Chemawa Indian School, 1853-1953

The Charles E. Larsen Chemawa Indian School collection is a compilation of Chemawa Indian School and Northwest Native American history dating from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Materials in this collection give a look at student and employee life on the Chemawa campus. This collection includes newspaper clippings, correspondence, photographs, handbooks, graduation lists, and historical monographs written by Larsen. Newspaper clippings document events related to both Larsen and to the school specifically. Many relate to Chemawa athletic activities from the 1900s to the 1940s. Much of the correspondence relates to Larsen's appointment to different positions either at Chemawa or schools or agencies. Memoranda sent to employees document school events, specifically policy changes and the possible closing of the school.

Documentation of student life can be found in portions of two circa 1920s and 1930s handbooks which include school policies and the daily schedule followed by Chemawa girls and boys. Planning materials for such events as the Chemawa 56th birthday party are included as well a photographs of the Chemawa campus, Larsen's family and photographs of the Chemawa Alumni Association. Larsen additionally compiled lists of Chemawa graduates dating 1885 to 1949. The typewriter on which Larsen typed his monographs, lists of graduates, and athletic records, is also included.

Throughout the collection are pieces of Larsen's writings about the history of the Chemawa Indian School as well as his own autobiography. Documentation of the possible closing of Chemawa in the 1930s including a transcript of Larsen's defence of a local petition is included. Larsen's typed speech to the Woman's Christian Temperance union in January 1939 about liquor laws and Native Americans is included in the collection.

Also included are copies of treaties that Larsen collected including the Rogue River treaty of 1853, the unratified treaty of the Coast Indians of 1855, and the Siletz and Grand Ronde treaties of 1922.