Siletz.Net

About 12 years ago I stopped in at the Brookings Chamber of Commerce. I told them that I was Chetco and that my great-grandmother, Minnie (Louie) Lane was from the Brookings area. The woman working at the counter said that all the Chetco were "extinct." I told her she was incorrect and that I was proof that we are alive and well and that many of us Chetcos are part of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. The Chamber of Commerce lady was not entirely sold on the idea, though. So in June, when I heard about the project to put a monument to Lucy Dick at the harbor, I was thrilled. I'm grateful to Lynda Timeus and Karen Crump for working to make that dream a reality. The project not only honors Lucy Dick and the Chetcos, it will help educate the public regarding the tribe and disspell some of the inaccuracies about our people.

For example, here's a bit of history as told by the menu of The Wild River Brewing and Pizza Co.

While I don't begrudge Wild River the attempt to put some local color into the menu, Lucy Dick is not "Lucky Dick." An understandable spelling faux pas, but is it too much to ask for Wild River to fix the menu? Also, I have to admit it's a bit chilling and, well, slightly offensive, to be called extinct. We are people, not dodo birds, after all, and more importantly WE ARE ALIVE!

Bill Schlichting's article below is a nice attempt to highlight the history of the Chetcos, but much like the Chamber of Commerce ladies that I encountered 12 years ago, he's just flat wrong when he says that, "Today, only about 40 people remain who are descendants of the Chetco." There are several hundred of us. We haven't been obliterated simply because we've become a part of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. However, the article by Mr. Schlichting is another step toward raising awareness of Chetcos, past and present, and I'm glad to see it.

Discovering Chetco Culture
by Bill Schlichting,
Curry Coastal Pilot
December 02, 2009 06:00 am

Lucy Dick is shown with baskets in this painting by A.V. Talbot. Lucy was the last known full-blooded Chetco Indian and lived in the village, shown on background map, on the south bank of the Chetco River.
In the wake of plans to build a memorial to the Chetco Indians, a renewed interest in the tribe has arisen among residents in the Brookings-Harbor area.

The renewed interest was evident when people filled every available chair, as well as the benches along the walls, of the Chetco Grange Community Center Saturday afternoon. The people came to hear sisters Lynda Timeus and Karen Crump, both Chetco Descendants, share their knowledge of the small band that lived in the area before white settlers arrived.

Timeus, who did most of the talking during their hour-long question and answer session, and Crump are descendent of Lucy Dick, the last known full-blooded Chetco Indian.

The tribe, which is believed to have had no more than 1,000 members, lived in villages scattered throughout the area between the Winchuck River and Cape Ferrelo. Perhaps the largest settlement was a village, known as Chetco, with about 40 houses located on the south bank of the Chetco River. The location is shown on an 1891 map as being near today’s downstream end of the sport boat basin at the Port of Brookings Harbor. It is here that a memorial is planned.

According to articles about the tribe, the Chetco people were peaceful, engaging only in sporadic skirmishes with the Tututni tribe to the north and the Tolowa to the south. These conflicts were the result of the Chetco people being protective of their property, Timeus said.

They were hunter gatherers, and fished, harvested shellfish, picked berries and acorns, and hunted sea lions. They lived in wooden plank houses, wore clothing woven from bark and grass, and used deer-hide ponchos for warmth. It wasn’t an easy life.

Timeus shared a story of how the people ate sea anemones. It was difficult because the animals attach themselves to rocks and stuck well. Then they must be cleaned. Anemones were not the more popular of staples.

The Chetco people also ate lots of mussels and fish. Timeus and Crump shared that their ancestors could be identified by their worn teeth because of the amount of sand in the food. However, it is believed that their diet, which included much seafood, contributed to a long life span.

A long life was certainly the case for Lucy, who was born in the 1840s — the daughter of Tyee, the last Chetco chief — and died in 1940.

It was during her lifetime that the traditional lifestyle of the Chetco people came to an end during the Indian Wars of the 1850s.

Surviving members of the Chetco and other tribes were rounded up and sent to the Siletz Indian Reservation, 14 miles inland from Newport near the town of Siletz, according to Timeus and Crump. The Chetco Indians were perhaps the smallest group among those who became part of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz.

According to a 2001 article in the Curry Coastal Pilot, Lucy’s father was killed on this journey, as well as his brother, a sub-chief, and many others.

Lucy was walking with her mother when her father was shot. When she saw him fall in the dust of the road, she turned back to him, crying, but her mother said “No. Walk on, and don’t look back.”

Upon reaching the Siletz Reservation Lucy was determined to make a new life for herself. In this she succeeded. Remembering that she must look ahead, not back, she left her past and her Indian name behind, and this name is now forgotten.

Lucy met Richard “Chetco Dick” Dick on the reservation and in time they were married, according to the custom of their people.

Lucy, her husband and their daughter, Lydia Dick, made their home on the reservation for a number of years. Then, obtaining permission from the Indian agent there, they made a trip back to their former home at Chetco. While there, Chetco Dick became ill and died. Left without a husband, and little means, Lucy remained at Chetco and never returned to live again on the reservation.

Her daughter, Lydia, married Sam Van Pelt of Chetco, according to the Indian custom. Sam was the son of one of the first white settlers in the area.

Today, only about 40 people remain who are descendants of the Chetco. When asked if there are standards to determine whether a person is a member of the Chetco Tribe, which is not federally recognized, the answer was that each tribe has its own standards. The Chetco recognize a person as part of the tribe by ancestral lineage.

It is these few people who have Chetco ancestry who are working to build a memorial. The site would include historical information about the tribe’s way of life.

As it is, most of the social locations have been lost as are many cultural ceremonies. When the people came back from the Siletz reservation, they became integrated. Many traditions were lost. Both Timeus and Crump agree that this is why building a memorial is important.

The two women also shared that a book is in the works. The goal is to share the history of the area that includes details about the Chetco people.

Following the presentation by Timeus and Crump, the audience was treated to refreshments and invited to view photos of Lucy Dick, maps showing the locations of the Chetco villages and portions of written history. Guests could also view Tolowa artifacts, including ceremonial clothing and jewelry.

After the break, the Tolowa Indians from Del Norte County, Calif., shared a computerized slide show presentation about that tribe.

The Tolowa people lived in the area from south of Crescent City to just a few miles south of the Winchuck River. The Tolowa also had many villages; the three largest were located in the area of Crescent City, on the south side of the channel between lakes Earl and Tolowa, and near the Smith River mouth.

The program was organized by Jo Mochulski and Sharon Huff, members of the Chetco Grange Activities Committee.

Elder Guest commented regarding the PBS series We Shall Remain. I've previewed a couple of the trailers. The series looks like a worthwhile effort from PBS. Apparently, you can view the episodes online at the PBS website, but I'm going to wait to record its rebroadcast, hopefully, later this season.

After the Mayflower - Language consultant David White reviews lines in the Nipmuc language with Marcos Akiaten, who plays the Wampanoag leader Massasoit. White consulted with the producers when they were writing the script and later translated lines into Nipmuc for Akiaten and the other actors. -Photo Credit: Webb Chappell

Below is Elder Guest's comment regarding the first episode:

This past week while reading Indian Country Today, I came across an Open Letter to PBS Television regarding "After the Mayflower," (the first episode of "We Shall Remain").

I would like to share it with the readers.

Regarding “After The Mayflower,” (the first episode of “We Shall Remain”), the the Tribal Historic Preservation Officers of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the Narragansett Indian Tribe and the Tribal Historic Preservation Authority of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe question the potential of this mini series to "...tell the story of pivotal moments in US history from the Native American perspective."

The THPO offices are charged by their federally recognized tribes and the National Historic Preservation Act with the responsiblility to protect, preserve and advise on regional tribal history and culture. Our ancestors are central to the events following the Mayflower landing, yet our historical guardians, our THPOs, were avoided by this PBS production.

This production uses National Endowments for the Humanities funds. We maintain that Section 106 consultation under the National Historic Preservation Act should have been addressed as the project involved federal money in the public presentation of tribal history. Our Tribal cultural authorities were not contacted to consult on the authenticity of the production's script, intent, process or end product.

We have not struggled to maintain our tribal cultural identities for nearly 400 years since colonization to be disrespectfully ignored and dismissed or to have our history misrepresented for the purpose of entertainment.

PBS, your disrespect of the tribes has done a disservice to your audience. Please note that our histories go back tens of thousands of years prior to these "pivotal" conflicts in defense of our families, our ancestral lands and our ancestral way of life.

Finally, PBS in its support and broadcasting of this production has given credence to a radically altered interpretation of the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh's 1811 declaration to President James Madison's messenger by deleting its land based implication. "We Shall Remain" implies a call for pity and does not carry the same declaration and meaning as"... AND HERE, WE SHALL REMAIN."

End of article.

I am viewing this series. In fact, I bought the tapes. I have enjoyed watching the first tape and look forward to watching and listening to the rest.

Elder guest

Click here for the video of this story.

Oregon Century pt 3
KDRV-TV
By Ron Brown
March 13, 2009

NEAR ASHLAND, Ore. -- The settlement of Oregon by white immigrants began well before statehood in 1859.

When the settlers came into Southern Oregon in the early 1850's, they were not alone. Thousands of Native Americans had been here for centuries, but found sharing the rivers, valleys and resources difficult.

Most settlers called the Takelma, Shasta, Latgawa, Umpqua, and several other bands or tribes 'Rogues'.

"The French called them that because they were a little antagonistic, they didn't take well to people moving in," says Southern Oregon Historical Society Interpreter Tom Smith.

For a hunting-food gathering people, local natives had a lot to enjoy here.

"Deer, elk, antelope, steelhead, salmon, everything they needed. And plants like the camas and apoes and things like that were here. And they had a very diversified diet," says Smith.

But when miners swarmed in and started muddying up the creeks and rivers, and settlers started fencing off fields and meadows and stopped natives from traditional harvest of bulbs, acorns, and other plants, fights began to break out.

A monument erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution commemorates the treaty that was signed September 10th, 1853 with the Rogue River Indians. However, that wasn't the end of the trouble. The Rogue River Indian War in 1855 finally resulted in the expulsion of most Native Americans from Jackson and Josephine counties.

Within two years of the treaty, trouble broke out again, and soon there were massacres on both sides. With few regular soldiers in the territory, volunteers, some with revenge on their minds, eventually forced the outgunned natives to surrender.

"To lose your ancestral land, that was the main heartbreak for everybody I believe." says Smith.

Survivors were forced to march to the coast, where they were put on a ship and taken to the Siletz and Grand Ronde Reservation, forced to live with strangers and old enemies, and dismal coastal weather. Most died.

However, not every one left. One, named Umpqua Joe, warned miners that attackers were coming, and when the war was over, he was given a small "reservation" near Galice on the Rogue River. His daughter Mary, known as Indian Mary, and her daughter, lived out their lives there, and the reservation became Indian Mary Park.

The falls near Gold Hill, called Tilomikh by natives, is now the location of a revived salmon ceremony that was practiced here for centuries.

"The main problem with native people here is their whole life is around the rivers and the mountains. And when the miners came in, especially when they started using hydraulics and all that, and just tearing the rivers up, it ruined the fish, and that ruined their life. To me, that'd be very understandable. I'd fight in a minute," says Smith.

Click here for the video of this story.