Forest Grove Indian Training School
The Forest Grove School was the second off-reservation boarding school in the United States, founded in 1880.
Off-Reservation Indian Boarding Schools
Off-reservation Indian boarding schools were funded, administered, and directed by the United States Government. Ultimately, over 500 such schools were sponsored by the Federal Government and The Department of Indian Affairs. Four still exist today. The purpose of these schools was to remove Indian children from their tribes and families and to assimilate them into Western society. This included taking their native blankets, cutting their hair, and issuing them school uniforms. The children were prohibited from speaking their native languages or practicing their native customs and beliefs.
The photograph on the left shows a new group of children at the Forest Grove Indian Training School from the Spokane Tribe.
Source: Pacific University
The photograph on the right shows the same group of children seven months later. There is one less child in the photo on the right, one girl. Martha Lott died in the intervening period.
Source: Pacific University
The children were transported great distances to the boarding schools so that they could neither escape to, nor be rescued by, their families. Most of the Indian children at the Forest Grove Indian School were from Eastern Washington or Alaska from such Tribes as the Puyallup, Nez Perce, Tlingit, Warm Springs, and Yakima. There is only one known Kalapuyan who was enrolled at the Forest Grove School.
The Forest Grove School was the second off-reservation boarding school in the United States, founded in 1880. The first off-reservation boarding school, the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania, was opened one year earlier in 1879. It was run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt, who coined the term, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”.
Dr. John Henry Minthorn was hired as the second Superintendent of the Forest Grove School in 1883 and served in the role for a little under two years. Prior to moving to Oregon, Dr. Minthorn worked at the Ponca Indian Agency in Nebraska and the Nez Perce Agency in Oklahoma.
Dr. Minthorn was a stern leader at the Forest Grove School. One of Dr. Minthorn’s students at Forest Grove, Henry Sicade, recounted in 1917, “I well remember how the doctor would use his fists and number tens [feet] instead of reasoning with the boys.” Abuse was systemic throughout the Indian boarding schools. Dr. Minthorn was also Superintendent of the Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma from 1884-1885.