Native employees of sealing ships

Wed Apr 25 02:30:43 UTC 2007

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
>>>>
>>>> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond 
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>>>
>>> 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 
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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!