Yet again the white man cheated the Indians. Despite the fact that Joseph had negotiated a safe return home for his decimated tribe, Joseph and 400 of his followers were taken in uncomfortable, unheated railroad cars to a prisoner of war camp in Kansas, where they were held for eight months. Those that survived were taken to a reservation in what is now Oklahoma. Here, during their seven-year stay, there were many more deaths.
In 1879 Joseph met with President Rutherford Hayes to argue for his people, but to no avail. Finally, however, in 1885 Joseph and what was left of his followers were permitted to return to the Pacific Northwest. Some went to the Idaho reservation, but Joseph and a few others were effectively segregated from their people, and removed to the Colville Reservation in Washington. The Native Americans from other tribes who already lived there were not pleased that they were forced to give away some of their allotted lands.
By now Joseph was an old man, but he continued to speak eloquently, stating his hope that America’s promise of freedom and equality for all men might actually one day include the Native American people, too. This was sadly not to come to pass during Joseph’s lifetime. He died in 1904, still exiled from his homeland.
CHIEF SEATTLE
“Let him [the white man] be just and kindly with my people, for the dead are not altogether powerless.” (attributed to Seattle)
1780(?)–1866
A chief of the Duwamish tribe, whose name would become immortalized for all time in the great city named after him, Seattle also became famous for one particular speech, although there is controversy as to the content, context, and precise nature of the speech.
Seattle—or Si’ahl—was born in the area of Blake Island, Washington. His mother was of the Duwamish and his father of the Suquamish. His position as chief was inherited from his maternal uncle, as was the tradition in a matrilineal tribe.
Accounts of Seattle tell us that he was tall for one of his tribe, standing at almost 6 feet; he was given the nickname Le Gros, meaning “The Big One,” by the European traders. A skilled orator, he also had the added vantage of a loud voice. He was a confident and skilled warrior, leading skirmishes against enemy peoples. It was a tradition among the Duwamish to make slaves of enemies that they captured.
Seattle’s first wife died after giving him a daughter; his second wife bore him seven children: four girls and three boys. His best-known child was his first daughter, Kikisoblu, who would become better known as Princess Angeline. In the late 1840s Seattle was baptized into the Catholic Church, taking the name of Noah Seattle.
The town of DuWamps was changed to Seattle when Chief Seattle formed an alliance with the Europeans against the Patkanim tribe, who were making incursions onto the traditional sites where the Duwamish caught clams and other shellfish.
After the Battle of Seattle in 1856, the Chief was reluctant to allow his people to relocate to the reservation that had been allotted them, since the Snohomish, their traditional enemies, were also going to be relocated there, and Seattle knew that this would lead to conflict. Instead, his people relocated to the Suquamish reservation in Washington, where he died in 1866. He was buried at the tribal cemetery there.
SEATTLE’S SPEECH
The quote at the head of this entry is an extract from the controversial speech involving Seattle. Consensus of opinion says that the occasion of the speech was March 11, 1854, in the then-town of Seattle. A public meeting had been called by the governor of the town to discuss the sale of Native lands to European settlers.
Seattle was asked to speak on the subject, and here the real controversy arises. Evidently Seattle spoke with passion and at some length, in the Lushootseed tongue, which was translated into Chinook and then into English.
The speech was only written down in English some years after the event, by one Henry A. Smith, who had taken notes at the time. In Smith’s version, Seattle thanked the Europeans for their generosity, and also compared the Christian god to the Native god. Smith himself admitted that he had noted only a small part of the speech, and what he wrote is rather florid. The speech has subsequently been rewritten by others who could not possibly know what was actually said, although it has been described as “a powerful, bittersweet plea for respect for Native American rights and environmental values.”
CHILKAT
The traditional form of weaving carried out by peoples on the northwest coasts of British Columbia and Alaska, including the Haida and the Tlingit. The Chilkat people after whom the blankets were named were a division of the Tlingit who originally lived along the river of the same name in Alaska. Chilkat blankets were worn exclusively by high-ranking tribal members at important dances and ceremonies including the potlatch.
This method of weaving is one of the most complex in the world; the artist is able to incorporate curved lines and circular shapes within the body of the weave itself. All sorts of materials are used in the fabric: dog and mountain goat hair and the bark of the yellow cedar were used traditionally, although today, sheep wool is more likely to be used. The designs are very distinctive, incorporating stylized animal designs primarily in red and black. The art of Chilkat weaving had almost been lost—in the 1990s it was estimated that only six people still practiced the art—but luckily the technique has enjoyed a revival recently.
CHINOOK
The Chinook lived on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, and were known for their fishing and trading skills. They used dugout canoes for their fishing trips and lived in permanent wooden houses rather than, for example, the moveable tipis of the Plains Indians. In appearance they were tall; their most defining characteristic was perhaps the shape of their skulls, which were deliberately manipulated in infancy to alter their appearance. For the Chinook, a skull modified in this way was the height of good breeding, and a “normal” skull was considered to be inferior.
The Chinook language was particularly difficult to master, not only its rudiments but its pronunciation. Because of this, other tribes—and also the European fur traders—used a sort of shorthand language with the Chinook. This was known as “Chinook Jargon,” and made life easier for anyone who had to trade with the tribe, or for whom Chinook was not their mother tongue.
CHIPPEWAH
See Ojibwe
CHOCTAW
Belonging to the Muskhogean language family, the Choctaw were the largest tribe in that particular group. Originally they came from the southeastern U.S., including Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. There are different theories as to the origin of the tribe’s name. It was possibly the name of a great chief of the tribe, possibly from a derivation of “river people,” possibly from the Spanish word chato, meaning “flat heads.” Because they allowed their hair to grow long, they were also called “long hair.”
An agricultural people,