Rubin's book

[Linda Fink]

As to what Rubin says about the Chinook people being extinct, here is a
quote from his introduction. (I haven't read the book, but this quote from
the book appeared in the Salem Statesman-Journal book review.)

"They didn't sign away their rainy Eden or sell it, die in warfare, or move
to reservations, not until twenty-five years after the catastrophes that
swept most of them away. It wasn't smallpox that laid them low. Suddenly
most of them were simply gone. The Wapato Lowlands in particular were empty
and silent. Did God call them home? The few survivors walked away dazed.
Took to speaking other languages. Were replaced by strangers. After a few
decades hardly anyone remembered that they had ever been there."

I can see how this might be based on facts, then embroidered grandly. "It
was not smallpox": that's generally agreed upon. It was fever and ague of
some sort: most experts suspect malaria. "Suddenly most of them were simply
gone" is pretty bizarre, considering all the eye-witness accounts of dead
and dying during the "killing fevers" of 1829-33 (or thereabouts) that wiped
out perhaps 9/10ths of the population. "Took to speaking other languages" --
remaining members of the various Chinook tribes intermarried with other
tribes, not just those speaking their lanugage, just as all the other native
peoples did during that time. "Were replaced by strangers" -- white settlers
are pretty strange! (sorry, couldn't resist.) "After a few decades hardly
anyone remembered that they had ever been there." Well, there was a period
in our history when a whole lot of people tried hard not to remember that
the Columbia River Indians were there before white man came.

And when Rubin says they were the wealthiest of the western Native
Americans, perhaps he is alluding to the fact that they lived on the
Columbia and had plenty of fish and didn't have to do as much hunting as the
inland tribes did.

Why he would argue with Tony's relatives about whether or not they exist is
a bit difficult to comprehend. I can only guess that he was embarrassed that
they contradicted his book and might make him look like not such a great
researcher after all. If he truly wanted to set the record straight, it
seems he would welcome additional information that he didn't have before he
wrote the book.

But all this is supposition.

 Okay, you Native Americans and students of Northwest Native Americans --
what do you think about Beckham's book, "The Indians of Western Oregon"?
I've always assumed it was giving me the straight skinny. Is it?

Hyas mahsi

Linda Fink, Boston tillikum nayka