Native employees of sealing ships

[Scott Tyler]

What a nice song!
scott
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Lutz" <jlutz at UVIC.CA>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships


> Thanks Duane for the story behind that much-reproduced picture. I think it 
> is on the cover of one of the Sound Heritage volumes produced by the BC 
> Archives many years ago.
>
> Many of you will know this: Franz Boas recorded Chinook Jargon songs in 
> Victoria in the late 1880s and published some of them. One of them was a 
> song composed by Nuu cha nulth sealer left behind by a sealing schooner in 
> Alaska, as recorded by Boas:
>
> Haiias lēlē naika sick tumtum
> A long time I felt unhappy
>
> Pe okok sun elip haias k’al
> But today is the hardest day,
>
> Kada Entelplaize yaqka leave naika.
> For the [ship] Enterprise has left me.
>
> Franz Boas, “Chinook Songs”,
> Journal of American Folklore, 1 (April 1888) 220-6.
>
> I have been working on a book on aboriginal wage labour and these are two 
> paragraphs from that manuscript which summarize the involvement of native 
> people in the sealing industry (and mention Terry's friend Charles Jones):
>
> "The first of the pelagic vessels took on an Aboriginal crew in 1866 and 
> by 1891 the industry was well underway when 286 Indians were listed by the 
> Fisheries Department as crew on sealing boats and the federal census 
> (conducted by the Indian agent) showed 40 percent of Nuu-chah-nulth men 
> claimed sealing as their main occupation. At its peak, in 1896, 889 
> Aboriginal People participated in the sealing fleet, the majority drawn 
> from the Nuu-chah-nulth population of the West Coast Indian Agency, whose 
> population, men, women and children, was estimated that year at 2,800. 
> From 1860s to the mid 1883 aboriginal hunters were the only sealing 
> labour. Non-aboriginal sealers began to be taken on in 1884 and for a 
> short interval, 1890-94 they comprised the majority. From the mid-1890s 
> onward a ban on shooting seals meant that aboriginal hunters using spears, 
> again comprised the majority of the seal hunters, their percentage, 
> fluctuating between 51 and 73 percent of the total sealing work force.
>
> Charley Nowell and Charles Jones were among the Aboriginal People who 
> worked on the sealing schooners and who left a record of their experience. 
> Sealing was a lucrative occupation while it lasted, though the level of 
> income for any one hunter was highly variable from year to year. Charley 
> Jones recalls sealers earning $1,000 in a good year and Alex Amos' father 
> used to come home with $700; and in 1892, one of the best years, sealers 
> from Ahousat earned an average of $1,200 each. Other sealers made between 
> $200 and $600 that year, while those who were on schooners seized by 
> American authorities only took home $40 to $60 for the season. The routine 
> statistics generated by the Department of Fisheries give a better 
> indication of the average sealing income. These suggest an 1892 average 
> income for all hunters, white and Aboriginal, was closer to $94. However, 
> after 1900, when comparable figures from the Department of Indian Affairs 
> become available, they show that aboriginal hunters earned twice the 
> income of all seal hunters taken together."
>
> Another source for the sealing industry records the use of CJ:
>
> “[Captain Cox} hunted out ‘Old Jim’, who had been the headman or tyee of 
> the crew the previous cruise. Jim was pleased to see him and, of course, 
> to receive the cultus potlatch, or gift, that he gave him. But when it 
> came to the matter of hunters for the year, the old man shook his head, 
> and in Chinook told the captain there would be no hunters.... ‘The people 
> are afraid of the Bostonman’s skookum-house. Some of those who were put in 
> the skookum-house from other villages did not return.”’
>
> [Ahousat sealers refusing to work owing to threat of seizures in the 
> Bering Sea by American patrol vessels.]
>
> Bruce Mckelvie, Add Mss 115 Box 3 file 2
> “Saga of Sealing” Written by B.A. McKelvie
> from the Recollections of Captain Ernst F. Jordan.
>
> John
>
>
> Duane Pasco wrote:
>> 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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>>>>>>
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>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
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>>
>
> -- 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> John Lutz
> History Department
> University of Victoria
> PO 3045 Victoria, B.C
> Canada
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