Wednesday, June 02, 2021

Why a street named for a former Linfield (then McMinnville College) president is being changed to Lakamas Lane

 


Wildcatville blog, posted 6/2/2021

Linfield has a street on its campus named for A. M. (Arthur Marion) Brumback (born 1869, died 1916), who was Linfield (then McMinnville College) president (1903-1905), faculty member and football coach (1896-1900).

Photos here taken 6/2/2021 show two Brumback Street signs on the Linfield campus, one intersecting with Lever Street and the others intersecting with Renshaw Avenue.

*“Soon, a two-block private road on the Linfield University McMinnville Campus will have a new name. What has been known as Brumback Street will instead become Lakamas Lane in an effort to better honor the history of Linfield, the surrounding area and the Native American community.

*“The Board of Trustees approved the resolution to change the name on May 1, 2021.

*“A committee of students, faculty and staff has been working through the spring semester to consider a new name for the road. After months of meetings and research, the group proposed the new name.”

*Source: Jill King story posted at Linfield website 5/3/2021.

An ‘Inside Linfield’ story says, “The Linfield University Board of Trustees passed a resolution in November 2020 requesting a committee of students, faculty and staff to consider a new name.” It also says, “The new name will take effect as soon as is reasonably possible, before July 1, 2021. “

The new name for Brumback Street is Lakamas Street. 

Said ‘Inside Linfield,’ “The committee reached out to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde early in its deliberations, asking for guidance about whether Linfield might consider a name of historic significance to the geography and indigenous peoples of the McMinnville area. A representative from Grand Ronde then worked with the committee through the spring to consider six alternatives, before the group eventually settled upon Lakamas Lane.”

Why will there no longer be a street named for Brumback on the Linfield campus?

A “Dear Linfield community” message posted 11/16/2020 by Kathy Foss sent on behalf of Linfield President Miles Davis, explains, “The road is named after former faculty member A.M. Brumback, who served briefly as president and who published an article in 1900 in which he discussed what would today be considered the desecration and theft of human remains and artifacts from Native American burial grounds.”

 Sources for this post include:

=‘Lakamas Lane on the McMinnville campus’ posted on May 3, 2021 by Jill King
https://www.linfield.edu/linfield-news/lakamas-lane-on-the-mcminnville-campus

=Inside Linfield - Lakamas Lane/ The New Lakamas Lane On the McMinnville Campus
https://inside.linfield.edu/lakamas-lane/index.html

=‘Board of Trustees November meeting updates ‘ posted on November 16, 2020 by Kathy Foss. Message sent on behalf of Miles K. Davis, President of Linfield University https://www.linfield.edu/linfield-news/bot-nov-updates

….

Information of possible interest:

=April 29, 2022 McMinnville N-R/News-Register 
Plans to create the first Camas Fest on the Linfield campus (May 6, 2022) began in November 2020 “when the university began investigating a new name for a two-block street on the McMinnville campus. The search led the university to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and together, the groups chose Lakamas Lane, located a block north of Keck Drive. Lakamas is the word for camas in the Chinuk Wawa language. Plans soon developed to celebrate camas, which grows in large numbers on campus.”

=In 2014, Wildcatville blog (http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2013/10/100-candles-on-linfield-football.html) wrote “Coach of the Linfield teams for its first five seasons (1896-1900) was A. M. Brumback. If his name seems familiar, it's because there's a Brumback Street … on campus near Linfield Football's Maxwell Field. However, the street honors not his football, gymnastics or track & field coaching at Linfield. It's because he was the college's president, 1903-05. Some information about Brumback calls him ‘Arthur Brumback’ or ‘Arthur M. Brumback.’ For the record, his full name was Arthur Marion Brumback.”

=In 2008, Wildcatville blog (http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2008/10/linfield-campus-streets-have-football.html) wrote “BRUMBACK STREET …Brumback Street intersects with Renshaw Avenue … On one end of the street is the Linfield softball field (Del Smith Stadium), which is across the street from Renshaw Hall, now home of the college's Mass Communications Department. Player/coach A.M. (Arthur M.) Brumback organized Linfield's first football team in 1896. He coached for five seasons before being appointed college president in 1903, a position he held for two years (1903-1905). Brumback taught natural sciences at the college. According to one write-up, "Brumback had a passion for sport, playing center on and coaching the college’s first football team. While enormously popular with students" he was not successful in dealing with Linfield's financial crisis. He left Linfield in 1905, to take a position at his alma mater, Denison College, in Ohio. At Denison, he was that college's first chemistry professor.”

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