Native employees of sealing ships

[Terry Glavin]

 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




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Terry Glavin

 transmontanus.blogspot.com
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----- 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
>>
>> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately 
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>>
>
> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately 
> to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi! 

To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!