EXTINCT Indians...

[Tony Johnson]

Kanawi-Laksta,

I wanted to address a few of the issues that my original post inspired,
and primarily provide more background to my point of view.

As noted my original post was written quickly.  I tend to measure my
words carefully and try to minimize any potential misunderstanding.
However, with this issue I felt a quick, and perhaps abrupt, response
was warranted.  I hope that the following will help explain why.

Some background...I have not read Rick Rubin's book, although I became
aware of it some time ago.  When I learned of it I expected it to be
like most books about Chinook Indians--some good information and some
misinformation.  As many of you know there have been posts recommending
the book on our list.  I did not comment on these because frankly I have
no expectation that any book on the subject will represent the whole
truth.  I do know several people who have had some connection to this
book and my question to them has always been "are we extinct(in the
book)?"  I never received a straight answer to that question.

However, my answer came while talking to my father about Rick's
appearance at our Historical Society.  My father was unable to attend,
but as previously noted his cousins did go, and as reported Rick
suggested that there were no more Chinook Indians.  Needless to say this
upset us.

My family's bands are not recognized by the Federal government unless we
choose to live on another reservation.

Please understand that my fire over this issue comes from the continued
removal of my family's rights.  Early on some of my family was given
small allotments along the Columbia river.  Near, or in, our traditional
villages.  These have been taken from us.  They were sold for back taxes
even though you can't tax Indian land.

We moved to Willapa Bay to work and stay with our people.  Early on our
family lived well, but eventually nearly all of us were living in a
swamp at a village we call Goose Point.  We had to walk on boards to go
from house to house in the winter.  An example of where we were staying
prior to ending up in Bay Center is my relation Sammy Pickernell.  Sam
lived on Long Island with his grandparents.  They lived traditional.
They had a winter house and a summer house.  He says that in the winter
he would row his boat through his summer house.  The Federal Government
came along in the fifties and kicked him and his grandparents off the
Island.  It is now a wildlife refuge!?!  Most of my family lived there
at one time or another.  Sam lives in Bay Center today.

In the 1970's the boldt decision took away our right to fish and hunt as
Indians.

This is genocide.

The Federal Government, or the state of Washington do not own the corner
of SW Washington.  There is no legal title for that land.  Our decline
as a people is based on diseases, etc, but the complete decline of our
families that survived the diseases is a product of intentional actions
by the Federal government.  If we had been reserved land and rights
everything would not be perfect today, but we would have a brighter
future.

Our people did not die off when people like Franz Boas stated that we
were gone, but we are dying today.  We don't want to die, but our rights
inherited from our ancestors have been stripped from us.  Our lack of
status, land and rights in our own country are killing us.  Members of
our community continue to go to places like Quinault to live, because
there they have some of the rights denied us in our own home.  Also, why
would most kids today learn how to mend a net, etc. when they are denied
the right to place it in the water.

There are questions as to why there is not more information on us, but
the little effort that our community has had to give has been spent
fighting the Federal government for more that twenty years to regain our
status.  Sometimes the most difficult things to prove are those that are
self evident.  The government says we are Indians, but perhaps not a
tribe.  They say prove that your villages got together at a time that it
was illegal for Indians to gather, and by the way oral testimony isn't
enough, we have to prove it in writing.

Today I look at our community and I too sometimes wonder how much life
it has left.  My family has fought hard to restore our rights, but
people can only go to jail so many times for fishing before your spirit
gets beat down.

This is genocide.

I am writing these things to try and express why it is that I feel so
strongly about someone portraying a romanticized version of this story.
Especially by an author who is willing, apparently, to suggest an ending
to the story which is contrary to the truth.   I will read Rick's book.
I hope to have a time to discuss these issues with him.  We are
accustomed  to these discussions.  My brother one time had to produce a
tribal card to prove his existence in a "Washington state history" class
at Central Washington University.

Is my frustration becoming clear?  Who else knows the real story of the
first ships on the Columbia River, where the first women were pulled
from the rocks or where and how our ancestors found their t'amanawas?

This information, that many of you want and would benefit from, will not
be available in the future if the misinformed idea that Chinookan
speaking people of the Columbia river are extinct prevails.  It is
irresponsible to write such a book today.  Not because it hurts
someone's feeling, but because it works to eliminate a people from the
future.

I want to thank those who have written on this issue.  I do hope my
ramblings are not out of place, and I hope that it also is clear that I
have no personal issue with Rick Rubin.  I do however have a personal
agenda, the survival of my people, my new son's people.

LaXayEm,

Tony A. Johnson--Kathlamet, Lower Chinook, Clatsop
Sawash-ili?i (Grand Ronde, OR)

***Please note that my references are only in regards to lower river
Chinooks and that it is important to again reference the fact that
middle and upriver Chinook people continue to reside at Grand Ronde,
Warm Springs, Yakima, etc.
***I don't believe that Melville Jacobs' "Clackamas Texts" have been
mentioned as a good source of information.
***One last note regarding sources, Boas' "Kathlamet Texts" include a
photographic plate showing a "Mrs. Wilson."  That is, I am proud to say,
my father's great grandmother.  Her maiden name was Margaret Ero
(Heroux), and I come down from her through her first marriage to John
Pickernell Junior.

LaXayEm wEXt.