EXTINCT Indians...

Sat Dec 11 04:05:06 UTC 1999

As a member of the Chinook Nation, I can tell you we are not excinct!  :)

Kate Elliott

From: phil cash cash <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET>
Reply-To: phil cash cash <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET>
To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: EXTINCT Indians...
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 17:48:22 -0700

tony,

i have greatly enjoyed your commentary and critique, and like RMoore, i have
to whole heartedly agree with everything you say.

unfortunately for many of us native peoples, we are plagued by historians
who seem to want to evoke an imagined (imaginary) pathos on native history.
this kind of pathos (most unique of historians) tends to over dramatize
human events in ways that deny and invalidate the experiences of others, as
in this case, the Chinook peoples who are survivors in their own right.  as
in my own history (Nez Perce) which has been written to death by many
well-wishing but misinformed non-native historians, one cannot help but
wonder (and question as many have done) if the Nez Perce (or any native
people for that matter) can ever represent their own history.  for example,
when a NP tribal historian wrote "Noon Nee Mee Poo: The Culture and History
of the Nez Perces" 1973, it was blasted by some very prominent historians.

so here, in the northwest, we are all "being and becoming" a people yet, and
the world of injustice continues to surrounds us despite all the spilled ink
of the well-wishers.

phil cash cash
cayuse/nez perce

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Johnson <tony.johnson at GRANDRONDE.ORG>
To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Date: Friday, December 10, 1999 12:19 PM
Subject: EXTINCT Indians...

 >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.
 >

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