Colonel Wright Elementary School May Be Getting a New Name
Contributed Photo.
Edited to include comments from NWASCO School Board Chair John Nelson on September 21st, 2020 12:00 PM
Colonel Wright Elementary School may be getting a new name! And it's about time, as many former students will tell you learning to spell “Colonel” correctly at any age is difficult. But even worse for many community members is the history attached to the name of the elementary school. For years community members have expressed discomfort over the name of the school, saying it honors a legacy of bloodshed instead of learning, growth, and community.
Pictured: Colonel Wright Elementary School Logo
In 2014 Mike Farmer wrote in a letter to the editor “Colonel Wright perpetuated a policy of ethnic cleansing, environmental destruction and mass murder to claim his place in history. My question is, “Why do we have an elementary school named after this man?”
In 2015 Larry Cebula, a history professor at Eastern Washington University told The Spokesman Review that the “most prominent thing (Wright) did in this area was murder people.”
“As an indigenous community member of Wasco County, I am disgusted this name has been left alone for as long as it has. I hope that the school board chooses an indigenous name to name the school after. It would be so beautiful to see that healing in our community. I plan to suggest Celilo Wyam, the name of the great falls that were flooded. I feel it would be healing to have indigenous representation in Wasco County School District,” said Rosie Strange of The Dalles.
Several community members have supported the idea of renaming the school “The Dalles Elementary School” as a more positive and community-focused name. Supporters include Amber Rose, of The Dalles, who added that “I love the idea. If not TDES then I certainly vote we change the name to honor an indigenous leader from this community.”
Courtney Middleton-Gonzalez, a teacher at Colonel Wright Elementary told CCC News that she has put together a teacher survey to gauge the thoughts and opinions of staff.
John Nelson, NWASCO School District Board Chair told CCC News that a discussion around building a renaming process, for Colonel Wright Elementary School, will be brought up at the next NWASCO School District 21 School Board Meeting. The meeting will be live-streamed on their Facebook at 6:00 PM on Thursday, September 24th, 2020. The agenda for the meeting can be found here.
“This item didn’t quite make it on the agenda for the next board meeting so it will likely be brought up as an amendment to the agenda at the beginning of the next meeting. But we’re not going to be making any decisions about renaming during this next meeting,” said Nelson.
The School Board’s first focus will be to build policy around a renaming process.
“We don’t have a lot of policy around committees yet. And we’ll need to have those processes in place before we build an advisory committee of stakeholders,” continued Nelson. The advisory committee would then inform the board on local opinion and suggest solutions to be voted upon by the board.
“Building the process is important before we begin having these conversations. We want to have some direction and a fair process that the community can engage in. It’s especially important because we want the process to be community driven…and there will be discussions of racism, there’s history that must be discussed and the community will be the ones driving these conversations.”
When asked about public comment Nelson said “Community engagement is a good thing. We want a fair process. We understand there’s a lot of different things to consider when deciding on changing a name: history, cost, community values... And we have a very diverse community, and we want the community to participate and feel listened to. Public comment allows the community to identify the key issues they care about and can advise the board on the communities wants and needs.”
Public Comment is encouraged and should be submitted to publiccomments@nwasco.k12.or.us with the subject line “Public Comment: Colonel Wright Elementary”
Public Comments can also be mailed to:
School District 21
ATTN: Public Comments
3632 West 10th St
The Dalles, OR 97058
Approved public comments will be included in the School Board Agenda under the Public Comment Section and may be read aloud as determined by the School Board Chair John Nelson.
A History Lesson on Colonel Wright
CCC News did a little history report on Colonel Wright to see what we could learn about the school’s namesake. What did we discover? Well, Colonel Wright sounds more like a villain from a children’s book than someone you name an elementary school after. Only his victims weren’t fictional.
Colonel Wright led the military campaign that is attributed with bringing the Indian Wars to an end in the Inland Northwest during the 1850s. How? With bloodshed of course. Clearly he never knew Connie Krummrich, a now retired school counselor, and beloved childhood memory to many, who worked at Colonel Wright Elementary, as she probably could have taught him some much better conflict resolution techniques.
“I did not come here to ask you to make peace; I came here to fight,” Wright told Chief Spokane Garry, chronicled in N.W. Durham’s 1912 “History of the City of Spokane and Spokane Country.” “You must come to me with your arms, with your women and children … and lay them at my feet. … If you do not do this, war will be made on you this year and next, and until your nation be exterminated.”
On September 9th, 1858, he and his men, to subdue the Palouse Indians, slaughtered some 800 horses belonging to the confederation of Plateau Indian tribes. They rounded the horses into a large corral and the Colonel ordered the destruction of all but 130 horses to be used as quartermasters. The horses were then lassoed one by one, dragged out, and shot. But the plan was so slow that the men instead fired volleys into the enclosed corral. The slaughter took two days and the campsite was then renamed Horse Slaughter Camp by Lieutenant Lawrence Kip.
According to Spokane City County Historic Preservation Office, “Wright then ordered the burning of several storehouses of grain. This cruel act diminished the tribe's wealth and mobility. Starvation then threatened the confederation that winter and greatly reduced their resistance. This final undertaking led to more whites settling in the territory.”
On the 25th of that month, the Yakima warrior Qualchan went to him with a white flag of surrender. Without charges or a trial, the colonel immediately hanged him.
In the summer of 1858, Colonel Wright gathered the Klickitat, Wasco, and Walla Walla tribes to be escorted to the reservation at Warm Springs. On arrival, he selected four Walla Walla men at random and had them hanged without charges or a trial just to assert his authority over the tribes.
According to HistoryNet.com “Even after the campaign ended, Wright’s bloodlust was not quite quenched. On October 9, he called a council of Walla Walla Indians. He asked any of them who had been in the recent battles to stand; 35 did so. Selecting four, he ordered them immediately hanged.
During September and early October 1858, Wright had hanged a total of 16 Indians. None had a trial extending beyond a few questions. Certainly, both whites and Indians had engaged in far more lethal violence during the 19th century, yet few campaigns, if any, matched Wright’s careful planning, precise execution, and callousness. Rather than subdue the tribes with a bludgeon, he used a scalpel, steadily severing them from their land, animals, food supplies, and families—all foundations of their spiritual beliefs and well-being. Many more Indians died of starvation that winter, particularly the very young and very old, from the destruction of their food supplies.
As word of what Wright had done spread across the country, there were expressions of sympathy for the Indians, but Wright was neither punished nor reprimanded for his highhanded ways. In fact, General Clarke officially commended him for the “zeal, energy, and skill” with which he led his punitive expedition, and he would later be promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Union army.”
For more information follow this link to the Wiki page on George Wright.
