Melville Cary Wilkinson (November 14, 1835 – October 5, 1898) was an American soldier and educator. He was the founder and superintendent of the Forest Grove Indian School (later changed to

Chemawa Indian School Chemawa Indian School (''pronounced:'' "Chih-MAY-way", ) is a Native Americans in the United States, Native American boarding school in Salem, Oregon, United States. Named after the Chemawa band of the Kalapuya people of the Willamette Valley, ...

), at

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, w ...

. He also worked at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

, where he taught military subjects to Black students. Wilkinson was a veteran of the U.S. Civil War and the Indian Wars. He was killed by

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

Indians at the Battle of Sugar Point in 1898 during a state of unrest.

Early life

Melville Cary Wilkinson was born in Scottsburg, New York, on November 14, 1835. His father was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Reverend who raised him to be devoutly religious. He worked during his early years in the mercantile and railroad businesses. At the onset of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Wilkinson enlisted in the Union Army, and was promoted to Lieutenant and Captain in the 107th New York Volunteer Infantry.

Military and educational career

During the

Battle of Antietam The Battle of Antietam ( ), also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virgi ...

on September 17, 1862, Wilkinson was injured and forced to serve the remainder of the war as an officer in the Veterans Reserve Corps.

Howard University

After the war, Wilkinson decided to turn to teaching. For a year he taught military science at

, and then was appointed as an aide-de-camp to Major General Oliver Otis Howard––then President of Howard University and the Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau. It was during this time when Wilkinson made his first significant contribution to Indian education. While Howard University’s main focus at the time was to educate freed slaves, Wilkinson argued that there should also be an opportunity for Indians to attend the college. In 1872, Wilkinson spent a year with General Howard in the Southwest, helping to resolve problems with the

Apache tribe The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan homelands in the north into th ...

. Between 1871 and 1875, Howard successfully enrolled several Indian children. This was an early milestone for the creation of off-reservation boarding schools, which Wilkinson would later be a part of.

Participation in Indian removal

In 1873, Wilkinson was present for the removal of the Modoc tribe from Fort McPherson, to Indian territory. Additionally, he participated in the

Nez Perce War The Nez Perce War was an armed conflict in 1877 in the Western United States that pitted several bands of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans and their allies, a small band of the ''Palouse'' tribe led by Red Echo (''Hahtalekin'') and ...

in 1877.

Paiute-Bannock War, 1878

In 1878, Wilkinson was in the command of a gunboat near Wallula on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

. There, where his men were armed with guns and muskets, he ordered them to fire on a group of non-combatant

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

Indians — men, women, and children. The scene was so grotesque and horrifying that one eyewitness reported that, Wilkinson, after taking control of the field piece himself, unleashed a stream of bullets that when he was done, the Indians lay on the ground in all directions. Within several weeks of this incident, Wilkinson had taken a leave of absence and was in search of a new career.

Later career

In March 1879, Wilkinson moved to Washington, D.C. There, he befriended

Richard Henry Pratt Brigadier-General Richard Henry Pratt (December 6, 1840 – March 15, 1924) was a United States Army officer who founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania in 1879 and served as its longtime superintendent. Prior to this, Prat ...

, who shared similar views about Indian assimilation, specifically that a military solution was not the answer. In Washington, the two men successfully lobbied Secretary of Interior,

Carl Shurz Carl Christian Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German-American revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He migrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent ...

, Secretary of War

George W. McCrary George Washington McCrary (August 29, 1835 – June 23, 1890) was a United States representative from Iowa, the 33rd United States Secretary of War and a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Eighth Circuit. E ...

, and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ezra A. Hayt, who agreed to establish two off-reservation boarding schools. Two months later, the federal government had given its approval for Forest Grove Indian school in Oregon, and

Carlisle Indian School The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Native American boarding schools, Indian boarding school in the United States from its founding in 1879 t ...

in Pennsylvania. Under an 1886 Act of Congress, Wilkinson was named the superintendent of Forest Grove. This gave the President the authority to appoint army officers as military instructors and professors.

Forest Grove Indian Training School

Wilkinson was an ardent assimilationist. United States Indian Policy shifted in the late 1870s from one of separation on reservations to one of assimilation. By 1880, the United States government had overtaken the Indians, and tribal sovereignty was no more. Students would now be forced to attend either day schools or boarding schools, many of which would be far from their homes. Wilkinson, like other reformers, wanted to prepare Native American children for assimilation into white society. Forest Grove was the second off-reservation school to be established by the U.S. government, and was structured similarly to that of the Carlisle School, established by Richard Pratt.

The Beginning of Forest Grove

After Forest Grove was approved in 1879, Wilkinson brought his first group of Native American children to the school from the

Puyallup Reservation The Puyallup Tribe of Indians ( ; ; commonly known as the Puyallup Tribe) is a federally-recognized tribe of Puyallup people from western Washington state, United States. The tribe is primarily located on the Puyallup Indian Reservation, altho ...

in Washington. The children themselves constructed the first school buildings. Wilkinson had extreme difficulty accumulating funding for his school. While he was originally given $5000 in funding, he was unable to accumulate any significant amount, most likely due to the unpopularity of the school in the surrounding areas.

Students and families

While Wilkinson was described as having a strong personality, he was also described as being erratic and unpredictable in his methods, which caused him to gain extremely harsh criticism. Because of his philosophical views about the boarding school education, Wilkinson went to great lengths to prevent students from contacting their parents. While he made the effort to correspond with the children’s parents and tribal chiefs to assure them that they were safe, he would not allow the children to contact their families themselves. Additionally, he would often remove Indian children from reservations, taking them to Forest Grove against the will of their parents, and often the children themselves. Upon the death of students at the school, Wilkinson alone where and how the children would be buried, with complete disregard to the wishes of the students’ families.

Discipline

Discipline was modeled after army discipline; boys and girls were divided into groups based on gender, with four sergeants in charge of each group. One student described that everything was “carried on with military precision,” referencing the bell that was rung to signal the beginning and end of tasks and activities. Wilkinson used these military drills to promote the school––all visitors would automatically be given a parade of military drills.

Removal

Wilkinson’s conduct earned him considerable criticism. While he was able to keep attendance high at Forest Grove because of his forcible recruitments, death and desertion continued to lower the attendance numbers. By 1883, Wilkinson was removed from superintendent of the school after an unfavorable report was submitted by a U.S. Indian inspector, when one of the school buildings was burned down by students. As a result, the United States government refused to extend Wilkinson’s leave from the army. Even his old friend, Richard Pratt, was unsympathetic, going to show just how much of a liability Wilkinson really was.

Death

Major Wilkinson was stationed at

Fort Snelling Fort Snelling is a former military fortification and National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Minnesota on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The military site was initially named Fort Saint An ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

in 1898. During this time, a local

Indian chief named

Bugonaygeshig Bugonaygeshig (from Ojibwe ''Bagonegiizhig'': "Hole/Opening in the Sky/Day", referring to the constellation Pleiades) was an Anishinaabe leader of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Bugonaygeshig was native to the Leech Lake Indian Reser ...

was arrested by a U.S. Marshal. However, a mob of Ojibwe men came and freed Bugonaygeshig from custody. The U.S. Marshal then fled to Fort Snelling, where he requested military assistance. Wilkinson and his Army company were then assigned to subdue the Ojibwe fugitives. Wilkinson and his men were sent on a steamboat to Sugar Point, a peninsula on

Leech Lake Leech Lake (translated from the Ojibwe language ''Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag'': Lake abundant with bloodsuckers) is a lake located in north central Minnesota, United States. It is southeast of Bemidji, Minnesota, Bemidji, located mainly within the L ...

where the cabin of Chief Bugonaygeshig was located. Shortly after they landed at Sugar Point, the U.S. troops and Ojibwe Indians began to fire at each other, which began the Battle of Sugar Point on October 5, 1898. Wilkinson was shot in the leg early on in the battle, and was taken behind cover to treat his wound. However, Wilkinson soon got up again and returned to the battle to rally his soldiers. Wilkinson was then killed after being shot in the stomach by the Ojibwe.