Expansion of the Puyallup Indian School
The federal government announces plans for new facilities at the Puyallup Indian School to increase educational capacity.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Plans have been completed for the new buildings at the Indian school and work started today for the grading of the campus. Six new buildings will be added to the school: a dormitory, school building and assembly room, office building, laundry, and two cottages. Superintendent H. H. Johnson has placed the plans on file with the chamber of commerce and bids will be opened at Washington for the construction work June 1. The government expects to make the Puyallup Indian school one of the progressive institutions of the kind in this country and the new buildings will give added facilities for the work of instructing the red man.
“The government expects to make the Puyallup Indian school one of the progressive institutions of the kind in this country.”
This item reflects the era's paternalistic government 'boarding school' policy, which systematically sought to strip Indigenous children of their culture and identity. The language used by the paper, 'instructing the red man,' is a period-specific euphemism for cultural assimilation.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.