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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Wilma Adams Bush 
March 15, 1981 
Cassette 1, Side 2 
 
 
Winona Weber  00:02 
Where did you say you went to school when you came back here from the logging camp?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  00:10 
Oh, I went down to Lower Skokomish, that, where our tribal center is now, it used to be the old 
Lower Skokomish School. I think the first one they tore down, but then they built another one. 
And then when they abandoned that, well, it went back to the tribe. So, the tribe just added on to 
it and used it partly as a Head Start room. And they had a kitchen there, and they prepared meals 
for the Head Start kit. And then they had a couple of offices there. And then we first sold 
cigarettes out of the, first sold cigarettes out of the tribal center. And then they abandoned that 
and remodeled it and made it into what it is now. 
 
Winona Weber  00:57 
Oh, I see. [Man talking in background.] You're going to get a lot of him. 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  01:06 
Mm-hmm. 
 
Winona Weber  01:08 
Was it a public school then? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  01:10 
Yeah, it was Indians and non-Indians alike, all the kids from around this vicinity in there. Just, it 
was just through the eighth grade.  
 
Winona Weber  01:17 
Oh, I see. How did you do there? How did you do in school when you were young?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  01:25 
Alright when I was there. 
 
Winona Weber  01:26 
[Laughs.] While you were there? 
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Wilma Adams Bush  01:28 
Yeah. We had an old teacher, her name was Mrs. McGhee. She taught there for years, years and 
years and years. She was Doris' teacher and my brother's teacher. So most all of the kids that 
grew up around here had her at one time or another for a teacher. Really a neat gal.  
 
Winona Weber  01:51 
I never got to go. So your folks split up when you were about eight? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  02:04 
Eight, yeah.  
 
Winona Weber  02:05 
Well, how did you end up in Oregon?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  02:08 
Well, somehow or another, mom met this guy whose name was Mike Stolen. And so when we 
went that, he had a home for us already when we got to Oregon. He had rented a place there, and 
then they could-- After mom got her divorce, well, then they married then. They've now been 
married 53 years, I think, it'll be 54 years in July that they've been married-- No, it's 53 years. 
 
Winona Weber  02:46 
That one lasted a long time. 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  02:47 
Yeah, he's 93 years old now. So he provided a good home for me, and in fact, sometimes I think 
he really treated me better than my own dad did. You know-- 
 
Winona Weber  03:01 
Was he an Indian? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  03:02 
No, he was not an Indian, he was a Norwegian.  
 
Winona Weber  03:04 
Oh, really? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  03:06 
Yeah. 
 
Winona Weber  03:08 
Was he, was he born here in the US or was he--  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  03:10 
No, he was born in Norway. He came to this country when he was 14 years old. He started 
working in a logging camp when he was 14 years old, and he worked in the logging camp up 
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until he retired. So we, I went to school, and we stayed in Oregon until I graduated from the 
eighth grade, and then I came back here for the summer. And then when I left here, well, I went 
back to Oregon again and went my freshman year in a public high school, but I didn't like it.  
 
Winona Weber  03:36 
Oh, really?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  03:38 
No, I, I'd heard about Chemawa and I wanted to go down there. My mother and my stepdad 
didn't want me to go, but I went. And I really liked-- 
 
Winona Weber  03:55 
Did you want to go because that's where the other Indians were? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  04:00 
That's where the Indians were, and I wanted to be with the Indians. I had a lot of white friends, 
you know, but I just made up my mind that I wanted to be where the Indians were. So, that was 
my reason for going to Chemawa. 
 
Winona Weber  04:13 
Yeah [inaudible]. I wanted to go to Chemawa when I was in high school and my mom wouldn't 
let me.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  04:19 
Oh, well-- 
 
Winona Weber  04:20 
Absolutely not.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  04:22 
Probably, it changed a lot from when we were there, really changed a lot. Now it's all torn down 
and all rebuilt again, I was down there last May. In fact, we came home the day that the 
mountain blew.  
 
Winona Weber  04:40 
Oh, boy.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  04:41 
We were over, the-- Our guys were over at Oakville playing baseball, and we had this big van 
out here, and we had taken a bunch of kids down to Chemawa who were interested in going to 
school, so we took them down there so that they could get a look-see of what it was like. Well, 
we were a little bit disappointed, because the day that we arrived was the day that most of the 
kids went home. So there was very few kids that our kids could talk to, to get an inside view, you 
know. There were a few that they talked to. But I, I was glad I went, because I met a lot of 
people that I had gone to school with, so I got to visit. And I have a friend who lives down in 
Oregon, in Salem, a girl that I used to go to school with, so I go down there quite often. But 
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anyway, we came back, and we stopped at Oakville for a while and let the kids watch them play 
ball. And then we came on home, and we weren't home too long when we heard the mountain 
blew. We just made it, just in time. So I say that Chemawa isn't anything like it was when your 
mother and I went there, you know, now they've got drugs and alcohol. And all we had when we 
were there was, once in a while, we'd sneak out and have a drink or two, but not anything really 
crazy, like, you know, like the kids do now. In fact, we would be sent home if we'd done things 
like they do now. [?They stayed more or less?]. They're more lenient now than they were when 
we were there. I can really say that was a super neat school when we went there. Of course, a lot 
of the kids got into trouble, but then that was their fault. That wasn't the fault of the employees 
or, you can either be good or bad, you know, one way or the other. And most the kids, I could 
truthfully say, were good. We had very few incidents where kids were sent home. If kids were 
sent home, it was kids from Montana, usually. 
 
Winona Weber  06:56 
Oh, really? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  06:56 
Yeah.  
 
Winona Weber  06:57 
I wonder if they were bad because they wanted to go home or? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  07:05 
They were bad because they couldn't get used to the idea of discipline, I guess. And then our 
matron, her name was Dorothy Cassett, was from Browning, Montana. And we had a lot of kids 
from Browning there, and they knew her and they didn't like her. So anytime they could do 
anything to raise cane with her, they would, you know. And really they were cutting off their 
nose to spite their face because it wasn't working right, and they were the ones who ended up in 
trouble. Your mother and I, the last year we were there, were head officers.  
 
Winona Weber  07:42 
What's that?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  07:45 
Okay, we've-- On this side, I have all the kids that begin from A to M, I think, with their last 
names, okay? On this side, your mother had all the kids from M to the end of the alphabet, and 
whenever we, like, we had roll call in the morning, the kids all lined up to get ready to go to 
breakfast. Okay, your mother on one side, check the kids, and I checked them on the other side. 
And we, it was compulsory that everybody go to breakfast, and if anybody was missing, we put 
their name down, and they got demerits for not being in line, or if they were late, sometimes they 
got demerits. And, and then we used to do bed check at nighttime. We, we, we were given 
privileges, I guess, where, you see, some of the other kids didn't get because we were selected to 
be head officer. And don't ask me how they chose us, I really don't remember, but I do know that 
both her and I were chosen. 
 
Winona Weber  09:09 
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Did you, when you were down in Oregon, was it mostly in a non-Indian community?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  09:16 
Yeah, right. There may have been one other Indian family there, but they didn't like to admit that 
they were Indian. In fact, I didn't even know they were Indian until-- See, every month the 
bureau sent a, it's like a postcard to the school, and the teacher had to fill it out as to my 
attendance, and my grades, and how I was getting along in school. And the teacher always gave 
it to me to walk down to the post office and mail it if he or she couldn't go, because-- Well, this 
one, one time, it sticks out in my mind, I had a man teacher. His name was Paul Gordon, and he 
always gave me this little card to take to the post office. Well, I didn't know why on earth he 
always selected me. And some of the other kids called me teacher's pet, because I get to go to the 
post office. So one day I asked him, when he asked me if I'd go to the post-- And I never 
bothered to read the darn thing.  
 
Winona Weber  10:25 
Yeah.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  10:25 
And so he took me aside, and he showed me the card, and he said it was a card from the Bureau, 
and they were keeping track of my attendance, and my records, and just how I was doing in 
general, you know. And he said, "I didn't know whether you wanted anybody to know you were 
Indian or not." I told him, "Well, my God, I'm not ashamed that I'm Indian," you know? He said, 
"Well," he says, "you know, we have another Indian boy in our school." And I said, "Well, I kind 
of figured he was Indian, but he's never said yes or no about it," and we just didn't bother to ask. 
And so then after that, everybody knew that I was Indian, because I was so proud of it, I told 
everybody that I was Indian. And unbeknownst to me, my mother told everybody in town that 
we were Indian, so they all knew it anyway.  
 
Winona Weber  11:15 
Yeah.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  11:16 
But the kids were kind enough not to say it, because we had Negro kids in our school. It was a 
big mill town, and we had, probably, every race imaginable there, but the Negro kids stick out 
most in my mind because we had a lot of Negro kids in our school. So, there was no racial 
discrimination there. And so I was glad that I told him I was Indian. So ever after that, he always 
would stick the card in the school mail. 
 
Winona Weber  11:48 
Oh, I see. 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  11:49 
And it would go to the post office with the rest of the mail.  
 
Winona Weber  11:52 
I didn't know the BIA did that.  
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Wilma Adams Bush  11:57 
I didn't know they did either, but they did.  
 
Winona Weber  12:01 
That's the only, the only time I've ever heard of that.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  12:00 
They did, because he told me that card came every month. They wanted to know how, you know, 
how I was doing, how my grades were. 
 
Winona Weber  12:06 
And did they check on those other-- and on that other kid?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  12:17 
I don't know. I never did know, he was in a different grade than I was, so I didn't know. Possibly, 
he was from Oregon, maybe, and I don't know if they'd done that or not down there.  
 
Winona Weber  12:34 
Well, it's a federal-- 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  12:37 
Yeah, I know. I never did know. I just knew that they sent one about me. 
 
Winona Weber  12:44 
Uh-huh. That's strange, I never heard of that. Did you get to get back up here very often when 
you were living in Oregon? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  13:00 
Yeah, after I started school at Chemawa, I used to split my vacations between here and down in 
Oregon. And then after I finished school, I came up here for a while, and then went back to 
Oregon, and then eventually I came back here to stay. After Bob Petty and I were married, we 
lived in Oregon for six years. He worked in the woods down there with my uncle, and then we 
moved back up here in '58 and my brother was killed in the Simpson Logging Camp up here. He 
was hit in the head with a log, and he was killed the year that we came back. We moved back in 
December, I think he was killed in January, of the following year. So it must have been '59, 
January of '59 when he got killed. 
 
Winona Weber  14:18 
How, what-- How was the school that you went to Oregon? Was it a very large school, or was it?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  14:26 
Yes, it was, it was large, it had eight grades and it was a fairly new school. It was a large 
[?school?], looks similar to our modern schools now. And the high school, it was an old, an old 
school, but it was quite large. Instead of all on, on one level, well, it had stairs. It was an old-
fashioned school, I guess you'd call it. 
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Winona Weber  14:54 
Oh yeah, but I meant, it wasn't one of those small mills schools?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  14:57 
No, no. It was a large school because the mill there was the third largest in the world. They 
employed a lot, lot, lot of people. So, you know, the, most of the people there in the town either 
was a logger or they worked in the mill. So it was quite a-- 
 
Winona Weber  15:22 
But they all worked for the company? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  15:24 
Yeah, right. 
 
Winona Weber  15:25 
I see, yeah. What was the name of the company? Do you know?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  15:29 
I can't remember now. 
 
Winona Weber  15:34 
Did you ever come back up here from, let's see, you went down there in second or third grade, 
and you were down there till the eighth grade. Did you, were you-- Did you ever make visits 
back here in between then?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  15:47 
No, I never came back here till I was 14 years old.  
 
Winona Weber  15:48 
What did you think of it when you came back? Did you notice any differences? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  15:54 
Well, I was so young and crazy that it's hard to say now what I really did think of it. I know I 
was happy to be back here with my sister and my brother and my dad. I had to get acquainted 
with them all over, you know, because being gone from them so long. And I was, I was skeptical 
of my dad, because he had remarried. And I, well, I liked his wife and she liked me, but my sister 
and my brother didn't like her. I don't know if she liked them or not, but they didn't like her. I 
imagine they might have been jealous of her. So I used to stay here, rather than across the road 
with my grandmother. I stayed here with my dad. And at that time, he was working on the state 
highway, he was a state highway employee. 
 
Winona Weber  16:54 
And then you went back to Oregon for a year. How would you compare the education you got in 
Chemawa to the one that you'd had in the school where your mother and your stepfather lived? 
 
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Wilma Adams Bush  17:15 
Well, it was all in Oregon. I would say that I got a very good education, and it could have been a 
lot better. I could have studied a lot harder, you know, but I was young and crazy. And I was 
there probably only for the social events that went on, but I did try my last year, I really tried my 
last year. And that probably made up for the whole, the other two years that I practically missed, 
I just skimmed over even. But my grades weren't all that good, but the last year I was there, I'd 
done a lot better. And I could truthfully say that if I had it to do over again, I would. I had a 
chance, after I left there, to go back and be matron in the girls building and I turned it down. And 
I often wish to God that I'd had went back. And then later, in later years, say about 10 years ago, 
I could have gone back again. My name still stays in the BIA in Portland, and periodically they 
call me when they get a job opening, for Matron or supervisor or whatever. So, I've stayed on an 
active file. But it always happened that when they called me, I've been working and, you know, 
didn't want to leave. One time, I didn't have a job and I seriously considered going, but I didn't 
want to leave this house. And my kids I didn't think were capable enough of handling it, you 
know, taking care of it. I was afraid they might move out and leave it, and then somebody would 
just move in, and then I'd never get it back again. Because it's in my dad's estate right now and 
my sister and I own, well, she brought all the other kids out, so we have seven and three quarters 
acres, I think, here. And she owns three fourths, and I own the fourth. So I, when it's settled, I 
will own this one particular spot, and I knew it, and I didn't want to give it up. So that was my 
[inaudible] in not moving away and I've always stayed here. And a little bit at a time, I keep 
getting it fixed up, and it's livable, I love it here. 
 
Winona Weber  19:50 
Did you have to-- When, when you went to Chemawa, were they still doing the, uh, you went to 
school for half a day, and then you worked for half a day? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  20:01 
Yeah, we took vocation, it was a vocational and an academic school. You took your vocation 
half the day, like cooking, and sewing, and whatever. And then the boys had their, their thing, 
the tailor shop, the shoe shop, the bakery, the kitchen, the farm. I think the boys really had more 
than the girls did, because all we had was cooking and sewing and-- Well, we had childcare, that, 
we actually worked with employees' kids, and then they had the beauty shop and the hospital. So, 
that's about all the girls had. 
 
Winona Weber  20:50 
Was it that way at public schools?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  20:54 
No, public schools were purely academic work. They didn't, well, they might have had what they 
called home ec, you know, but that wasn't for half a day. Maybe that was one period out of the 
day that they had that, but they just were more academic than they were vocational. 
 
Winona Weber  21:15 
Were you encouraged to do any studying to, I don't know [inaudible] the Haskell Institute, to go 
to a, to a college like Haskell or something? 
 
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Wilma Adams Bush  21:27 
Yeah, I worked in the hospital while I was there. I took a Red Cross course, and was very much 
interested in going to nursing school, so they gave me an application to St Elizabeths Hospital in 
Washington, DC, I believe it was. And I filled out the application, and I was accepted. And at 
that time, I was here, and it was shortly after I graduated. And I happened to be here visiting at 
the time, and my uncle would have paid my way, would have bought my uniforms, see, I needed 
a watch, and I needed a certain kind of shoes, but he would have provided me with all of that, 
plus paying my way. And then while you're getting your training, they're paying you a little bit, 
you know, to keep you going, to buy the--  
 
Winona Weber  22:26 
Because you're kind of working as a nurse.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  22:28 
Yeah, right, they're essential. But I goofed up, I met a guy and I thought I was in love. And it 
was one of those puppy love things that didn't turn out. So, I've always kicked myself in the rear 
for not--  
 
Winona Weber  22:42 
[?Going through with it?] 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  22:42 
Following through, right. 
 
Winona Weber  22:45 
Why did they recommend Saint Elizabeths in Washington, DC? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  22:49 
That was one of the schools where they accepted Indian students, was Saint Elizabeths Hospital 
in Washington, DC. 
 
Winona Weber  22:59 
Wouldn't they accept an Indian, I could say, I know there's a big there's a big nursing school in 
Seattle, and there's, you know, at the UW, and there's one in Portland that I know of. Didn't they 
accept Indian women?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  23:15 
They probably did, I have no, no-- I don't even know why they chose St Elizabeths Hospital, I 
have no idea why. I do know that I was accepted. 
 
Winona Weber  23:29 
Yeah, maybe it was a leading hospital, [?who knew?]?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  23:40 
A couple of my cousins went to Haskell, graduated from Haskell, yeah.  
 
Page 10 of 12 
 
Winona Weber  23:44 
What did they graduate with? What kind of-- 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  23:45 
I really don't even know that.  
 
Winona Weber  23:47 
Oh, I see.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  23:48 
This was so long ago, you know, that I-- Oh, there's my daughter, Marlene [tape stops]. 
 
Winona Weber  23:54 
Let's see, does your mother still live down in Oregon?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  23:58 
No, she lives up, she lives in Shelton.  
 
Winona Weber  24:08 
Oh, really? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  24:09 
She's, let me see, I don't know what year she was born in, I think she's 79, 78 or 79. She's very 
active, she does all her own housework and takes care of my step dad who is, his legs are giving 
out on him, so he's partly disabled. She did work out, [?she did in housework?], but then he fell 
down and broke his leg this last year, just before Thanksgiving, and he was bedridden. So, she 
had to give up her job, and so she just stays home now and takes care of him. [Tape stops and 
starts.] She kept active, I guess that's how, why she kept going as long as she did, because she 
always kept active. And then her and my step dad-- who is it Mary? [Tape stops and starts.] Her 
and my stepdad put my step brother through school. He graduated from the University of 
Oregon, and then he went into the service, and when he came out, he went to the University of 
Arizona at Phoenix. And he, I don't know exactly what all studies he took, but foreign trades was 
one of them. And he's now the 27th vice president of the City Bank of New York, and he's in, 
working in Africa right now. He stays in foreign countries, they're in the process of trying to 
move into Saudi Arabia. But he, last week, he just went to look it over, to see if it was safe 
enough, or if he cared to put his life on line, you know, to go there. So we haven't heard since 
whether he will transfer there or not.  
 
Winona Weber  24:01 
Was he your stepbrother or your half brother?  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  24:04 
Yeah, he's my step-- or, half brother I mean, I always say step, but he's my half brother, yeah. So, 
we're pretty proud of him.  
 
Winona Weber  25:06 
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Boy, I guess. 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  24:59 
He's only, what, he's 51 years old and we're really proud of him.  
 
Winona Weber  26:34 
Oh my, that's something.  
 
Wilma Adams Bush  26:41 
Yeah, well, you stop to consider that the kid practically worked his own way through school. 
Like during the war, he picked up beer bottles and bought bonds, and then later on in life, when 
he needed them, he cashed them in.  
 
Winona Weber  26:42 
I see. 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  26:43 
They were already at, what do you call it, maturity stage, or whatever? 
 
Winona Weber  26:58 
Did your family really stress education when you were growing up? 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  27:05 
Well, in a way, yeah, but they, they never pushed me. I mean, they wanted me to attend school, 
and I wanted to, but they never stressed, you know, with it. Well, they always told me that I 
should get a good education and that would help me later on years in life. And it has, you know, 
the education that I took. Like now, I'm cooking and things that, that I was taught then, I can use 
a lot of the knowledge that I got then now. It's really worked out already. Then I, the last year I 
was there, we had eye patients who were way back in their schoolwork, and we had the first, 
second, and third, and fourth grade, and kindergarten. They didn't, they had too many kids, they 
had no teachers; so, they picked a bunch of us senior girls, and then we went to school from 
seven to nine and were taught what to teach these little kids. And I had the third and fourth 
grade, and I had kids in there that was bigger than I was, because they were not able to attend 
school on account of their eyes. And they were treated at Chemawa, that's what they were there 
for, to be treated for their, it's called trachoma, and they didn't have teachers enough for it, so 
that's what we did. That's what I did my last half year there. So that education that I got with 
those kids helped me when I worked in Head Start, and it also helped me when I worked in Hood 
Canal School. So, I can truthfully say that the education that I got at Chemawa really helped me 
in later life. 
 
Winona Weber  28:57 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  28:58 
I'm really proud of the fact that my education, due to my education, I've been able to earn a 
living for myself.  
Page 12 of 12 
 
 
Winona Weber  29:07 
Mm-hmm, oh yeah. 
 
Wilma Adams Bush  29:08 
You know, which a lot of the kids nowadays didn't get a good enough education, or they whack 
school off, dropouts, or whatever. And you find that so, so much in, with our Indian kids, they've 
dropped out of school and they, they don't have an education. They're either a logger, they work 
in the mill, or they fish, and they say they don't need an education to do that, so. I know all, all of 
my kids, I only have one son, the boy that's in the Air Force, graduated from high school. And he 
graduated from, well, he went to the American Institute of Indian Arts in Santa Fe and then, oh, I 
don't know what-- He met a girl, and they got into trouble there, and rather than, than kick him 
out of school, they transferred him to Stewert, in Nevada, and that's where he graduated from, 
was Stewart. So, he's the only one of my kids that got, you know, really good education. All the 
rest of them quit in their 10th year, they completed the-- [Recording ends.] 
 