Quips & Quotes

from page 15 There are kid’s interactives and a souvenir penny machine so the whole family can have fun. Please confirm on the websites below or by calling for current hours. After visiting these museums, stop at the coffee shop next door — or any of the other local places to eat — to complete the experience!

Willapa Seaport Museum

310 Alder Street, Raymond, Was., 360-942-4149 Willapaseaprortmuseum.com Free Admisison (Donations welcome)

Northwest Carriage Museum

314 Alder Street, Raymond, Wash. 360-942-4150 nwcarriagemuseum.org Admission: Adults $8, Children $5 •••

Top: Nora Govednik makes a souvenir penny

At right: Carriage Museum, file photo

Q

UIPS & QUOTES

The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been. ~ Madeleine L’Engel, American writer, 1918-2007

Selected by Debra Tweedy No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one autumnal face. ~ John Donne, English poet, 1572-1631 October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace! ~ Rainbow Rowell, American author, 1973-

The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past. ~ Marie Kondo, Japanese organizing consultant and author, 1984Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. ~ Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer, 1939-

Longview native Debra Tweedy has lived on four continents. She The house was very quiet, and the fog—we are in November now— pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost. ~ E. M. Forster, English writer, 1879-1970 It was one of those days you sometimes get latish in the autumn when the sun beams, the birds toot, and there is a bracing tang in the air that sends the blood beetling briskly through the veins. ~ P.G. Wodehouse, English writer, 1881-1975 November always seemed to me the Norway of the year. ~ Emily Dickinson, American poet, 1830-1886 At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It’s a cliché, but it’s underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable. ~ Leonard Cohen, Canadian singersongwriter and poet, 1934-2016

and her husband decided to return to her hometown and bought a house facing Lake Sacajawea.“We came back because of the Lake and the Longview Public Library,” she says.

people+ place

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A monthly feature written and photographed by Southwest Washington native and Emmy Award-winning journalist Hal Calbom

proDuction notes

Onions and Oyster Shells

A colleAgue of mine specializes in what she calls “diversity work.” It means true equality, unbiased inclusion. It’s a familiar term in corporate communications and Human Resources Departments. By championing diversity we open up our workforces — and in fact society at large — to everybody, without prejudice, especially historically under-favored people of color, immigrants, any disadvantaged group or person discriminated against by our laws, customs, and culture. “Diversity work is like peeling an onion,” she’s fond of saying. “Every time you peel away one layer, there’s another underneath. And you’re crying all the time.” Talking to Tony Johnson called this sentiment to mind. Just experiencing the history and legacy of the Chinook — the layers of time, of displacement, injustice, and betrayal — is humbling. As a member of the dominant culture, I find it hard to hear these stories without a sense of inherited responsibility. Inevitably you walk on eggshells. Johnson, a learned and passionate man, conducts himself with grace and dignity. But the injustices and inhumanities roil beneath the civil surface of our conversation, and you fear that a clumsy question or misplaced assumption will reinforce a stereotype, reopen a wound, reveal the ignorance and thoughtlessness of the “winners” in this unfortunate saga of bullying and theft. Then you snap out of it. You listen and learn. You ask for grace and tolerance. You empathize, not patronize. You establish rapport and respect. You keep peeling the onion. You keep grinding on eggshells (or oyster shells, in Willapa Country) since its inevitable you will be obtuse and oblivious. You listen and learn.

If there was ever a true exemplar of this series — People + Place — it’s this month’s visit with Chinook Tribal Chairman Tony Johnson, with these people and this place that preceded the rest of us by 10,000 years and still welcome us today.

people+ place

First Peoples: The Chinooks

Tony Johnson lives in two worlds. His life’s work is to bring those worlds together. Like many other residents of rural Pacific County, Tony rues the economic hard times battering the coast, the chronic unemployment and social problems, the struggle to maintain traditional livelihoods in the forests and the fisheries. As Chairman of the Chinook Indian Nation, he works to preserve old ways in modern times. He lobbies for federal recognition of the tribe, which had been granted at the turn of the century then rescinded in an arbitrary and shocking turnaround only months later. He is both warrior and fence mender, assertive and contemplative, traditionalist and iconoclast. Tony Johnson’s vision is that of his people, famous as traders and welcoming hosts: that the indigenous and the occupying cultures can be reconciled, that his two worlds can co-exist and, in fact, flourish.

NICE TO MEET YOU

Tony Johnson

resiDes

Pacific County, Washington

occupation

Chinook Indian Nation Chairman. Program officer for a non-profit foundation

TJ: The Chinook Indian Nation today is five tribes, two in Oregon and three in Washington. In Oregon — Clatsop, and Cathlamet. In Washington — Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum, and Willapa. HC: And how many members? TJ: We have — I just reviewed it this morning — 3,135 enrolled members. HC: How does that compare with your historical numbers?

from South Bend, Washington

known for

Being father to five kids, an artist, a culture keeper reaDing Wholly immersed in the administrative record of the Chinooks’ federal case.

for fun Canoeing, fishing, hunting, foraging and gathering

recommenDations

”Put one foot in front of the other.” “If people wait to have a baby ‘til they’re ready, they’ll never have one.”

TJ: It was a huge population, up and down the Columbia, and including the north and south heads of the river. We’ve been here at least 10,000 years. When Lewis and Clark came down the river, and that was post-epidemic, they said that it was the most densely populated area they had seen. We have been told that the population around Willapa Bay, at least seasonally, was higher than the population right now. HC: So, tens of thousands, at least? Then the epidemic… TJ: Our people didn’t die in warfare. It was disease. The first wave that came to our territory came before the ships, probably in the 1740s or 1750s. And it

from page 17 came down the Columbia River, not upriver, from exposures to the east, non-natives. From then on we had a constant influx of diseases both from upstream and from the ships that came into the Columbia River. Eventually, some 90-plus percent of our people died from disease. We had no immunities. HC: What caused you to band together, the five tribes? TJ: Survival, in some ways. Losing so many people. We thought of ourselves as being the same people in terms of our history and the languages we spoke. So it was a natural kind of amalgamation based on shared backgrounds. The reality is, most Chinook Indian Nation members descend from more than one of those five tribes that I just named and our neighbors — Salish neighbors — and quite a few Chinook folks have Cowlitz blood. Many of us here also have blood with our Chehalis neighbors to our north and our Tillamook neighbors to the south.

HC: And that doesn’t create conflict or differences?

TJ: No, we had to amalgamate. These five tribes at the mouth of the river became this one community of the Chinook Indian Nation. We

“We’re doing this because this is our inheritance.

the highest ranking of the Lower Chinook villages on the river. Later known as “Chinookville,” or McGowan, that was a head village that had satellite villages that extended past the mouth of the Columbia River and well up into Gray’s Bay. HC: But there are few active village sites today? TJ: Most of those villages are now American towns. We had built our homes on places that were protected in some way, by weather or tide, and that had really good drainage. We built these large wooden structures semi-subterranean, and we had to have places that would weather well. We’d had thousands of years to figure out the best places to survive and live. HC: You already had the prime real estate. TJ: Certainly. And so those places were some of the very first occupied by non-native folks. I mean “occupied” is a nice word, because they basically moved us out.

Tony Johnson manages a life of co-existences. Outside the tribal office in Bay Center, a promontory of land thrust into Willapa Bay, cultures mingle in the centuries-old rituals of oystering, fishing and hunting. The Chinooks are a self-described “exogamous” people. They believe in marrying outside of their villages, to extend relationship networks, to prevent inbreeding, to extend political influence. They are notoriously welcoming hosts, shrewd traders and diplomats. This intentional blending with and integration with the dominant culture — fostering coexistence — can blur tribal identities and boundaries, making their campaign for formal tribal recognition that much more complicated.

all were shrinking, atrophying. Just because we amalgamated in a few places, doesn’t mean we weren’t still living in Ilwaco, or in Astoria, or in Cathlamet. HC: Is this a liability to your fight for federal recognition? That you have five spread-out tribes? TJ: I don’t think so. We have our aboriginal homelands and nobody can claim otherwise. Most of Pacific County and Wahkiakum County in Washington. You can infinitely break down our community and find relationship ties. We had head villages, or ranking villages, within a system of satellite villages. Many times those neighboring villages were being run by uncles, nephews, nieces, aunts, relatives. And those people would have further affinities to another set of satellite villages — one nation. HC: Any head village locations that continue to exist today that our readers would know or relate to today? Bay Center, where we are now?

TJ: Yes, this has been an important village and maintained here forever. Station Camp, down on the north shore, probably was People+Place visits Chinook territory.

INTERNATIONAL CREDIT UNION DAY

is Thursday, October 21. We’ll celebrate that week by giving each of our employees $10 to perform acts of kindness in our communities, and encourage others to pay it forward. It’s our way of spreading

Natalie & Amelia

(age 3 years)

painting 16x20 inches acrylic on canvas by Joe Fischer

Honoring the Successful Lives and Legacy of Alona & Carl Forsberg

JOE FISCHER

”We’re doing this because this is our inheritance. ~ Tony Johnson

TJ: I mean it should be simple, right? The United States government occupied somebody else’s land they’d lived on for millennia. And there’s a process in place in which you have to give compensation for the taking of that land. That’s what I mean by it should be simple. There are tens of thousands of acres in these bays that have been set aside for indigenous wildlife. And nothing for the indigenous people. HC: What’s the most direct path to recognition? TJ: Legislation. It’s really pretty straightforward. Congress can pass a law today that recognizes Chinooks and puts a process in place to establish a modest reservation — over a number of years and in close collaboration with our neighbors and with landowners and the State and Feds and the County.

Edward Curtis photo.

HC: And including federal recognition? TJ: Yes. This is not a 70,000-page piece of legislation. We’re not trying to displace the residents here. But we just believe we deserve to have a place of our own. And our good fortune, by the way, is we live in a place that is not heavily occupied right now. We’re not the Duwamish in Seattle, trying to figure out recognition in the midst of a huge city. We have plenty of timberland, federal and state land, space where we could establish a place for ourselves. HC: Has the Chinookans’ welcoming spirit worked against you? And your integration and dilution into the general population? TJ: As for diluting our identity, a non-issue. We have very good genealogies. Despite the Bureau of Indian Affairs fighting us on any number of issues around our existence, they’ve never argued with our genealogies. When there were folks on the ground here from the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, one of the things that really got their attention is just how clean and legitimate our enrollment is.

HC: Does modern politics, especially the proliferation of Indian casinos, work against you? TJ: The issue of recognition and the problems around it and people opposing it today have come from other people’s policies, not ours. The biggest issues today are the National Indian Gaming Act, which affirmed that tribes have the right to operate casinos under their sovereignty, and the Boldt Decision, which is still a hot mess, around fishing rights. So these issues — 50 percent of catchable fish has massive potential impact — have serious financial implications way beyond simple federal recognition. HC: What do you say to people who fear a huge new casino in Pacific County? TJ: I guarantee you that when you put out this article about the Chinooks and recognition somebody will pop in right away, ‘Oh, another casino,’ or other smart-ass comments as though that’s why Chinooks are seeking recognition. HC: And your reply to the smart-asses? TJ: We’re doing this because this is our inheritance. In the 1990s some casino interests came to us, ‘Hey, we’ll give you all this money, whatever, in order for you to get a casino and we’ll work to get you recognized. But the deal is you’ve got to be partners with us.’ We tabled all of that immediately. We have zero interest in cont page 20that — that is not what we’re doing.

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Regrettably, due to Covid-19 concerns, the Fundraising Dinner at CORE Health Youth Activity Center in Downtown Longview planned for August, then postponed to October ... has been canceled. Please join us in supporting this vital community resource!

The Evans Kelly Family

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HC: What is your vision of what you could do? TJ: This whole region needs a shot in the arm. I just think that a recognized Chinook, at the mouth of the Columbia River, makes us all stronger at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Chinook tribe lost more than $100 million, between the American Rescue Plan and the CARES Act — based on our enrollment — during the pandemic, through lack of recognition. Look at the alignment of interests and needs here. Medical clinics run by recognized tribes elsewhere are serving their non-native neighbors, too, providing drug and alcohol treatment, mental health counseling, all the stuff that communities need so desperately. When it comes to resources, Chinooks would be compelled to enhance the salmon runs, to enhance the sturgeon, to get back in check our sea lions. Chinooks can be, and will be again, a powerful force working to preserve this place we all love.

Painting displayed in the Chinook Tribal office, Bay Center, Wash.

The dominant culture may be realizing the price of its dominion. The past 175 years have seen a series of sometimes well-intended but mostly self-serving attempts to “deal” with the indigenous Americans and their claims to their homelands. Now, as many people have come to realize, there is an evolving sensibility. A novel thought: Perhaps there IS value in these ancient beliefs and practices — reverence for the land and its resources, respect for previous generations and their teachings, responsibility to live with others peaceably and for the benefit of all.

TJ: We have a lot of information that deserves to be considered as we all approach the future of this place. Right now, the only things the Chinooks own are these philosophies, these teachings about the place — our words, our language, our culture. There is science and history and teaching that would be of huge value to all people living here. We want to teach people who want to listen about a better way of living on this place. But I’m also unwilling to just — how can we keep giving that away? When everything gets taken? HC: Your first contacts — Lewis and Clark, for instance — seem to have reversed the stereotype — who was sophisticated and who wasn’t? TJ: We had a very stable lifeway that was very comfortable for our people for millennia before they got here. We’re living in, in some cases, villages where the average house is 90 feet long. There were houses 180 feet long, and even bigger, and all these homes were multiple families. I mean, extended families. I would argue we were living a life that was comparable to anybody’s good life in the world. HC: And the Chinookans were less than impressed with Lewis and Clark, and their beads and ribbons? Another stereotype turned on its head? TJ: Lewis and Clark were truly pitiful when they got to us. Their clothes were rotting away, they didn’t have the trade goods, as you’re referring to. I mean, they came with ribbons, they came with needles. One of my ancestors they called Needle Woman, because she’d traded a needle from those folks. But compare that to ships that were coming into the river, that were bringing us fine china from China, really amazing things! HC: I know Clark at least admired your canoes, and the people in them. TJ: The Expedition was just ill-equipped. They came in canoes that were not made for this part of the world. And our canoes are products of 10,000 years of engineering, right? What they were thinking were extreme conditions for us were probably annoying, but certainly not extreme. HC: I know you’re working to keep the canoe heritage alive? TJ: I’m in one whenever I can be, and help build them. With our neighbors the Shoalwaters at the top end of the Bay, we say, ‘Keep the highway open between there and here.’ So we take canoes back and forth. We’re just compelled to be in the canoes. There’s always an excuse for it, whether it’s our salmon ceremonies, or people asking for something ceremonial. The canoe technology is very much a living technology. We never lost it. HC: Are you running out of patience? Afraid of losing what you’ve held on to? TJ: Yes, I suppose so. For the community, it’s indescribable. Indefensible. I don’t know how to say it. I mean, for the federal government to start from the position that the Chinook Indian Nation and this community at the mouth of Columbia River is not a tribe is like somebody starting an argument by saying the sky is not blue. I mean, how do you argue with that, then?

The Cathlamet Town Council has led local efforts to promote federal recognition. See related story, pg. 21.

Editor’s note: Interviews are edited for length and clarity.

Hal Calbom, producer of CRR’s People+Place feature series, is also editor of The Tidewater Reach and Dispatches from the Discovery Trail, published by CRRPress, Hal grew up in Longview, now lives in Seattle, and may be reached at hal@halcalbom.com.