Astoria exhibit reveals cruel ‘hidden history’: boarding schools’ role in attempts to ‘civilize’ Native American children Updated 7:04 AM; Today 7:04 AM Students posing at the entrance to Chemawa Indian School in 1905. (Courtesy of Pacific University Archives)Courtesy of Pacific University Archives Facebook Share “We know what happened, what kept happening,” a reporter wrote in 1915 after a visit to the Chemawa Indian School in Salem. “We took their lands, we enslaved their women -- Oh, well, let’s forget that and remember that now for many years our Government has been meting out full justice to our red brothers and sisters.” This sentiment was progress, of a sort. An acknowledgement that the United States government’s 19th-century Indian policy, celebrated for years in popular culture, was racist and brutal.