Native employees of sealing ships

[Scott Tyler]

Hi Terry,

I had not heard of the Fur Seal Treaty of 1911 this certainly
was the beginning of the demise of Native owned schooner economy.
Perhaps the dessimation of the species preceded the treaty.

As in Washington State the desimation of salmon lead to the state clamp down 
on Native fisherman, which lead to tribes going to federal court which lead 
to
tribes being alloted 50% percent of the catch ( even though the catch was 
terribly diminished).
Then tribal members began to buy up boats formally possesed by non-Indian 
fisherman.

I wonder did the Indians buy the schooners from those who could see the 
species were in danger and knew legal process spelled an end to a sealing 
era?
Are tribes now buy the boats from those who see the end of a salmon hay day?

Scott




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Glavin" <glavin at INTERCHANGE.UBC.CA>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 6:30 PM
Subject: Re: Native employees of sealing ships


> 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
>>>>>
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>>>>
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>>
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>
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