Tag: boarding school

education, General History, Oregon indiansLeave a comment

Rector Responds to the Catholic Boarding School Proposal, 1862

David G. Lewis, PhD

In 1862 the Catholic Church of the United States made a proposal to open boarding schools to serve all of the Indian reservations primarily served by their own Catholic Missionaries. This proposal would then have the church build boarding school facilities on the reservations under their ministry and then satisfy and unmet needs of the Indian bureau, to begin the formal education of native youth. Most tribes at reservations had treaties with education annuities, and yet the promised schools would normally only open for a few months when the money ran out. Education on the reservations was seen by Indian … Continue reading Rector Responds to the Catholic Boarding School Proposal, 1862

General History, Grand Ronde ReservationLeave a comment

Agent McClane struggles with Native Culture, Grand Ronde 1886

David G. Lewis, PhD

  Into the last decades of the 19th century, the Indian agents at Grand Ronde struggled with many aspects of assimilating the tribes to American culture. In fact, there was a meeting in 1871 in Salem, at the First Methodist Church with all the tribal leaders in Oregon to convince them to give up their Indian doctors and begin accepting white doctors. The tribal culture, however, was persistent, and when the federal government failed to help the tribes for more than 20 years, without funding and effective services, the tribes had really no reason to convert to white American culture. … Continue reading Agent McClane struggles with Native Culture, Grand Ronde 1886

education, General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Native Issues1 Comment

Enforced Assimilation in Tribal Correspondence about the Grand Ronde Boarding School

David G. Lewis, PhD

The natives at the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation underwent extreme hardships. Most of the early years they starved from lack of good effective administration by the federal employees and lack of funding from the federal government.  They had only one doctor and rare access to effective medicines. Many people died at an early age because of illnesses at the reservation. In 1872 the people got their first allotments, some 20 years after they had been removed to the reservation. These allotments of land were small, from 20 acres to 100 acres only. But by 1880 they had a grist mill, … Continue reading Enforced Assimilation in Tribal Correspondence about the Grand Ronde Boarding School