National Register of Historic Places

Chemawa Indian School Site

Salem, Marion County, Oregon
Listed
December 16, 1992
Type
Site
Period
Listed
Ref No.
92001333

About this property

Chemawa Indian School (pronounced: "Chih-MAY-way", ) is a Native American boarding school in Salem, Oregon, United States. Named after the Chemawa band of the Kalapuya people of the Willamette Valley, it opened on February 25, 1880 as an elementary school. Grades were added and dropped, and it became a fully accredited high school in 1927, when lower grades were dropped. The second Indian boarding school to be established, Chemawa Indian School is the oldest continuously operating Native American boarding school in the United States. Its graduates number in the thousands. At its peak of enrollment in 1926, it had 1,000 students. New buildings were constructed in the 1970s on a campus near the original one, where at one time 70 buildings stood, including barns and other buildings related to the agricultural programs. During the 2023–24 academic year, it continued to serve students in the ninth through twelfth grades. It has primarily served students of tribes from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Former names of the school include Forest Grove Indian Industrial Training School, United States Indian Training and Normal School, Salem Indian Industrial Training School, and Harrison Institute.

Location

3700 Chemawa Rd., NE.
Salem, Marion County, Oregon
45.00181, -122.99542

Categories

NATIVE AMERICANEDUCATION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Questions about this property

When was Chemawa Indian School Site listed on the National Register?

Chemawa Indian School Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 16, 1992.

What type of historic resource is Chemawa Indian School Site?

Chemawa Indian School Site is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Chemawa Indian School Site?

The period of significance for Chemawa Indian School Site is recorded as the listed era.

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