To the editor:
Located at 610 West 14th Street in The Dalles is the Colonel Wright School. Just who is this Colonel Wright and why do we have a school named after him? Colonel Wright was an officer in the United States Army. He was born in Norwich, Vermont and was a West Point graduate. During the time of his service in the Oregon territories, he engaged in making treaties with the Native American tribes of this area.
On September 9th, 1858, he and his men, in order to subdue the Palouse Indians, slaughtered some 800 horses, destroying the tribes’ economy and insuring tribal starvation the following winter. On the 25th of that month the Yakima warrior Qualchin went to him with a white flag of surrender. Without charges or a trial the colonel immediately hanged him. He misappropriated government funds to the sum of $90,000 dollars (that is 1858 dollars) to build himself a two story mansion complete with a fireplace in every room. He referred to it as the “Luxury Resort of the Oregon Territories.” 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. Colonel Wright perpetuated a policy of ethnic cleansing, environmental destruction and mass murder to claim his place in history. Mt question is, “Why do we have an elementary school named after this man?”
Mike Farmer
Hood River
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