which added to their already frightened dispositions.14 The mountainous

terrain between the Navajo reservation and Chemawa created frequent bouts of “car sickness”

which added to the children’s discomfort.

Both means of conveyance took forty-five hours, but the restrictiveness of the buses caused

discontent among students. Plus, there was the problem of overcrowding on buses. In one

instance several small boys were forced to share seats. “The crowded conditions did not afford

shifting around to more comfortable positions,” Ackels explained.15 The final complaint

involved poor hygiene associated with bus transportation. Restroom stops did not provide the

students with adequate time or facilities for proper hygiene. Students had to travel two days

12 Holm to Runyan, November 20, 1952, Chemawa Indian School- Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

13 Ibid.

14 Report of Movement of 41 Navajo Children by bus from Gallup, N. Mexico to Chemawa, Ackels to Holm, November 24, 1952, Chemawa Indian School- Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 1.

15 Ibid., 2.

79

without access to rest areas equipped with proper showering facilities, or even enough sinks to

allow all the students time to wash their faces. Ackels closed her report with a number of

suggestions for future travel between the Navajo Reservation and Chemawa. Female and male

interpreters were needed on each bus because of the reluctance of Navajo children to talk openly

to people of the opposite sex. Students’ meals needed advanced planning to ensure variety and efficiency. Finally, chaperones needed to be provided with a packet of “necessary items” for the children that included Kleenex, Kotex, and bandages.16

In 1954, chaperones complained again about the difficulties of traveling by bus from the

Navajo reservation to Chemawa. The suggestions made by Ackels went unheeded as the groups

continued to encounter inadequate rest area facilities, poorly-planned meals, and overcrowding.

Chaperone James Johnston wrote a critical evaluation of his experience. “I think the government in transporting the children is paying first class and getting steerage service,” Johnston complained.17 Other chaperones complained that the bus schedule was confusing and caused

multiple buses to crowd the same rest area. Planned times to stop for meals were scheduled for

unreasonable times such as 1:30 A.M. and then the children were not fed again until 11:30 A.M.

Johnston and other chaperones believed that the bus companies were taking advantage of

government money and not placing the best interests of the Navajo children first. Chemawa had

to deal with the difficulties of transporting a large group of children such a distance more than

other schools within the NSP system.

First Year: Making Chemawa Home

The NSP began its first year at Chemawa in the fall of 1948. The school had a general

16 Ibid., 3.

17 Johnston to Brannon, Recruitment, October 12, 1954, Navajo Program File. Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 8067, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 80

framework for the student coursework, and it was given information from other NSP schools

about the experiences of students at schools already in operation. These matters notwithstanding,

Chemawa had not been involved in a program like this before. Chemawa’s first Narrative Report

after the arrival of the Navajo children detailed how the children were adjusting to their new

home. “Upon their arrival,” Superintendent Kelley wrote, “the children were given a royal welcome by the entire student body and staff,” but the melding of Navajo and non-Navajo students was slow and complicated.18 When staff members witnessed the Navajos students’

arrival, they hoped to immediately build a sense of community between the new students and the

non-Navajo students; unfortunately, the relationship between the student groups remained tense.

The Navajo children were briefed on what kind of behavior was expected of them, and the

school held demonstrations, assemblies, hospital examinations, testing, and guided tours of the

campus.19 During their physical examination, doctors found many to be underweight and

malnourished. Doctors recommended that all Navajo children be given cod liver oil, apples, and

malted milk tablets to help them gain weight.20 Iris a Navajo student who attended Chemawa

from 1955-1960, recalled her first hours at Chemawa. “Number one, they got out suitcase [sic],

check all out nails [sic], all out whole bodies and everything. They [sic] make sure we’re okay.”

Iris remembered, “Each of us sent to the clinic, check us out health [sic]. Make sure we don’t

have kind [sic], some disease in our body or something.”21

18Kelley Narrative Report-Chemawa Indian School, September 18 to November 30, 1948, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1-806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 1.

19 Ibid., 1.

20 Ibid., 2.

21 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 90. 81

The threat of disease was taken very seriously at boarding schools, and Navajo students

were examined on the reservation before they left and after they arrived at the school. Two of the

major diseases found among Navajo students when they arrived on campus were tuberculosis

and trachoma.22 These diseases spread quickly in the boarding school environment so staff

members were vigilant in detecting the early signs of the diseases and getting proper treatment

for them. A few cases of trachoma in the NSP student population were sufficiently advanced that several lost most of their vision in both eyes. The threat of contagious and aggressive diseases at boarding schools had been noted in the Meriam Report in 1928. Szasz theorized that inadequate diets and over-crowded living conditions prevalent in government boarding schools acted as an incubator for childhood illnesses and caused the rapid spread of these diseases. Scholar Brenda

Child looked at the dangerous diseases that plagued the students through the letters of both sick

children and their concerned parents. Written from an ethnohistorical perspective, the book,

Boarding School Seasons, provides insight into the inner fears of children far from home and

weak with illnesses. “Disease spread easily in the communal environment of the boarding schools,” Child argued, “where students shared not only pencils and books but also soap, towels,

washbasins, beds, and even bathwater.”23 Exposure to contagious diseases was a foregone

22 Jill Sardegna and Dr. T. Otis Paul, The Encyclopedia of Blindness and Vision Impairment. (New York: Facts on File, 1991), 224-225. Trachoma is a contagious, bacterial disease and is a leading cause of blindness, especially in third world countries. The bacteria thrive in overcrowded conditions that lack clean water and poor sewage disposal, sanitation, or proper hygiene practices. Symptoms include pain, oversensitivity to light, and impaired vision. In the early twentieth century, the only treatment was surgery. Antibiotics became available in 1937.

23 Child. Boarding School Season: American Indian Families, 1900-1940. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998),. 58.

82 conclusion in such an environment.24 Initially, Chemawa had few on-campus medical concerns, other than to wor ry about the pre-existing conditions of the Navajo students and their adjustment to the school.

As they acquainted themselves with their new school, they also explored their new physical environment. The green foliage of the Oregon countryside was foreign to the Navajo students from the Southwest. “What impressed the children most on these excursions was not the trains and the buildings, but the grass, trees and flowers,” Kelley wrote. “They still bend down to touch and feel the grass.” Oregon’s grassy landscape was one of many new experiences at Chemawa.

Iris remembered her reaction to the beauty of the campus:

We landed at the campus. It was beautiful. I know that. I never did see this beautiful country before, in my life. All nice pretty trees, and green grass, and the nice beautiful buildings...We gonna live in a hogan before. When we got there all the matrons and all these staff waiting for us, congratulate us.25

Their new environment helped to distract the students momentarily from feelings of homesickness. The staff hoped that by engaging the children in new activities and lessons they would be preoccupied and not dwell on their feelings about home.

Another significant event was the first group birthday party the school held in their honor.

The children were ushered into the dining room and served cake before a gift exchange.

Communal birthday parties were opportunities to teach Navajo students about the customs of birthdays and presents. After the first party, one eighteen-year-old Navajo student asked, “How does one know when his birthday is?”26 The question demonstrated limited exposure to non-

24 Rachael Johnson, “Providing a Home Away From Home: Winnebago Indian School,” (Senior Thesis, University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire, 2007) http://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/22921/JohnsonFall07.doc?sequence=1

25 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 96.

83

Indian society. NSP staff focused its efforts on delivering a quality educational background, but

it hoped to help students understand the customs and traditions of American culture as well. NSP

admin istrators believed that if NSP graduates were to succeed in their professional life they must

be able to relate to American mainstream customs.

Chemawa also implemented a policy of keeping students at the school over the holidays.

Celebrating the holidays was made possible through donations, contributions by the local community and parents.27 “A full holiday program was carried on under the direction of the

principal...numerous organizations contributed gifts,” Kelley explained, “and the downtown

Salem Lions Club came to Chemawa and put on a program for all the Chemawa children.”28 For some students, this was their first traditional American Christmas, complete with a Christmas tree, presents, and a special meal. Children crafted presents in their vocational classes, and food for the banquet was prepared in the girls’ food classes. The girls also had the task of making popcorn balls and polishing apples for 700 candy bags which were given out to the students and their guests. Navajo students readily engaged in Christmas activities at Chemawa, though the pageantry of the holiday was a new experience. As a special Christmas meal, NSP classes had mutton, a traditional Navajo meal, and they exchanged presents with other students. It would have been nearly impossible for the Navajo not to participate; Superintendent Kelley stated that

26 Kelley Narrative Report-Chemawa Indian School, September 18 to November 30, 1948, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924- 1955, 805.1-806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 2.

27 Items that the Chemawa staff asked to be donated included record albums, ping pong sets, footballs, baseballs, roller skates, checkers, and table games and puzzles. The schools also asked for entertainment items that the entire student body could enjoy such as popcorn poppers, viewmaster projectors, record players, radios, and clothing. Gift Suggestions for Dormitory Groups, 1951, Chemawa-General 1950-1951, Tribal Operations General, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

28 Kelley Narrative Report- Chemawa Indian School, January [?], 1950, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 1. 84 every class was working on some element of the celebration. The NSP students were responsible for creating over one hundred Christmas cards which featured scenes from the program. Photos of classroom exercises and a variety of activities were used on the front of the cards and then sold to interested parties.29 Holidays helped to sustain good morale throughout the year.

Supervisor of Indian Education and the Director of NSP Hildegard Thompson arrived at

Chemawa in November 1948 to evaluate the progress of the Navajo students. Thompson’s initial concern was how well the children were adapting to the damp coastal environment. She feared that the rainy, overcast weather might adversely affect the children’s mental well-being and physical health. Her concerns were assuaged when the children appeared resilient against all the changes brought on by the NSP and displayed few outward signs of homesickness.30 Thompson recommended that an additional one hundred Navajo students be enrolled at Chemawa, bringing the total number to 200 for the 1949-1950 academic year. Thompson encouraged the school to determine what vocational programs ought to be offered to ensure maximum job placement for

NSP graduates. She understood that the success of the program depended in large part upon the ability and willingness of the local area to provide job opportunities. Chemawa had been criticized for its job placement statistics in its regular program, and through careful planning and public outreach Thompson hoped to avoid job placement problems for NSP students.

Thompson’s concerns were timely because the school needed to complete its third year unit which focused on the vocational training program. The school continued to work on developing the job placement portion of the NSP while also working to inform the Navajo students of social expectations of non-Indian society.

29 Ibid.

30 Thompson to Beatty, November 22, 1948, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1-806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 2. 85

Martha Hall, an education specialist for the NSP, visited the school in May 1950, and she

remarked about the chaotic atmosphere of Chemawa’s dining room. A common complaint by

visiting NSP officials was student conduct during the dinner hour. Hall wanted the school and

the students to understand the importance of manners and proper conduct while the students ate.

“Each student,” She remonstrated, “should be led to understand ‘why’ he (or she) should have a

share in making meal hours pleasant and ‘how’ he (or she) can do this.”31 A primary goal of the

NSP curriculum was time management, and Hall believed that the dining hour was an opportunity to help the students develop better table manners. Hall stressed the importance of

explaining the “why” component in all of their lessons, especially when dealing with new social

expectations. Dining room lessons seemed inconsequential compared to learning a new language

and vocational training, but the dining room, she complained, remained an area of unchecked

and “uncivilized” mannerisms. Hall suggested focusing on “small” details such as, standing

patiently in line until being served, entering and leaving in an orderly manner, and scraping his

or her tray without making a mess.32 Chemawa’s efforts in cafeteria behavior, however,

remai ned a vexing shortcoming which proved to be one of the school’s few areas of weakness in

the eyes of the NSP.

The 1950-1951 academic year marked the start of the NSP’s third year at Chemawa.

Education Specialist for the NSP Norma Runyan completed her annual visit of the school in

December of 1950. Her report spoke about program development at Chemawa as the school

“juggled” its responsibility of caring for the Navajos and non-Navajo students. “There appears to

31 Hall to Beatty, May 19, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

32 Hall to Beatty, May 19, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1-806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

86

have been quite a bit of growth in the total Navajo Program,” Runyan observed, “[the program]

is becoming more mature and stable.”33 Runyan judged the stability of the program by the rate of

student development and by evaluating the teaching staff. At this time, both Chemawa and the

NSP were satisfied with the teachers and teacher-interpreters paired with the Navajo students.

Runyan in particular was impressed by the students’ response to the newest high school teachers’

techniques. Understanding the high turnover rate of staff members within the BIA education

division, Runyan was cautious about how long the new teachers would stay with the program.

Occasionally Chemawa staff members encountered problems controlling their classrooms.

Runyan noted that a certain male teacher—although trained by the NSP at its Santa Fe summer

school—failed to obtain “the real respect and full cooperation of his pupil.” The NSP students’

curriculum filled their days, but the lack of teacher control cost the students valuable time and greatly reduced the efficiency of the program.34

Runyan worked with vocational teachers to help them understand the needs of the Navajo

children. Expectations for vocational teachers in the NSP included instructing the students on

the mechanics of their profession along with imparting the pertinent knowledge to complete their

work. In 1949, Mr. Reifel, the shop teacher at Chemawa, restructured how he taught his shop

classes after receiving instructions to do so from NSP officials. “I suggested to him that he

should go more lightly on the developing of skills,” Runyan wrote, “and take much more time to develop with pupils their understanding of meanings of words used in their prevocational

33 Runyan to Beatty, December 14, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

34 Ibid.

87 work.”35 Reifel soon realized that he could not conduct class at a normal pace with the limited

English vocabulary of his students. Vocational teachers were not the only ones to adjust their prior expectation for their students. Runyan cautioned all teachers to be prepared to “sacrifice” possible academic advancement in favor of strengthening the students’ English proficiency.

The emotional stability of the Navajo students was closely monitored by the NSP staff at

Chemawa. Winifred Koske, head of the Navajo program at Chemawa, took an active interest in all the Navajos’ personal and school achievements and difficulties, according to Runyan. The staff close scrutiny of the Navajo students was a preemptive measure to avoid drop-outs and

“AWOLs.” Even with close vigilance, some students left Chemawa to find work or to return home. In the fall of 1949, one Navajo boy and a non-Navajo boy left school and did not return; they were found working in Idaho and they declined to return to Chemawa willingly.36 Koske advised dormitory matrons and chaperones about counseling students on the importance of finishing the program and earning a degree before leaving to find work. Subsequent to the counseling, the program’s drop out rate slowed, with only seven reported for the 1949-1950 school year.37

To prevent children from being overwhelmed by their school work, daytime parties were initiated, during which time the students had the opportunity to socialize and strengthen their conversational English. The parties allowed teachers and dormitory matrons to instruct the attendees in proper party manners. The NSP wanted its students to advance with their academic

35 Runyan to Beatty, July 15, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

36 Runyan to Beatty, December 14, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 3.

37 Ibid.

88 lessons and vocational training, but it also wanted them proficient in social skills that would assist them in their adjustment to life off the reservation. Frank, a former Navajo student, fondly remembered the Friday dances: “Everybody comes, that’s where they all get acquainted.

Anybody can dance with any, [sic] any woman or girls.”38 The social aspects of the program progressed as the Navajo student population grew and as they became more comfortable at their new school and with the English language.

The vocational component of the program also grew during the 1950-1951 school year when the first class entered its third year. Chemawa’s home economics division, however, did not satisfy Runyan, who found its facilities lacking in space and efficiency. Chemawa’s limited resources forced the Navajo students to share the cooking and sewing laboratories with the regular students, which created scheduling problems and limited the amount of time that all students could use the workspaces. The shop schedule also shared space until a new shop area was constructed. Over the next several years the overbooked classrooms at Chemawa resulted in the construction of separate areas for the Navajo students’ classrooms and vocational work. 39

When Runyan visited Chemawa, she attended meetings where plans for the fourth year of the NSP were discussed. Chemawa officials began planning how to foster cooperative relationships with local businesses to ensure future employment opportunities for NSP graduates.

Runyan suggested developing a Saturday “outing” program for Navajo students, a strategy which had proved highly successful at other NSP locations. The outing system had been developed by

Captain Pratt at the Carlisle School in the 1880s as a means of exposing Carlisle students to non-

38 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 97.

39 Runyan to Beatty, December 14, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 89

Indian work ethics.40 Saturday jobs were “miniature on-the-job training” sessions, Runyan

explained, which allowed students to earn income. It was important for Navajo students to earn a

wage, for it allowed them the experience of buying new clothing and learning how to handle and

budget money. When Navajo students purchased new clothing items, Runyan argued that it

enhanced their self respect and their understanding of personal property ownership. Runyan

emphasized teaching the new wage earners about being “dependable” and about being proud of

working “to earn and to own.”41 Navajo culture focused more on a comparative relationship

between tribal members, such as sharing land to provide for the family as a whole. The NSP

hoped to instill in the students a sense of American individualism and self-reliance which taught

the students to realize that in non-Indian society they were expected to rely on themselves to

obtain a certain level of material wealth. Dormitory matrons used the purchasing of clothing to

build a student’s wardrobe as an early example of personal property for Navajo youth.

Before school staff allowed female students to find a summer placement, they made sure to

inform the girls about proper job behavior and how to manage their time. Teachers focused on

the use of the telephone, eating proper meals, following instructions, use of leisure time, and entertaining friends. Lena Cronk, department head of Home Economics, reported that the girls placed in homes for summer employment excelled at their jobs. “[They] are taking their responsibilities in the homes where they have been placed beyond our expectations,” Cronk commented.42

40 Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 67.

41 Runyan to Beatty, April 22, 1951, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

90

Finding Navajo boys Saturday work presented a challenge. Western Oregon has a

prolonged rainy season that hindered consistent yard and garden work, and transportation was

another obstacle because students had to take the public bus to and from their jobs. “Navajo boys

can be depended upon,” Runyan argued, “to go to a bus line and get to their jobs alone and return

the same way, when they are taught how to do it and are trusted in the matter.”43 Older Navajo

students were more likely to use public transit effectively and return safely to the school. A

student’s English proficiency was also an important factor in finding work off campus. Navajo

students needed to gain exposure to vocational work available in the area quickly and earn a little

money to supplement their income. Summer placement jobs for Navajo boys included fire

suppression crew, farm laborer, railroad extra gang, and campus student worker.44 The balance

between the vocational component of the program and the academic training limited the amount

that Navajo students could work on campus, but it did not necessarily restrict them from finding jobs away from Chemawa.

The use of student labor to complete school chores was a common feature for federal

Indian boarding school which depended upon students to maintain the maintenance of the school, an area that was criticized in the 1928 Meriam Report. Frank, a Navajo students who attended

Chemawa from 1948-1953, detailed the structure of his day. “One of the matrons wakes us up and we had to go milk cows at 4:30 in the morning. We’d haul it out to the kitchen, we had the storage in there, the cooler. We used to make out own butter, pasteurize our own milk,” Frank

42 [Cronk Memo], Fourth Year Navajo Home Economics Program, May [?], 1952, Navajo Program File No. 2 1951-1952, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

43 Runyan to Beatty, April 22, 1951, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

44 Brewer Hall Summer Placements, June [?] 1952, Navajo Program No. 2, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal File 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 91

remembered. “We had to feed the cows everyday, clean all the gutters...we have pig pens way

out in the country.”45 Frank’s list of chores was not unusual for boarding school students because

the general maintenance of the school depended upon labor furnished by the students. Navajo

students did not completely escape the long list of chores found on the Chemawa campus, but the

time that they could spend on these tasks was limited—causing problems between Navajo and regular students.

To reduce the tension between the two groups at Chemawa and to build Navajo students’

English vocabulary, the staff considered moving the older Navajo boys into regular student

dormitories. Chemawa staff asked NSP officials’ advice about how to integrate these Navajo

students into non-Navajo dormitories. By 1950, a number of Navajo students had been in the

program for three years, and some of them desired to be moved into dorms with their non-

Navajo friends. Superintendent Kelley wrote to Runyan asking for the NSP’s opinion concerning changing dormitory living arrangements for a select group of Navajo students. Initially the NSP wanted Navajo children to remain separate from the regular student population to avoid the

Navajo students from being overwhelmed. Kelley now believed that the older Navajo boys could be moved from the Brewer Hall dormitory, an all - Navajo dorm, to a boys’ dorm with non-

Navajos.46 Hall and Runyan “understood that in principle this was the best thing to do to speed

up the learning of the Navajo boys,” but they harbored concerns over the school transferring

these male Navajo boys too quickly out of their Navajo living areas.

The decision to move Navajo students out of the segregated dormitory was based on the

students’ growth in English and how they had adjusted to their new school. “Real consideration

45 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 91.

46 Kelley to Runyan, August 10, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 92

[should] be given,” Runyan advised, “to the time each boy has been in school, the adjustment he

has been able to make, and how ‘ready’ he is to live and compete with the other boys who have

all their lives lived in an environment not too different to that at Chemawa.”47 Program officials tried to determine the impact regular students had on Navajo students. At Chemawa, tension existed between the northwestern tribes and the Navajos, due in part to competition between them. Competition stemmed from regular students not understanding the difference between their program of study and the Navajos’. The differences gave the appearance of favoritism toward Navajo students because of the strict structure of their workload. One difference between the two groups was the limited hours that Navajo students could spend on completing school chores, because during the first three years it was only an hour-and-a-half each day. Non-Navajo students also interpreted the use of separate classrooms and teachers by the NSP as a sign of preferential treatment for NSP students. Based on Chemawa officials’ understanding of former students, Beatty advised Kelley to depend upon the judgment of Chemawa’s program director and the head of the boys’ dormitories. “We know from experience that keeping each of these boys in school there for five years depended largely upon the Chemawa dormitory and classroom staffs understanding what the pupils need and do not need....”48 Chemawa NSP staff members

understood that they needed to understand what their students were feeling and the strength of

their coping abilities. Navajo students did not have the same incentives to continue with their

schooling because of their age, so teachers were under pressure to reinforce the importance of

finishing the program. By keeping the Navajo boys in one dormitory, it was easier to monitor

47 Runyan to Kelley, August 17, 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

48 Ibid.

93

their morale and to spot which boys were having problems with homesickness or difficulties with

school work.

The time Navajo students spent on institutional chores who carefully tracked and

monitored to ensure that they did not disrupt their carefully balanced schedule. Winifred Koske,

the head of the Navajo Program for Chemawa, received a memo in 1950 from student advisor

“A. Challis” that detailed how many hours each Navajo female student spent on chores. They

averaged forty-five minutes a day on dormitory chores, with a combined total of five-hours-and

fifteen-minutes per week. Hospital duty and dining hall detail entailed two-and-half-hours a day,

or fifteen-and-three-fourths hours per week.49 Chores the girls completed included cleaning and general upkeep, dishwashing, and matron’s helper. Navajo boys were responsible for meat cutting, truck driving, and lawn mowing.50 The Navajo girls were divided into three groups and

they rotated job responsibilities. Each group worked specific jobs in the dormitories or dining

hall before the schedule switched. When asked during an oral history what she thought of her institutional work, Iris responded:

We’re assigned to do, that some of will be doing kitchen help, what they called detail, and others were on dairy, on laundry, on shoe shop, on garden, everything that we take in care. We’re assigned to do all there things. I learned all these...Learn how to sew and how to cook. I think, I feel myself, I decided that’s what I came for. I wanted to learn that, I wanted to learn what they have.51

Challis indicated that “most of the girls did institutional care to earn clothing.” All sixty-three

Navajo female students enrolled during 1949-1950 accumulated some hours to earn a wage to

49 Challis to Koske, May [?] 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

50 “McNary Hall Detail,” 1952, Navajo Program File No. 2, 1951-1952, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

51 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 92. 94

purchase personal items. The hours ranged from one-to-thirty hours, with most girls recording

between fifteen-to-twenty-three hours.52 Over the year the girls worked a combined total of 986-

and-half-hours of “clothing work,” or jobs in which the girls earned money to purchase clothing

and other needed items. Throughout the year, the female Navajo students worked an aggregate of

16,922 hours.

Preparing For Graduation

In his 1951 narrative report, Superintendent Holm reported on the school’s preparations for its first NSP graduates. As part of that preparation Chemawa formed the Guidance and

Placement Committee, patterned after a system initiated at Sherman Institute. Committee

members met with the Department Heads and members of the Management Improvement

Program to plan and implement job placement for its graduates. Martha Hall and Norma

Runyan, the program’s Education Specialists, made a joint visit to the school in November 1952,

and they submitted a report to Thompson, detailing the Guidance and Placement Committee’s

progress. Their report stated that the NSP had an enrollment of 242 students, Chemawa’s largest

class to date. Runyan noted that of the ninety-three original students who had entered the NSP,

twenty-six Navajos were schedule to graduate in the spring of 1953. The first graduating class

was small because a number of younger Navajo students who had arrived at Chemawa in 1948

had transferred to the Intermountain School in Utah after their initial three years at Chemawa.

These students were transferred because they were young enough and had advanced quickly

52 Challis to Koske, May [?] 1950, Navajo Program File No. 1, 1948-1950, Chemawa Indian School, Box 29, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 805.1- 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 95

enough to merit more time for academic training. Vocational program s for the fourth and fifth years divided into a number of different specialties.53

Specialty Vocational Programs 4th Year Students 5th Year Students

Carpentry 5 5 Agriculture 14 4 Filling Station Attendant 4 7 General Service 16 7 Painting 4 2 Shoe Repairing 3 1 Total 46 26

The students enrolled in shoe repair were trained to apply soles, heels, and general shoe repair.

Filling station attendants learned to service a car properly and to make minor repairs and

adjustments. Carpentry classes involved learning how to use power woodworking machines and

completing tasks such as shingling a garage roof, rebuilding small buildings on campus, and

building tool lockers. Male students trained as painters repainted their dormitory rooms and

refinished worn furniture. Agricultural classes used the school farm as their practical

experience.54

Of the six vocations listed, the only category that included females was “general services.”

Female students who enrolled in the general services program were expected to have a wide-

ranging knowledge of domestic responsibility. That female occupations occupied only a single

category was representative of the instructors’ belief that women would hold jobs temporarily—

53 Runyan and Hall to Thompson, November 13, 1952, Chemawa School- Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 2.

54 “Mr. Showalter,” Special Fourth Year Boys Vocational Work at Chemawa, Navajo Program File No. 2 1951-1952, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle 96

until they married and started a family—not as life-long professionals. Girls’ vocational work

focused on the proper care of the home and children so their training emphasized ironing,

mending, and general housekeeping.

The 1952-1953 academic year saw a number of new teachers hired to fill vacant positions

within the NSP. Whenever new personnel was hired for NSP positions, officials closely

monitored how well they adapted to the special demands made by their new students and the

program. To equip teachers with the special skills they needed, workshops were offered during

the summer that focused on the NSP and the Navajo students.55 By 1952, the NSP grew to fill eight different classrooms on the Chemawa campus. Each room contained movable desks and chairs with potted flowers and plants to brighten the atmosphere. Hall and Runyan were impre ssed by bulletin boards that featured the students’ stories, cartoons, and artwork. One particular board tracked the students’ opinions on the Presidential campaign and which candidate

they would cast their ballot in favor for. The Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower led the

race because his campaign train had passed the school, and he had waved at the students from the

back of his train.56

Hall and Runyan noted the general appearance of the school, and they appreciated the

efforts of the Navajo students to keep their environment in the best condition possible. Most

Navajo students lived in three dormitories, one for the girls and two for the boys. Matrons in charge of the female dorm complained that the girls lacked “concern with the care of property,” and Hall and Runyan suggested that the teachers and matrons needed to collaborate on ways to

55 Runyan and Hall to Thompson, November 13, 1952, Chemawa School- Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 2.

56 Ibid., 3. 97

help the girls better understand what was expected of them regarding the care of their personal

property. They wanted the girls to respect and maintain their personal property in ways that

would reflect well on the program after the female graduates left the program and entered the

urban setting. For many Navajo girls, personal property was not a concept they were raised to

understand, so the importance that non-Indian society placed on personal property remained foreign to them. When the Navajo boys’ advisors were questioned about how their charges enjoyed Chemawa, they reported that a more positive relationship was growing between the

Navajos and Northwestern tribes. Their assessment notwithstanding, Runyan and Hall recommended that more focus needed to be placed on “ironing out some difficulties that continue to exist.”57

As Navajo and non-Navajo students adjusted to one another, Holm addressed the long-

range relationship between students and their parents. Holm began his tenure as Superintendent

in 1952, and in his first narrative report he discussed the influence parents had on their children and the school’s goals. “A close relationship with the home areas, the parents, and officials concerned is very important,” Holm explained. A key element at Chemawa was to maintain a positive public image.58 Holm made his point by explaining an incident involving a specific

Navajo boy. The student wrote home to his parents, complaining that when he arrived at the

campus all of his clothes had been stolen. His parents became very upset with this news and

informed the school that they would be withdrawing their son. School officials investigated what

had happened to the boy’s possessions and discovered that he had manufactured the story as an

57 Progress Report complied by Runyan, [ ? ], 1952, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 3.

58 Holm Narrative Report, January 18, 1952, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 98

excuse to leave. “Added to this unfortunate case of having the boy go home for no real reason

but homesickness,” Holm reported, “is the fact that the story of having the clothes stolen had

reached other people.” This prompted Holm to convene a special meeting with the students. He

emphasized to them the importance of “being truthful” in their letters home, thereby avoiding the backlash of damaging stories spread about the school. Holm asked teachers to “encourage…

[students] to give their dissatisfaction to us so that we can help in working them out.” Holm

sympathized with their “re-adjustment,” but placed great importance on the school’s public

image. Accordingly, he encouraged them to be honest in their letters and to admit the “real

reason” they were unhappy at school.59 At a school such as Chemawa, it would be impossible to

eliminate every incident of stealing and bullying, but Holm hoped to downplay them.

Holm described measures taken by the staff to ensure the easiest transition possible for the

students. In Holm’s opinion, “The work of the employees is conscientious and far beyond their

regular tour of duty.”60 He then listed examples that supported his assertion that the students

were well adjusted, including their excellent appearance and happy morale. While Holm

portrayed a content student body, his narrative suggests a difficult adjustment period for many of

the children. To compensate for the children’s feelings of homesickness, the school invited their

families to visit the school anytime they were able. Holm concluded by reiterating the mission of

the school: “We believe in turning out a product that can stand on his own feet, do his own

thinking, be confident, self-reliant.”61

Next, Holm wrote to Chemawa students’ parents, reassuring them of their children’s well

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid.

99

being to counterbalance student allegations that were mailed home. “Rather than encouraging the

student to leave the school,” Holm’s asked, “won’t you let us know that there is something

worrying the student so that we can help them?”62 School administrators believed that emotional issues such as homesickness could best be handled on campus, which helped ensure that the children finished out their school year. Holm’s next attempted to reassure parents by providing more details about student activities. Holm’s described student life outside of class, explaining that the students had the option of watching a movie every Saturday night or joining a band or a pep squad, scouting, taking field trips, or exercising town visiting privileges.63 Initially, Navajo

students were not allowed to venture into Salem when they first arrived at Chemawa; NSP

officials recommended keeping them on campus until they strengthened their English

vocabulary. Holm stressed the importance of keeping the children enrolled at Chemawa, and

emphasized Chemawa’s advantages over public schools. “We want the year at Chemawa to

mean as much, or more, than a year in any other school,” Holm wrote.64 Parents and guardians of

non-Navajo students sent their children to Chemawa, knowing that the school provided a more

comprehensive education than closer public schools. Navajo parents, however, were just

beginning to understand the benefits of having their children enrolled at such an institution.

Early in the 1952 academic year, Holm distributed a letter to Chemawa students outlining

his plan to strengthen student involvement and local community perceptions of the school. The

NSP students numbered 203, comprising forty-four percent of the student body. Holm wanted

them to have specific instructions about the image and behavior expected of a Chemawa student.

62 Holm Letter to Chemawa Parents, November 18, 1952, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

63 Holm Letter to Chemawa Parents, January 18, 1952, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

64 Ibid. 100

Prohibited behavior included drinking, stealing, lying, and fighting on or off the campus by students or visitors, and Holm stressed the importance of proper conduct of students while in the public eye. “If Salem people see you looking nice, well dressed, and well behaved on their streets,” he explained, “they think we are all that way.”65 Holm hoped to inculcate in the Navajo student population a philosophy of mutual respect and responsibility between NSP students and their new environment. It helped that Navajo children had been raised in a culture that prized working toward a mutual goal, rather than fostering competitive ambition. NSP students recognized the value of conforming to ideas or standards that benefitted the group as a whole, and they had difficulty accepting the idea that competiveness overshadowed the preservation of group integrity. The community’s positive response to the Navajo students was important for promoting job opportunities for future graduates in the community.

The January 1952 NSP report described a specific training tool aimed at promoting student adjustment to the larger society. The NSP staff determined to open banks within the schools to provide the students with the working knowledge of the American banking system. Chemawa did not start its banking program until 1952, when the first class of NSP students was starting its third year. Holm informed officials in Washington D.C. that bank deposit slips and checkbooks had been printed for the Navajo students, and that Chemawa teachers were “emphasizing correct banking and budgeting procedures in preparation for the opening of our school bank.” In 1952, the NSP was still in the early stages of its development at Chemawa with many goals still unmet, so the establishment of the bank was a significant step toward the permanence of the NSP

65 Holm Narrative Report, January 18, 1952, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

101 program at the school.66 Chemawa officials were able to point out the school bank operational status as proof that the school remained dedicated to the needs of the Navajo students, making them a valuable members of the NSP system and securing its place as a depository for the coming years.

During the summer of 1952, in preparation for Chemawa’s first NSP class entering its final year, the school staff fostered positive relationships between the students and potential employers. For boys interested in procuring summer employment, the school provided counseling services that included practice interviews and information about effective methods obtaining employment. Many of the female students were already gainfully employed by

Chemawa, because at a school as large as Chemawa there were numerous housekeeping jobs available. Girls working at the school filled out a student employment card which they turned in for payroll; eighty-seven girls were employed at varying pay levels. Fifty-one girls received $.35 per hour, sixteen earned $.50 per hour, and twenty girls got $.65 per hour.67 Teachers in charge of the third year NSP curriculum emphasized the necessity of choosing their vocation by the end of the year. For the fourth-year students, their specialized training had already begun, with the school supervising special trips to local factories and stores. The girls in the “general services” program traveled to the Salem hospital where they attended a demonstration about infant care.

Other trips included traveling to various local farms and the Mayflower Milk Company.68 Mr.

Neal, who taught in the program, arranged for seven young men to work on a farm down in

66 Holm Narrative Report, February [?] 1952, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

67 Holm Narrative Report, March 25, 1952, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

68 Ibid. 102

Prineville, Oregon. They received seventy-five dollars per month and room and board.69 Three young men from the NSP rejected vocational training, choosing instead to take a physical examination for the armed services and then wait for their draft number to be called. The school’s Guidance and Placement committee was scrutinized closely by NSP officials who were eager to see how successful Chemawa would be at finding employment for their graduates.

During Hall and Runyan’s visit to Chemawa in spring of 1952, a meeting was held with the

Guidance and Placement Committee to discuss its summer placement successes as well as its plans for placing its graduates. Hall and Runyan recommended creating sub-committees to report on the accomplishments and problems of students to the Guidance and Placement Committee, thereby keeping the committee well informed. The education specialists offered several suggestions for the school to consider before looking for its students’ final placements. Runyan proposed giving students job experience while still in school by finding them weekend jobs off campus. Chemawa officials needed to cultivate contacts with potential employers in the

imme diate region to advertise the strength of their pupils. “They need to discover small

‘communities’ of contacts,” Runyan advised, “so that pupils will be able to see a few school

friends occasionally when on-the-job training or on permanent placement.”70 Finally, Runyan

insisted that student jobs had to be at least minimum wage, paid in cash, and comparable to

prevailing wages for similar work.

After Runyan and Hall’s departure, the school began formulating six-to-nine week on-the-

job training programs. Its intent was to place fifth-year NSP students in permanent jobs by the

69 Ibid.

70 Runyan and Hall to Thompson, November 13, 1952, Chemawa School- Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 8. 103 end of the school year.71 In August 1953, Paul Bramlet, Chemawa’s new Superintendent, offered a positive assessment for the new graduates. He claimed that most fifth-year Navajo graduates who were employed were well regarded by their employers.

Figure 2: Fifth year Navajo Students outside of Chemawa72

The success of the NSP graduates notwithstanding, Runyan’s 1953 report to Thompson contained several “recommendations for further improvement” based on teachers’ concerns about students in the first three years of the program. The first suggestion was to redouble

71 Bramlet Narrative Report, August 31, 1953, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 72 “Adolescent Navajos Start School,” October [?], 1950, Chemawa School-Navajo Program, Box 29, Folder 2, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 5. 104

teachers’ efforts at making the younger students fluent in English. They needed to be able to

speak English with ease and to be able to express their ideas in complete sentences. Teachers

formulated multiple ways to help strengthen their students’ English. They suggested holding

more assembly programs where students presented lessons to their peers, and they advised using

sound-scribers machines so students could hear how they sounded when they spoke English. And

they urged teachers to create “more situations in which pupils must and can use spoken English

and that individual help be given on pronunciation and diction.”73 The education specialists

wanted more intensive work with students to help them understand and put into practice

“common manners.” Runyan advised the staff that it would have to “put the words in their

mouths” until the proper greetings and phrases became a part of them. Finally, Runyan

demanded that teachers collectively decide upon similar teaching techniques to create uniformity within the program; one example would be to look for common reading material. Uniformity allowed students lessons to reinforce similar goals for each unit plan, and NSP officials reiterated how i mportant efficiency was to the program. Students’ time was limited, and it had to be used to its maximum benefit. Uniformity within lesson plans was a means to that end.

Years after the first NSP graduation

As the program continued, school officials worried about the competence of the NSP staff.

The NSP continued to grow, but the turnover for teachers, teacher-interpreters, and support staff was alarmingly high. In November 1953, Bramlet expressed his concern about the lack of quality

replacements. “We feel there has been deterioration in quality in the Navajo program

73 Runyan to Thompson, [ ? ],1953, Chemawa School- Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 3. 105

replacements,” Bramlet lamented. “We lost the two best teachers and were not able to fill their

positions with as capable people.”74 Finding quality teachers plagued BIA federal boarding

schools in general. The pay, the locations, and the emotional demands did not appeal to most

teachers. Another problem was the personal conduct of some employees. Bramlet reported in

March 1954, “Eugene Keams, teacher-instructor, was arrested for drunken driving, plead guilty,

was fined $250, which he could not pay, and is serving their time in jail.”75 The report expressed

Bramlet’s concern about the influence of the interpreter during his tenure, and he feared that the

harm Keams caused NSP outweighed his positive contributions. The program relied heavily

upon its interpreters who were responsible for the first communication with most Navajo

students. In July 1954, Bramlet wrote to Portland area Director Don Foster requesting five more interpreters for the 1954-1955 school year in anticipation of the Navajo student population increasing to 425 students.76 Despite the problems associated with finding and keeping qualified

instructors, Bramlet reported that graduates who found employment continued to receive positive

reviews, which were demonstrated by the promotion given to the men hired by the Boeing

Company. Four Navajo male graduates were hired by the Boeing Company in spring of 1953;

the new hires earned $ 1.38 per hour assisting Boeing riveters. 77 Mr. Hudson, an administrator

from Chemawa, visited the former NSP students in Seattle to speak to their employers and

74 Bramlet Narrative Report, November 23, 1953, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

75 Bramlet Narrative Report, April 20, 1954, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

76 Bramlet to Foster, July 7, 1954, Navajo Program File, 1953-1955, Chemawa Indian School, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, Box 30, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

77 Holm to BIA Commissioner, May 1, 1953, Program and Supervision-Chemawa, 1948- 1953, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 106

landlady to assess their adjustment to non-Indian society. The landlady had a high opinion of the

young men, who, she said, kept their rooms clean and were “unassuming in their demands.”

Hudson and the landlady worried that the men were spending too much time isolated in their room s, so Hudson asked the landlady to encourage them to go to church and to participate in community programs.78 The follow up visit that the new Boeing employees experienced was

typical for NSP graduates. NSP schools did not cease contact with their students after graduation,

but regularly inquired about their current employment and happenings of their lives.

Positive employment reports encouraged Chemawa school officials to continue meeting

with potential employers to inform them about their students. Chemawa staff hoped that the

meetings would make the NSP students attractive employment candidates. To supplement their

regular meetings, Chemawa officials made presentations to the Salem Chamber of Commerce,

where they passed out illustrated leaflets promoting their program and their students. A good relationship between the Salem community and Chemawa was vital to the success of the NSP.

Without jobs opportunities in the local area, the effectiveness of the program would be greatly reduced, forcing many of its graduates back to the reservation.79 By the middle of 1954,

Chem awa scouts had widened their search to include more distant counties, thereby broadening

their students’ employment opportunities.

The International Appeal of Chemawa

As the 1950s progressed, Chemawa became a destination for a variety of guests. In the fall

of 1956, the school welcomed a delegation of Fulbright scholars from Norway, Germany,

78 Hudson to Brannon, June 6, 1953, Navajo Program File No. 3, 1952-1953, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

79 Bramlet Narrative Report, April 20, 1954, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle. 107

Finland, Egypt, Nigeria, Vietnam, and Guatemala. The scholars were accompanied by Harvey

Wright, the BIA’s Director of Indian Education, and several officials from the state’s

Department of Education. The group toured the campus and viewed student demonstrations. One visitor commented that the highlight of the visit was the tea and short dance program that students had prepared.80 Foreign visitors had travelled to the school in the past to witness the mingling of the children’s native culture with their new environment, reflecting how Europeans had become fascinated with the “American Frontier” and the stereotypes associated with

American Indians.

The visitors who came to Chemawa in 1956 witnessed the end of the school’s regular program. For the 1957-1958 academic year, Chemawa only admitted Navajo students. It was an indication of the success of the NSP at Chemawa, because the Navajo student population had grown to over 400 students in nine years. After 1957, the program went from a five-year- program to a six-year-track, and finally to an eight-year-degree program. When former Navajo students reflected back on their experience at Chemawa, most appreciated the skills they had developed there and the sense of community the school provided. The cold and repressive atmosphere of earlier BIA boarding schools shared little in common with the NSP. Frank was asked during his oral history interview to talk about his experience at Chemawa:

Back in the [19]49’s 50s [sic] the kids really look forward for what they are going be, skills [sic]. They really stick close to their cultures. That’s how we grow up….The way I figure, we’re a part of this country and we got to be something too, ourself. Learn something from white man’s language. We still want our culture too.81

80 Narrative Report, February [?} 1956, Narrative Reports 1951-1956, Education Administrative files, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

81 Bonnell, “Chemawa Indian Boarding School,” 102. 108

The NSP benefitted Frank because it equipped him with non-Indian skills, while allowing him to retain his language and his culture. NSP teachers and staff did not erase their “Navajo-ness” out of them; rather, they added to their knowledge in practical ways so they could become employed and handle American money. The success of the program rested on the student’s ability to navigate through non-Indian society without being forced to abandon their cultural and tribal foundations. In Frank’s opinion Chemawa succeeded at this goal while providing a home away from home for hundreds of Navajo children.

109

Conclusion

Take upon yourselves the responsibility for seeing that the people you represent are well provided for in terms of education for their children. The salvation and hope of our Navajo people lies in education Paul Jones, Chairman of Navajo Tribal Council, 1995

I didn’t lose any culture or my language. We all speak the same language. So I wasn’t lonely or anything. More like, pretty much home when I came. So we, some boys, my friends, we used to go, make our little drum and sing, somewhere, over there in the area [sic]. They won’t bother us, no. We sing our own language. So that’s how we go.

Frank, (Navajo) ca. January, 1996 to April, 1997

Paul Jones, elected as Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council in 1955, challenged fellow tribal council members in his inaugural speech to continue their fight to provide better education for the people they represented.1 “The salvation and hope of our Navajo people lies in education,” Jones argued. Even as Navajo community members lobbied for the construction of more day schools, the NSP became the dominating educational force for the tribe during the

1950s. By 1959, the program had graduated 3,362 students from its multiple locations.2

Chemawa’s division of the NSP steadily grew throughout the 1950s. In 1953, 26 NSP students graduated with a degree from Chemawa. The school helped the new graduates locate jobs in the Salem area and it kept close watch on their progress. Seven female graduates found work as “household helpers” or in domestic services and child care. The average monthly salary for the women was $60 with room and board included. When employers were asked about their new employees, they commented: “[she was] Doing very well,” and “pleased with the work.”3

1 “Inaugural Speech of Paul Jones, Chairman Navajo Tribal Council,” April 4, 1955, Navajo Program File No. 4, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 4.

2 Coombs, Doorway Toward the Light, 133.

110

One female student chose to return home shortly after graduation. The Graduate Employee

Record did not provide a reason for her decision, but her job was located some distance from

Salem, in The Dalles, Oregon, which could have factored into her dissatisfaction with the job.

NSP officials warned Chemawa staff that the success its graduates depended upon their ability to form a close support network, which was why the program advised locating jobs in close proximity to each other.

Chemawa graduated nineteen male NSP students in 1953. Most were successfully located in vocational work, or they chose to enlist in the military. Two young men entered the mechanic service field, five male graduates worked for railroad companies as warehouse laborers, three worked on local farms, and four worked as riveters for the Boeing Company, located in Seattle,

Washington. Three young men were enlisted in the military, and one male graduate worked for

Salem’s local feed store. Wages earned by the men varied depending upon their work. Farm laborers earned on average $70 per month, and room and board. The graduates at Boeing were paid $1.38 per hour, with overtime rates after forty hours. Males who worked on railroad crews earned $1.50 an hour, and car mechanics received on average $1.25 per hour. Two men took jobs in May after graduation, but decided to return home by July. For both men, the reasons given for their decision for returning to the reservation was listed as family issues.4

Only nineteen of the original twenty-six graduates were listed as being employed in the record. What happened to the remaining graduates was not mentioned, but it is likely that they returned home. NSP officials were pleased with the accomplishments of this first class and hoped that when the community realized the quality of work completed by the Navajo graduates,

3 “Graduate Employee Record,” July [?], 1953, Chemawa Indian School- Navajo Program, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 1.

4 Ibid., 2-4. 111

employment opportunities would expand. The NSP was significant for its contributions to

helping Navajos find work but also for what it represented in federal Indian education policy.

By the 1880s, the assimilationist policy had become entrenched in federal Indian policy.

Assimilation remained the main objection of BIA educators until the publication of the Meriam

Report of 1928 and later with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. On the other hand, it is

important to keep in mind that one report or one federal statute did not automatically and comprehensively change the hearts and minds of federal bureaucrats. Proclaiming that it was

“okay” to be an Indian, which the Meriam Report and IRA essentially did, signaled the beginning of federal Indian policy transformation. BIA education slowly began to allow for

minimal expressions of American Indian culture within the curriculum, and under Collier’s leadership assimilation as the main goal of American Indian education began to recede. But these changes took place sporadically and unevenly throughout the nation, and what happened at

Chemawa is something of a case study of American Indian educational reform. Intentionally or accidently, the NSP sparked a heightened level of cultural tolerance at Chemawa Indian School.

For the NSP experiment to work, officials recognized the importance of close cultural ties for their Navajo students. Again intentionally or accidently, the NSP in essence inaugurated a bi- lingual American Indian education experiment. Rather than creating barriers against their Navajo language, the BIA hired Navajo interpreters. They encouraged their students to maintain close ties with their families in the Southwest through letter writing, and they encouraged the parents of the Navajo children at Chemawa to visit the school whenever they could without restrictions.

Housing the Navajo students, boys and girls alike, in common Navajo dormitories was another example of officials’ acceptance of maintaining a strong Navajo identity during their Chemawa

Indian school education. 112

In the past, Indian boarding schools created a hierarchy that pitted American Indian

students against aggressive reform-minded non-Indian teachers and officials. What transpired at

Chemawa, however, was more complicated, for it represented more then the Indian/non-Indian

dichotomy. No longer was the non-Indian hierarchy a single-minded structure, evidenced by the

school’s bi-lingual reliance on interpreters. And when it came to the Indian student hierarchy, it

too was more complex, illustrated by the tension between the regular students and the growing

number of Navajo students. The dynamics one sees at Chemawa between 1948 to 1957 point to

the kinds of transformational changes that were no doubt the original goals of the authors of the

Meriam Report and IRA.

The need for bilingual education for American Indian children was first addressed in the

1928 Meriam Report. BIA education director Willard Beatty understood the importance of

instituting a bilingual approach to federal education. He began a crusade to establish teaching

programs based on a bilingual method and began the process of producing materials written in

the students’ native language. An obstacle for incorporating a bilingual curriculum was the fact

that of the 230 surviving Indian languages, most remained oral; for example, it was not until the

1930s that Navajo was first put in written form.5 Beatty commissioned authors to transcribe children stories into Navajo, Sioux, and Pueblo, and these translations helped relate non-Indian concepts to the children before they were exposed to them in English.6 “Language through this

medium,” Beatty argued, “ helps [sic] the educator teaching English to a child [and] is at the

same time teaching him the cultural values of the English-speaking society.”7 The NSP’s use of

5 Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 73.

6 Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 213. See for examples of first grade stories written for Navajo children in the early 1930s.

113

teacher-interpreters was an early example of a program fully utilizing the advantages of having

translators as part of the classroom experience.

Under the supervision of Hildegard Thompson, Martha Hall, and Norma Runyan, the NSP

used the teacher-interpreters to expose Navajo students to new ideas and customs without

offending their native traditions. A main goal for the program was defined as, “helping them

[Navajo students] know and understand new customs and still retain pride and respect for their

own heritage, to help them enlarge and broaden their world….”8 The bilingual approach

developed by the NSP exhibited the staff’s respect for Navajo culture. A cross-cultural

educational approach tried to reduce the conflicting emotions and tensions Navajo students felt

when faced with understanding how their traditional life fit within a non-Indian setting.9 NSP’s acceptance and preservation of Navajo culture was, in part, a lesson learned from issues that arose in the day schools during the 1930s.10 Frank, a former Navajo student, appreciated the

freedom he experienced at Chemawa when it came to his Navajo practices.

I didn’t lose any culture or my language. We all speak the same language. So I wasn’t lonely or anything. More like, pretty much home when I came. So we, some boys, my friends, we used to go, make our little drum and sing, somewhere, over there in the area [sic]. They won’t bother us, no. We sing our own language. So that’s how we go.11

7 Ibid., 76.

8 “Adolescent Navajos Start School,” October [?], 1950, Chemawa School-Navajo Program, Box 29, Folder 2, Education Administrative Files, Chemawa 1948-1956, BIA Portland Area Office, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 8.

9 Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 211. Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 68-88. Szasz discusses the impact of the progressive education reform movement as it pertains to American Indians. Collier, Carson, and Beatty were advocates of a new form of education that recognized the importance of Native heritage for American Indian Students.

10 Thomas James, “Rhetoric and Resistance: Social Science and Community Schools for Navajos in the 1930s,” History of Education Quarterly 28 (Winter 1988): 625.

11 Bonnell, Chemawa Indian Boarding School, 102. 114

Because Navajo students retained a high level of cultural distinction at the school, tensions developed between Navajo and non-Navajo students. Students at Chemawa had been tribally diverse for most of its history, but the arrival the Navajo students introduced a new and strong cultural presence.

Chemawa Indian School records reflect the eagerness of school and BIA officials to “put a good face forward” in their efforts to advance the positive mission of the NSP and Chemawa

Indian School. In an effort to appear responsible and competent, school and federal officials advanced a positive party line. Reading their accounts exclusively might lead researchers and scholars to conclude that the combined student body easily became a cohesive collective group.

Another side to Chemawa, however, becomes evident in the oral histories collected by Bonnell.

It is in these accounts that it becomes clear that the relationship between the Navajos and non-

Navajo students—regular students—was from time to time tense, filled with suspicion, and sometimes envy and jealousy.

The clash between the two differing groups at Chemawa opens up a wider dialogue about the complicated relationships that exist between different tribes. In 1954, Superintendent Paul

Bramlet wrote to Dr. George Boyce, a longtime advocate and director of Navajo education, of his growing concern over the competitive spirit between Navajo and non-Navajo students at

Chemawa. An incident had occurred where a Navajo graduate working in Idaho had begun to spread rumors about the far superior quality of Navajo workers compared to other Chemawa students. Bramlet worried that such rumors would hurt Chemawa’s efforts to secure job placements for all of its graduates. Bramlet described his own accountability to the problem.

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It is easy to get so carried away with enthusiasm for the Special Navajo Program that one praises them too much or makes unfavorable comparisons with other Indians. We at Chemawa have often been guilty of this to our sorrow and to the detriment of the Program [sic]. There are many Indians in the Northwest who are resentful of Navajos particularly if they are praised indiscreetly. As a result of this jealousy they may work hard to make Navajos look bad or to them into trouble.12

The presence of Chemawa’s dual program added certain challenges and created conflicts between students. Bramlet’s letter is one of the only documents that directly addresses negative feelings that existed between the different groups. Chemawa staff and visiting NSP officials occasionally mentioned the division between Navajo and non-Navajo. But it was more important for the public image of the program to focus on the positive progress of the students and not dwell on the unpleasant feelings developing among the students. From the oral interviews collected by Bonnell, it becomes clear that Navajo and non-Navajo students did not regard each other as new friends, but rather as oddities or as threats. In 1957 Chemawa suspended its regular program and eliminated the need for school officials to speak to the conflicts between Navajo and non-Navajo students.

The termination of the regular program at Chemawa ended a process of gradual reduction set in motion since 1948. Chemawa’s primary goal remained preparing its Navajo students for jobs. Alaskan students were readmitted to Chemawa in 1960, and comprised half of the student body total of 885, with the other half being Navajo students.13 Chemawa remained a vocation program with the understanding that the majority of its graduates would find work instead of continuing on for their high school diploma. By 1967 the Navajo reservation had adequate facilities which allowed students to stay at home while they went to school, but former students

12 Bramlet to Boyce, June 16, 1954, Navajo Program File no. 4, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle.

13 McKeehan, “The History of Chemawa Indian School,” 195. 116

were permitted to return to Chemawa if they desired. At this point, Chemawa shifted its focus

from a vocational education track to an academic high school program.14 Chemawa opened its enrollment again for Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, tribes in 1968, as the number of Navajo students steadily decreased. There were three conditions potential students had to meet for enrollment. The students had to live in remote or isolated areas where schooling was not locally provided. Students could enroll at Chemawa if they had not been able to adapt socially or academically to public schools. And finally, students that came from homes with parents who were unable to provide a “home climate conductive to study and regular school attendance.”15 A

sign of Chemawa’s evolutionary journey away from its assimilationist roots was obvious when

the school began to offer American Indian native language classes. Lieutenant Wilkerson’s

command of “No Indian Talk” within the school walls had vanished in response to the presence

of Indian self-determination and pride in their Native culture.16

While the NSP continued to grow in the 1950s, the Navajo Nation worked hard to secure

funding from the BIA to construct day schools on the reservation. By the mid-1960s, Navajo

education had been transformed by the concept of self-determination within education. BIA

education director Hildegard Thompson asked, “might it not be far more economical in social

costs to take the school to the community than it is to take the children out of the community?”17

Thompson fought for community-controlled schools for American Indian children to attend, but that dream did not become a reality before her retirement from the BIA in 1965. American

14 Ibid., 197.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid., 198.

17 Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 170. 117

Indian education became heavily influenced and powered by the self-determination movement by the end of the 1960s.18 Unexpected by many, the Navajo reservation became a leader in

Indian- controlled education. In 1966, Rough Rock Demonstration School opened in Chinle,

Arizona, on the Navajo reservation. Funding for the school came from the newly-formed Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and the BIA, through a contract signed with DINE

(Demonstration in Navajo Education), an organization run by Navajo leaders.19 Rough Rock was the first “experiment” of Indian self-determination in education that the federal government had sponsored. The success of Rough Rock encouraged other Indian tribes to create Indian- controlled schools that emphasized the concept of “community education.”20 On the national level the establishment and success of Rough Rock was a precursor to the policy of self- determination, which was later codified in the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education

Assistance Act (PL 93-638).21 The Navajo tribe supported the passage of an education act

18 For more information about the larger American Indian Self-Determination Movement see, Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education, 255-259. Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 169-180.

19 Szasz, Education and the American Indian, 171.

20 Kathryn Manuelito, “The Role of Education in American Indian Self Determination: Lessons from the Ramah Navajo Community School,” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 36 (2005): 80.

21 The Harvard Project on Am erican Indian E conomic Developm ent, The State of the Native Nations: Conditions under U.S. policies of Self-Determination. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 201. The final version of the law states: The Indian Self-Determ ination and Education Assistance Act: A bill to prom ote m aximum Indian participation in the government and education of the In dian people; to prom ote for the full participation of Indian tribes in certain program s and services conduct ed by the Federal governm ent for Indians and to encourage the development of the Hum an resources of the Indian people; to establish and carry out a n ational Indian education program; to enc ourage the establishm ent of local Indian school control; to train professionals in Indian education; to establish an Indian youth intern program ; and for other purposes. Public Law 638. 93th Cong., 2nd sess., 4 January 1975.

118

because it believed that federal funds given to public schools for Indian children under the JOM

Act were misused by school officials and rarely met Indian children’s needs. When asked about

the language of the current bill, Myron Jones from the Indian Education Training Inc., located in

Albuquerque, New Mexico recommended that “It should have more specific language that says it will be an Indian entitlement on a formula basis, that is either the State or nation is higher, or where funds will be contracted.”22 Misunderstanding and distrust between Indian communities

and school communities hurt Indian students and placed them at a disadvantage which created

the need for the stronger language sought by Jones.

Navajo parents were not finished in their fight to provide a better education for their

children. In 1968 the Navajo Community College (NCC) was established in Tsaile, Arizona.

NCC, now known as Diné College, was the first Indian-controlled and Indian-directed college in

the country, and Navajo control over the school was absolute. 23 “This is an Indian owned and

Indian operated institution.” NCC second president Ned Hatathli stated, “We certainty don’t

want any people other than Indian [sic] to dictate to us what is good for us.”24

The rate at which Navajo education developed after the formation of the NSP is

unprecedented. When WWII ended, 10,000-12,000 Navajo youth had never received any form of

non-Indian education. By the end of the 1960s, however, they led the drive for Indian-controlled

education. Education became a top priority for tribal leaders when they witnessed the

advantages of being successful off the reservation in a non-Indian society. Navajos used their

22 U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Indian Self- Determination and Education Assistance Act: Hearings on S.1017 and Related Bills. 93rd Cong., nd 2 sess., 1974. pg. 83

23 Ibid., 176.

24 Ibid., 177-178.

119 education to protect their tribe’s resources and rights against private and federal interests. NSP graduates came to symbolize the importance and the benefits of non-Indian education. Their absence from the reservation during their schooling also persuaded the tribe to develop solutions that allowed their children to stay close to home to receive both a traditional and non-Indian education. “Our eyes are sufficiency open now that we see the benefit of education,” Tribal

Council Chairman Paul Jones explained in 1955. “We have said that we will educate these young

Navajo men and women so that they may supersede some of the white people on the reservation.”25 His statement was a prophetic utterance whose meaning has great relevance to the years of American Indian self-determination which followed some years later.

25 “Inaugural Speech of Paul Jones, Chairman Navajo Tribal Council,” April 4, 1955, Navajo Program File No. 4, Chemawa Indian School, Box 30, Decimal Files 1924-1955, 806.7, RG 75, NARA, Seattle, 5. 120

APPENDIX A

121

122

123

124

125

126 127 128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137 138

139 140

141

142

143

144

145

146

APPENDIX B

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

APPENDIX C

167

168

169

APPENDIX D

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171

172

173

174

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179

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Dissertations and Theses

Bonnell, Sonciray. “Chemawa Indian Boarding School: The First One Hundred Years, 1880 to 1980.” Masters Thesis, Dartmouth College, 1997

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