Native employees of sealing ships

[Duane Pasco]

Terry......
	I know the song well and have sung it many times with some Nuchanutl  
singers. I learned it sitting under the Nitinat river bridge the day  
after a potlatch at the village from Ernie Chester. It's a great song  
and while it's a song sung in jest it has the feeling of of something  
quite sad to a western ear. It is an owned song and I rarely sing it  
in public unless accompanied by a Nuuchanutl singer with the  
priveledge. I also wouldn't write the words  down.
	Duane

On Apr 24, 2007, at 9:44 PM, Terry Glavin wrote:

> Hi Duane.
>
> That is the very photo indeed!
>
> And thanks for the great story behind it. I didn't know that.  
> Hilarious, too.
>
> Cheers,
>
> T
>
> NOTE MY NEW E-ADDRESS: terry.glavin at gmail.com
> ALL UBC MAIL SEND TO: glavin at interchange.ubc.ca
> -----------------------------------------------
> Terry Glavin
>
> transmontanus.blogspot.com
> -----------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Duane Pasco"  
> <dpasco at EARTHLINK.NET>
> To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:43 PM
> Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships
>
>
>> Terry........
>> You don't know me. I usually don't reply to these things, but I   
>> couldn't let this one go sans comment.
>> I believe the canoe mentioned is one that was actually carved at  
>> Clo- oose, an abandoned Nitinat village just south of the entrance  
>> to  Nitinat lake [actually a fourteen mile long fjord.]
>> There are a couple of photos of it that appear in various   
>> publications. The captions usually say something like " Canoe  
>> carved  by the Natives from Nitinat and that the waters in the  
>> area were too  turbulant for the crew to handle it and it was  
>> discarded".
>> The canoe which was about sixty feet long with an approximate  
>> beam  of eight feet was commissioned by some Non-Natives with the  
>> idea of  starting a freight business from Victoria and up the west  
>> coast of  vancouver Island. A couple of carvers from Nitinat  
>> village carved  every day on it, camping at the site and returning  
>> home for the week- end. I'm not sure wether the white guys worked  
>> on it, or not. When it  was completed and turned over to the  
>> clients, they couldn't handle it  and so they discarded it as a  
>> loss. There are some White men in the  photos and one might assume  
>> that they were the ones who commissioned  it and may have helped  
>> in it's construction. At any rate the Nitinat  tribe were able to  
>> handle it just fine and I was told by people at  Nitinat that it  
>> was used for years and made many trips to Neah Bay  for potlatches.
>> There is a "Tashtai", or dinner song sung by members of Nitinat  
>> that pokes fun at the carvers of the village that worked on the  
>> canoe.  Part of the words translate as something like "What are  
>> you doing?  What are you making? and "What's with the White guys?"
>> One of the photos has been used by other tribes such as  
>> Suquamish's museum, claiming it to be one of their ancient vessels.
>> I've made a lot of canoes and would truly loved to have seen that  
>> on  in the flesh.
>> Duane Pasco
>>
>> On Apr 24, 2007, at 7:30 PM, Terry Glavin wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Scott.
>>>
>>> Great to talk to someone else who remembers the great Charles   
>>> Queesto Jones.
>>>
>>> I have a photograph of what must be that "monster canoe" around  
>>> someplace. And indeed it was a monster. It was the size of the  
>>> hull  of a small schooner; the photo I've seen depicts some men  
>>> standing  in it while it's on it's side and they look like  
>>> dwarfs. I'll see  if I can fine it - I expect it is in the on- 
>>> line photo archives of  the B.C. Archives and Records Service but  
>>> it might take a while to  find. As I recall, the caption had the  
>>> word "Nitinat Lake" in it.
>>>
>>> ". . . the Indian owners of schooners were forced to give up  
>>> their schooners in Neah Bay by the Indian Agent or a Washington  
>>> State  Agent who cited laws that, "Indians were not allowed to be  
>>> skippers  of these ships" Makahs being a generally civil tribe  
>>> accepted this  situation and got rid of their schooners.  I have  
>>> not seen  documentation off these forced events."
>>>
>>> This is almost certainly a recollection of the Fur Seal Treaty  
>>> of  1911. It scuppered the Victoria fleet, and as I recall, on  
>>> this  side of the line, aboriginal and non-aboriginal skippers  
>>> were  compensated. I seem to recall having come across the record  
>>> of Fred  Carpenter's schooner in his compensation claim.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> TG
>>>
>>> NOTE MY NEW E-ADDRESS: terry.glavin at gmail.com
>>> ALL UBC MAIL SEND TO: glavin at interchange.ubc.ca
>>> -----------------------------------------------
>>> Terry Glavin
>>>
>>> transmontanus.blogspot.com
>>> -----------------------------------------------
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Tyler"   
>>> <s.tylermd at COMCAST.NET>
>>> To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 6:42 PM
>>> Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Terry,
>>>> My grand mother Cecelia Frank from Ehaitesat & Newchatlet  
>>>> (married  name Smith and Sternbeck) said she had worked on  
>>>> sealing  schooners. According to my mother Cecelia had gone to  
>>>> the Bering  Straights.  I am interested whether her name might  
>>>> have appeared  on a schooner log as a worker.
>>>> I never did know if these schooners were owned by Americans or  
>>>> Canadians or if they were Native owned.
>>>>
>>>> Neah Bay elders did talk of owning a number of schooners.  I  
>>>> was  not aware of documentation about the number of Neah Bay  
>>>> owned  schooners. Tribal elders told me, the Indian owners of  
>>>> schooners  were forced to give up their schooners in Neah Bay by  
>>>> the Indian  Agent or a Washington State Agent who cited laws  
>>>> that, "Indians  were not allowed to be skippers of these ships"
>>>> Makahs being a generally civil tribe accepted this situation  
>>>> and  got rid of their schooners.  I have not seen documentation  
>>>> off  these forced events. Makah were compliant
>>>> in giving up these ships, stopping whale hunting and put gabled   
>>>> rooves on their long house rafters or tore the long houses down   
>>>> and learned to raise carrots and potatoes which do grown in  
>>>> Neah  Bay as directed by the federal government Indian agents.
>>>>
>>>> Now a days, armed with good lawyers the tribes put up better   
>>>> struggles, created paper trails, and are less apt to do as told.
>>>>
>>>> I do know many of the pictures taken by Curtis did use props,  
>>>> some wigs, and traditional clothing.
>>>>
>>>> I did meet Charlie Jones of Pacheenaht, and met his wife, and  
>>>> step  son John Thomas who worked with the Makah Language program.
>>>> Charlie did talk of a giant canoe that was made by Natives  
>>>> which  was taken out on the sea and found difficult to control  
>>>> and was  hauled ashore and
>>>> not used again.  He described it as a 'monster canoe'. He said   
>>>> there were pictures taken of this huge Nootkan style canoe.
>>>>
>>>> Greetings Scott/ooshtaqi
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Glavin"  
>>>> <glavin at INTERCHANGE.UBC.CA>
>>>> To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 2:28 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Just a note to say native people were certainly not just   
>>>>> employees on sealing schooners.
>>>>>
>>>>> While aboriginal people appear to have made up the bulk of the   
>>>>> labour force in the Victoria-based fur-seal schooner fleet,  
>>>>> the  community of Ditidaht, on Vancouver Island's southwest  
>>>>> coast,  owned three sealing schooners. Specifically, they were  
>>>>> owned by  Charlie Chipps, Jimmie Nyetom and Jim Nawassum. Up  
>>>>> the central  coast, Heiltsuk fisherman Fred Carpenter built a  
>>>>> sealing schooner  at Bella Bella, costing him $4000, which was  
>>>>> an absolute  fortunate in those days (sometime around 1900).
>>>>>
>>>>> The Makah people owned a fleet of 12 sealing schooners, three  
>>>>> of  which were owned by Maquinna Jongie Claplanhoo, and  
>>>>> Chestoqua  Peterson owned the 42-ton brig Columbia as well as  
>>>>> his own  trading post.
>>>>>
>>>>> About 20 years ago I was fortunate to have interviewed the  
>>>>> sealer Charles Queesto Jones of Pacheenaht, shortly before he  
>>>>> died. He  was 112. He had great stories of the high-seas fur- 
>>>>> seal industry.  I've always thought it astonishing how our  
>>>>> views of west coast  native life were coloured by such images  
>>>>> as those beautiful sepia- toned photographs Edward Curtis took  
>>>>> of Nuu-chah-nulth people  barefoot in cedar capes weilding  
>>>>> spears - years after Nuu-chah- nulth people were already  
>>>>> sailing their own high-seas schooners  in the Sea of Okhotsk,  
>>>>> and wintering in Yokohama.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>
>>>>> TG
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> NOTE MY NEW E-ADDRESS: terry.glavin at gmail.com
>>>>> ALL UBC MAIL SEND TO: glavin at interchange.ubc.ca
>>>>> -----------------------------------------------
>>>>> Terry Glavin
>>>>>
>>>>> transmontanus.blogspot.com
>>>>> -----------------------------------------------
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lewis"   
>>>>> <coyotez at uoregon.edu>
>>>>> To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
>>>>> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 9:47 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks Dave. I will look up the source. I have family that  
>>>>>> were whalers and sealers in the BC-Alaska region.
>>>>>> David G Lewis, MA PhD ABD
>>>>>> Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon
>>>>>> Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, 6 Apr 2007 18:50:19 -0400, Dave Robertson   
>>>>>> <ddr11 at UVIC.CA> wrote:
>>>>>>> Only slightly off topic, but definitely of interest to some  
>>>>>>> of  the list
>>>>>>> members: One interesting source of information on Native   
>>>>>>> people's work
>>>>>>> aboard sealing ships is "Reminiscences of the West Coast of  
>>>>>>> Vancouver
>>>>>>> Island" by Rev. Chas. Moser, OSB (Kakawis, BC, 1926).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Page 112, for example, tells about Nuuchahnulth men's work on  
>>>>>>> Be (h)ring Sea
>>>>>>> sealers circa 1884.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There's also information in the book about Mr. Guillod, the   
>>>>>>> Indian agent
>>>>>>> who we know recorded a vocabulary of Chinook.  Also   
>>>>>>> sociolinguistic hints,
>>>>>>> like people talking broken English, interactions with Chinese  
>>>>>>> immigrants,
>>>>>>> and so on.  I also notice at least one Chinook Jargon name,   
>>>>>>> "Tom-Sik
>>>>>>> Lepieds" [sic] (Tom Lame), on page 69.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --Dave R
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>> Hayu masi!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond  
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>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
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>
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