Native employees of sealing ships

Scott Tyler s.tylermd at COMCAST.NET
Thu Apr 26 16:14:47 UTC 2007


Thank you for the story and picture reference.
scott/ooshtaqi

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Glavin" <glavin at INTERCHANGE.UBC.CA>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:44 PM
Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships


> Hi Duane.
>
> That is the very photo indeed!
>
> And thanks for the great story behind it. I didn't know that. Hilarious, 
> too.
>
> Cheers,
>
> T
>
> 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: "Duane Pasco" <dpasco at EARTHLINK.NET>
> To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:43 PM
> Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships
>
>
>> Terry........
>> You don't know me. I usually don't reply to these things, but I  couldn't 
>> let this one go sans comment.
>> I believe the canoe mentioned is one that was actually carved at Clo- 
>> oose, an abandoned Nitinat village just south of the entrance to  Nitinat 
>> lake [actually a fourteen mile long fjord.]
>> There are a couple of photos of it that appear in various  publications. 
>> The captions usually say something like " Canoe carved  by the Natives 
>> from Nitinat and that the waters in the area were too  turbulant for the 
>> crew to handle it and it was discarded".
>> The canoe which was about sixty feet long with an approximate beam  of 
>> eight feet was commissioned by some Non-Natives with the idea of 
>> starting a freight business from Victoria and up the west coast of 
>> vancouver Island. A couple of carvers from Nitinat village carved  every 
>> day on it, camping at the site and returning home for the week- end. I'm 
>> not sure wether the white guys worked on it, or not. When it  was 
>> completed and turned over to the clients, they couldn't handle it  and so 
>> they discarded it as a loss. There are some White men in the  photos and 
>> one might assume that they were the ones who commissioned  it and may 
>> have helped in it's construction. At any rate the Nitinat  tribe were 
>> able to handle it just fine and I was told by people at  Nitinat that it 
>> was used for years and made many trips to Neah Bay  for potlatches.
>> There is a "Tashtai", or dinner song sung by members of Nitinat that 
>> pokes fun at the carvers of the village that worked on the canoe.  Part 
>> of the words translate as something like "What are you doing?  What are 
>> you making? and "What's with the White guys?"
>> One of the photos has been used by other tribes such as Suquamish's 
>> museum, claiming it to be one of their ancient vessels.
>> I've made a lot of canoes and would truly loved to have seen that on  in 
>> the flesh.
>> Duane Pasco
>>
>> On Apr 24, 2007, at 7:30 PM, Terry Glavin wrote:
>>
>>> 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 
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>>>>>
>>>>> 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 
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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 
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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! 

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