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Episode Fourteen: Peter Hatch, Culture Department (Part 2)
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Andrea Taylor from the Public Information Department interviews Peter Hatch, History & Archeology Specialist

View Transcript (PDF)

Free resources for researching Siletz Family History

Virtual Culture Camp, introduction to family history research by Peter Hatch: https://vimeo.com/726179542

Historic Oregon Newspapers (including many years of the Oregonian, Lincoln County Leader, and Weekly Chemawa American): https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/

FindAGrave – Cemetery information: https://www.findagrave.com/

Siletz Indian Census, 1885-1940: https://archive.org/search?query=Indian+census+siletz

FamilySearch (a free site similar to Ancestry.com, though operated by the LDS Church): https://www.familysearch.org/

– for example, 1900 Federal Census of Siletz (account required): https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-67T9-8WK?wc=9B77-YHM%3A1030550601%2C1030608101%2C1031185701%26cc%3D1325221&cc=1325221&i=0

Transcript

Hello everyone. My name is Andrea Taylor and today we have Peter Hatch back with us for part two of looking into my family history. Yeah. That’s right. You know, we’re basing this a little bit on that, PBS show, finding your roots so the listeners can’t see but like that professor Skip gates, you know, I’m wearing a bow tie, and, you know, one of those, tweed jackets with elbow patches looking all professorial over here?

No. Just kidding. All right. Yeah. Let’s let’s love the joke. Great. Great way to start that. Yeah. Let’s let’s get back into it. So in episode one, which I hope you’ll go back to if you missed, we kind of explored, Andy’s family history that goes back to the rogue River and, and southwest Oregon relatives that are to mutiny and Chekov, for the most part, and the Logan and, Woodman families.

And I mentioned, you know, in some ways, the history of our confederation is the history of people, you know, forcibly removed up here to. So let’s, and then the people who were already living here, you know, so I used to have families from down on the southern end of the reservation, like mine, like families from, you know, where, walport and, and Newport are now, and then Tillamook, people from, you know, right here in the south, that’s river valley all the way up north, to to like Nehalem.

That’s more the story of Andy’s great great grandma, Gertrude, family. So the corral family, and, we talked a little bit about her in part one, then looked at the admission record from when she, went away at seven years old to our Indian school. I didn’t find very much else about her, because she, passed away, at age 29.

And so Andy’s, great. Great. Grandpa James Logan senior, remarried, a few years later to one of her younger sisters, Louise. And the curls were part of a a great big family. I think all in here I found, like, ten kids, including girls, Richard and Louise. And they lived, down near Otis on the salmon River.

And so that’s where we’re picking back up the story. We’re going to be exploring that. That curl family tree. That’s right. We started with my grandparents. We went great grandparents, great great great great great. And then four greats. Okay. And you know we don’t have everybody but it’s about like putting together the pieces that we have you know for our tribal families a lot is you know lost to history in some ways for traditional reasons.

Because it wouldn’t have really been proper to talk about the dead, in a way that we’re a lot more comfortable doing nowadays. But also, you know, we don’t have that many written records of like, say, the Catholic Church going, you know, all the way back if you’re if, you know, probably the sides of your family that might be English or Irish or whatever, like you can often go, way, way back.

And so in my own life and my own family, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten past three greats. In, in some memories of, what? Andy’s three greats grandpa remembered about his ancestors. We’re getting to five greats on that Logan side. And we’re going to be able to do the same thing on the Tillamook side.

So let’s, let’s go ahead and dive into it. All right. So we’re talking now, I mentioned, you know, Gertrude Curl, who went to Jamaica, passed pretty young. Her parents were Henry Curl and, Agnes Dick. And so go ahead and turn the page over, so that it, we’re looking at another picture of, five native folks, all in really kind of like Victorian dress, very elite looking.

 

Yeah. They are, like, dressed to the nines that the little, teenager guys in a white bow tie, almost looks tuxedo like. So I think that, your great, great, great grandma Agnes is the one seated and on the left here with the chevrons on her dress. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. This really big flowing Victorian dress.

So that is Agnes. And, one of her older sons, William and then his kids in the back. And then the other older lady there. Is Agnes mother, Hannah.

Who would be your four great grandma? Okay. So that’s that’s just so you have some people to picture in your mind. And let’s turn over the page. So, I mentioned, you know, a lot of European families, they can go back in Catholic church records and actually, some of our Siletz families can, too. So the, when folks on reservations were Christianized, basically like different denominations kind of divided up responsibility for different reservations.

And, Grand Ronde is one that was primarily Catholic. But the, the Catholic, father, at Grand Ronde would come down to Siletz and to other communities to try to convert people and to baptize and marry folks who, were willing to, to say, that they were willing to be Catholic. So this here from, father AJ Crockett.

It’s funny because the names are all really different, but I’m, I’m very, very sure that this is your great, great, great grandma Agnes. So on August 2nd, 1876, we, the undersigned, priest, have baptized at the seacoast. Hagana Higgins, to your two and a half years old, born of Indians. Dick and Anne at Salmon River. Sponsor William Dick.

So, so she was named Agnes. But I have to imagine, like, the parents trying to explain in a pretty thick, Rezzy accent, you know, Nana Agnes, Agnes. And, it comes out Higginess in the, And what ended up in the official church record. But the the names of the parents are right and the ages right.

So I’m pretty darn sure that this is her,

and there are others of their, their children, and on down the family that get, recorded in these Grand Ronde Catholic Church records. So that’s a bit of a rare thing for Siletz Indians because this, this priest did come to Siletz now and then, but he did not by any means get everybody.

But it’s really good to have, you know, marriage and baptism records. They help us out a lot with the family history. So turning over the page again, this is Agnes’s statement. In a, when they were going around collecting, like, legal statements, affidavits from, Tillamook folks, because there was a compensation fund that was available, folks will know it as the McChesney role, because it was finding, Chinook and Clatsop and then Tillamook people, who were potentially eligible as heirs to this judgment fund.

So this is Agnes’s statement for that. Do you want to go ahead and read that one? Yeah. So it says State of Oregon, Yamhill County. As I went to statement number 83, Agnes. And it’s in parentheses. Bob Cruel of Siletz Reservation, salmon River, Oregon, being duly sworn, disposes and says that she is about 30 years of age and I am full blood Tillamook Indian.

And then it says my grandfather was Tillamook Bob and my father was Dick Bob, a full blood Tillamook Indian who died June 5th of 1889, about 60 years old. It says my mother’s name is Hannah Bob, and she is now alive and on the Siletz reservation. I think it was the abbreviated, salmon River. I have a half brother, William Townsend, now alive.

I have a full brother named David Dick, who died in 1891, unmarried and without issue. I also have three full brothers who died unmarried, without issue. I have no sisters and never had any Agnes Bob curl. So, by the way, that without issue means without children. So without folks who could, who would be heirs? Okay. And so, so yeah, she gave this statement on, on 9th of March.

Yes. In ninth back in 1906. So probably just a little bit after that, that photo we saw was taken and, so this is great because she’s saying who her grandpa was. So that Tillamook Bob fellow would be your five great grandpa. So that that’s what we’re already a long ways back in the family history.

And another really interesting thing is there’s, like, so, we’re also seeing the weird ways that our folks as original names in their own language, how English names come into the family so that grandpa is just called Tillamook Bob. As like a, a single or sometimes not like a bob, where it’s just like a single English name.

And, his son, kind of takes on that single English first name as a last name. Dick Bob. And there are lots of others. There’s, Peter, Bob. Levi. Bob. Charles. Bob. Josephine. But, Dick was old enough that, by reservation times that actually on his allotment record, he’s just called salmon River.

Dick and his kids are, like, you see that? Agnes is giving that statement. It’s written down as Agnes Bob, but for the deed to her. So that’s allotment. She’s referred to as Agnes Dick because she’s salmon River. Dick’s right, child. And so it gets messy in the family history where, where, like, these names change around based on whether they’re kind of like picking the English last name from their dad or from their grandfather, because it’s all, like, still a little bit in flux.

You know, it’s not like back in England or whatever where they’ve been. They’ve been using English last names for many, many generations. And so you’re a baker and then you’re a baker and then you’re a baker on down the generations. This is still like still learning how to do it. Yeah. People figuring it out and still being, you know, that kind of like these first couple of generations named in English.

And then it doesn’t always stick the same way. Would it be right to say that maybe too it was, from what I can think of right now at least. Maybe it was. It was when I’m talking to you versus when I’m talking kind of more professionally. You know, everyone calls me Andy, but, legally, I’m Andrea. So, you know, I would go to, I don’t know, work or somewhere, and people would call me Andrea, here at least, for the most part, because that’s what my email says.

But it would it is that kind of maybe also like some Salmon River Dick versus Dick Bob. Like, so when we’re talking to the government, we’re going to use our government names. Yeah. It’s it’s a little bit that and I think it’s also so so that Bob last name sticks more to the younger brothers like I mentioned.

Levi. Bob. And he I think married and got his allotments over at Grand Ronde. And so there are actually like there was an artist, Steve Bob at Grand Ronde who I think just just passed away in the last year or two. But there and I think, Ann Lewis, who works for.

Siletz Tribal Business Corporation is also a descendant of that Bob family. So there are there are Grand Ronde Bob’s okay. But but then Bob name kind of like stuck over at Grand Ronde. Whereas here in let’s allotment Records they seem to use Dick. Okay. And it’s. Yeah, it’s just one of those, those funny things that you’ve got to puzzle out.

 

But yeah. So that’s a little bit about Agnes and going back to her memory of her grandparents. So we’re going to, turn the page over again. When you’re ready. Andy. Oh, it’s just like, oh, yeah, we’re we’re on the same page. So we’re looking at another picture. And, this is from a photo album that’s, in the, private possession of a tribal member.

We haven’t acquired it, but he, they gave me permission to use that for this purpose. We’ll see if we can post it along with the episode. But this fellow, do you want to describe the photo a little to me? It’s a I don’t know where he’s maybe 40 ish. It’s hard to determine sometimes people’s ages, but he’s he’s standing there.

He’s got, you know, an overcoat and a vest and, work boots, though. Yeah. And heavy sets. Rubber boots. Yeah. I agree with you. Probably about 40 something. He’s got a big mustache, hair parted down the middle. Handsome guy. And so this is, Agnes’s husband, Henry Curl. Okay. And so he was, as far as I can tell.

Santiam Kalapuya. And like, a lot of Kalapuya people, like, in early reservation, removal days, as far as I can tell, I grew up at Grand Ronde. And then, by the time he was, he was getting married, Agnes moved over on to the Siletz reservation, and settled down there on the lower salmon River, where he got his allotment.

Okay. So he’s, you know, one of those kind of people who are, like, maybe fit in both buckets legally, like our in some ways, Grand Ronde or in some way, Siletz. And, I have unfortunately, with Henry, I wasn’t really able to, get back any farther to his parents or anything like that. There is, a book by a woman named June Olson called living in the Great Circle.

That is like a biographical history of a bunch of grand Ronde folks. And it does have, some documents about Henry and his early life before he moved over, to the lower salmon River on the Siletz reservation. It seems like he, in his younger days might have been a bit of a ladies man. There are some some things that come through, some indication of, like, jealous husbands chasing him away from their houses, that sort of thing.

But so, so probably, I don’t know, probably a fun guy in his own right. Anyway, he. So he moves over to the lower salmon River, and this is kind of where we’re going to be, picking up his story. So we’ll go back to the Lincoln County leader, this one from February 5th, 1909.

And says, the salmon River people believe in shaking the light fantastic toe a dance Thursday night. Henry curls one Friday night at, John Dickens. Rumor says there was a wedding at Dickens. Just before the dance. So again, you know, we’re back to those those newspapers with, like, all kinds of things about the hot goss around town.

In this case, talking about, the community on the lower salmon River, you know, just having fun having a dance, in the deep winter of 1909. And then similarly turning over the page, you’ve got this other one from 1912 that says, Henry Curl has sold a piece of land for $2,000 in money, and a fine team harness and wagon, and is now in Portland having a good time.

So I really, I really just, put these first couple of tidbits in there to give my impression of him as kind of like a, like a real fun loving guy, you know, hosting dances at his place and, entertainer. Yeah, really, really doing it up when he comes into some money. But, as we see another big theme in our history and we were just, before we recorded, we were looking at, some old newspaper articles from the restoration era, from the 70s.

And how the big contention about that was what our focus is fishing and hunting rights would be. And that is still an issue we deal with to this very day, in big ways. And, it turns out, 110 years ago, your, three greats, grandpa Henry Curl was a bit of a fishing rights activist in his own right.

So we’re turning over to, Lincoln County leader on November 13th, 1914. It’s a it’s about the court, proceedings that are going on here in Lincoln County and says the other court case was that of Henry Curl, an Indian who had an allotment on the salmon River. He was also arrested for pulling gillnets across the river and also for, fishing without a license.

Curl is a Tillamook Indian. That’s wrong. But like, his wife’s family was. Tillamook. So, his tribe, have all died, and he has never severed his connection, with the tribe. Therefore, he can fish anywhere on the reservation without a license. According to ancient custom. And then it goes on to say, explaining, like the status of his allotment land, and his belief that, the Secretary of the interior is to be the judge, when an Indian is capable of taking care of himself.

So I don’t think Curl’s case would come before a justice of the peace or a circuit judge. So, so Henry’s getting busted for, you know, what the state sees as a fishing rights violation, and he’s saying, hell no, I’m fishing. Yeah. And, and that was not by any means the end of that. So we’re turning over again to November 25th, 1915.

In the more morning or later. Yeah. A year later, Indian angler arrested, three charges in case, being heard in Newport. So Henry Curl a Siletz Indian was arrested last week for selling salmon without a dealer’s license, for stretching set nets from bank to bank on the salmon River and for fishing without a license.

Curl is well-to-do and prepared to carry the case to the highest courts. Curl’s contention is that when the government, made a treaty with the Indians, it granted to them, and their descendants certain rights and privileges and immunities forever. The county records show that Curl has taken his land and several from the government. And has been given, an, a patent, therefore, that he votes in the state and county elections and has been for several years one of the judges of election, in the Otis precinct.

That last one is is not that, relevant to the fishing case, I suppose, but I think it’s cool that it it shows that, like, he was a leader, you know, even in the non-Indian community there locally, like, serving as, like a local, there was a different news item that I didn’t find room for in here, talking about him being the one to have to, as an election judge, like, take the ballot box over to, I think Toledo to be counted, from salmon River.

Anyway, so we’re turning over the page and going to the next year, 1916 Indian rights issue. Henry Curl finds twice is in trouble again. The status of an Indian regarding, the observance of the state game laws is being bitterly fought, in the Siltez reservation, according to information obtained yesterday from the office of the State Game Warden.

So it explains, about, you know, Henry’s continued troubles, and says, now he is charged with selling salmon without a dealer’s license. The last charge will be heard in August. The August term of court appeals probably will be taken, in the other two cases by Curl’s attorneys. So he was he was fighting this one to the end.

So later, and unfortunately, the next day in, May 16th, or sorry, May 7th, 1916. Unfortunately, Henry did lose that case and says Curl’s attorneys say they will allow him to go to jail. Then get out on a writ of habeas corpus to carry the matter to the federal courts. There are many Indians who are lots, living on, their land, like, Curl within the boundaries of what was formerly the reservation.

And the question sought to be decided is whether they are governed by the same game law and fish laws, as are the white man. So he was prepared to go to jail over his his fishing rights. Yeah, and I can’t I haven’t yet been able to find articles about whether he did end up serving time for that conviction.

But I think, you know, you’ve got, like, a three year process of him just like. Yeah, you just have to imagine how how fired up he must have been to go through all of that to try to just, like, claim his right to fish. The way that I still get mad about having to buy a fishing license and it.

Yeah, absolutely. So. But we’re not done yet. Okay, we’re turning over the page to July 20th, 1922. So how many years later? So this is eight years after after this whole saga first starts and it talks about, game wardens, checking out the, Lincoln County for deer, saying, in the words of the game wardens, we have never seen such fine deer country anywhere in the state.

And the wardens, and the streams have by no means been fished out, only a few, go in there, in the surrounding country during the open season, the roads are fairly good, making the place accessible by automobile. And the warden said they apprehended an old time Indian inhabitant of the country who they reported has been found with deer meat, in his possession once or twice before.

Out of season. His name is Henry Kearl, and he lives in Otis. The wardens caught him with a spotted fawn, and, and green hides in his possession. They said, he failed to report at Otis for trial on July 18th. A warrant is out for his arrest. So, eight years later, still taking deer, still doing his thing.

At least it seems, and, Well, God, you just have to imagine how mad he would be at these game wardens by this time. After them having to jam him up for fishing and hunting for eight years now. And let’s turn the page. This one has a happy ending. Arrested. Red. Acquitted. This is the Morning Oregonian, July 30th, 1922.

Henry Curl, an Indian resident of salmon River in Lincoln County, was acquitted today by the jury. In the, Justice Court on the charge of having a fine hide in his possession, deputy game wardens Russell, McDaniel and Meade had searched the premises and found a fawn hide. Curl declared, that he obtained the hide, from some hunters.

July 3rd, 1919, to use in making a vest to wear in Indian dances. So somebody else did it. Somebody else did it. It’s grandfathered in. And he was able to prove it. But one thing that I find really relatable about this is it says he got that hide in 1919. It’s three years later, and he still hasn’t actually made the craft project that he had planned.

 

I feel like I’ve got about a dozen things around my basement that are like that. We all are really great craft aspires. Yeah, exactly. So, so apparently the same thing was true for your great, great, great grandpa Henry. Okay. So, I just really love that story of, of that’s implied by just those little, you know, bits in the newspaper.

I did, you know, I didn’t know the man, but I have to imagine what it must have been like going through that with state game wardens for so many years. And just to finally beat the you know, I won’t say the word on the podcast to stand up for his rights. That’s right. Yes. Very well put. I appreciate this.

I appreciate this so much. Because again, like I said, I still get mad about having to buy my own fishing license, you know? And I know that the tribe we have one now with our natural resources, but it’s only, I think, within Lincoln County. And I don’t just fish here. Yeah. So, you know, a lot is made and for good reason about, like, the Indian fishing rights, advocates up in Washington state in the 1970s were doing the same thing and got arrested and led to the decision that allows tribes so much of the harvest up there in Washington.

But, you know, if you hear about that and, all the things going on on the squally and that sort of thing, you read that history, you can know 60 years before that. Yeah. Your blood, your family was, was doing the very same thing and prepared to go to jail for those rights. Heck yeah. All right.

So we’re turning over the page, going back to Agnes’s side and talking about her parents, salmon River Dick, also known as Dick, Bob and, Hannah. How a legacy. That’s a mouthful of a last name. Yes. Pronounced that very accurately the first time. Yeah. And I I’m. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it, like, in a phonetic alphabet, but again, that goes back to her explaining who her parents were in one of those statements about the, the Tillamook judgment fund.

So we’re skipping ahead a couple of pages here. And, to a highlighted section. And what I want to talk about is, you know, these are you’re Nestucca Tillamook ancestors. So the people who had always continuously lived in the northern end of what became the Siletz Reservation, you know, it ends up at Cape Lookout and then south of there is like, the Nestucca river, you know, you go to Pacific City, like that.

That’s right. Right on the Nestucca, And, so again, people who for an extremely long time were not removed from their ancestral homeland, even in the reservation days, but 20 years after the reservation is established, you know, big interests in Washington are really starting to get interested, you know, as our people have gone through so much hardship, you know, there are a lot fewer people who had survived, you know, 20 years on in the reservation period.

And they’re really starting to think like, oh, we can consolidate these Indians more. We can get more of that land. There were different schemes about, oh, let’s move the Grand Ronde Indians over to Siletz, or let’s move the Siletz Indians over to Grand Ronde, or so what? But what they landed on, was, throwing open the settlement, the southern end of the reservation, like down around Yachats where my family was back at that time, and then the northern end, then.

Nestucca country where your family comes from. And so but they so they attached it as like a rider to the bill to pay for the support for all the reservations around the country. So it’s something, you know, it’s kind of like today you you attach something nasty to something that has to pass so, you know, it goes forward.

 

But there was a little provision written into the law, thanks to some Senator back East who insisted upon it, that, they had to obtain the consent of the Indians living in the area before they could be packed off and moved. And so an effort was underway, from then on, happening real heavy in 1875 to try to basically manufacture that consent.

Okay. And so the first time that the Siletz agent, tried to go to meet with, the Nestucca people and people from further north, to say, hey, you know, this is happening, we we need you to agree to this. Then the Nestucca just boycotted the meeting, said, heck no. We if we don’t show up, they they sent some messengers down here to say, let’s a few days later to, like, find out what was up, but as an expression of contempt, like, we ain’t leaving.

And so it took until, a few years later, or in October of 1875. Oh, it looks like I got my documents a little bit out of order here, but. Okay, I’m heading heading to this one. That’s, that’s written by Ben Simpson. And so, Yeah. Am I on the right one or the wrong one?

I well, I’ll, I’ll go ahead and read it. Okay. But, so Ben Simpson was a guy. He was the second agent here at Siletz. Really pretty rumored for. Yeah, the back of that one that you’re looking at there, I think this one. Yeah. I see, William rumored for being a brutal, like, set up a whipping post, somewhere by the agency up on Government Hill.

Like, was an assimilation, you know, by, any means necessary kind of. Dude. Okay. And also, you know, back at that time, federal jobs that came attached to federal money, like being an Indian agent, like that was a political plum. That was something you get for being like a party operative in your local party. And and, oh, we’re giving you this, this government job.

And he moved on to different. So, so by this time, he was about, seven years out from being the Siletz agent, but was still would have been known and still would have had a reputation. And he was like surveyor general of Oregon this time, as he’s moving his way up through party politics and like he was the guy we avoid at all cost.

Yeah. Whispered. Yeah. And so unfortunately. So he was the one who was sent to try to convince, the Nestuccas to move. And we only really have his side of the story in this document that I’m about to read to you. So I don’t really. I, I have doubts, you know, about if it all went down as smooth as he says it does.

But this is what he says. On the third day, however, after repeated meetings, they consented to abandon their country at once and locate on Siletz Reservation, as defined by law at the mouth of salmon River. To accomplish this result, they were promised assistance from the government to locate severally upon the unoccupied lands at that place that each family, would have and be allotted 40 acres of land, and that each adult of the family would be a portion, 20 acres also, that they would be furnished with lumber and nails for the erection of suitable houses and the aid of of the, one white man who would assist in the construction of

the same. It was further promised, that they should be provided with, plows and teams to break and cultivate the land, and that they should have seed potatoes for the first year’s planting. So kind of like, it sounds like every promise you can think of like, oh, yeah, we’ll take care of you. You know, you’ll have we’ll set.

 

Yeah, we’ll set you up. Don’t don’t even worry about it. One person to help you guys build all your to make a whole new life. And again, you know, like with, with belated folks, like, I think the Nestucca and Salmon River people had always been like closely connected, you know, Tillamook speaking communities but still like and you know, it’s so he then explains, they did not wait for assistance to move, but sending their horses overland.

But, a portion of the band, they started at once, with their families and household effects by sea in their own boats and canoes, going out at the mouth of the Nestucca river and coming into, the mouth of salmon River, a distance of about 40 miles. They are now at the mouth of salmon River, waiting for assistance from the government through, the agent had sleds, which I am sorry to say to the present, writing has not been given.

So immediately they showed up with promises that immediately were not given. That’s right. Okay. And I want to jump back down a generation here because looking at the date in this letter, that he talks about them moving their families, in their households in canoes on the open ocean, and this happening in 1875, I think, your, great, great great grandma Agnes was born in 1873.

So she would have been a toddler going through this experience of having the family. And it’s just a very, like, different way of life that’s hard for me to imagine. As someone who drives my car when I take my kid places like going out and being a confident enough, you know, in a canoe that you’re taking your little child and your whole life and your whole household, like, out on the open ocean to start a new life.

I just can’t really imagine what that experience must have been like for her, you know? Well, I feel like the kids back then, too, they had just more tolerance for that kind of stuff, you know? And I know that because it’s just the time that they lived in. But at the same time, I’m like, she made it through because she’s here.

And she had, you know, all of the descendants of hers that led to me. That’s right. And so she made it. Yeah. And so the strength to go through that, like as a toddler and, you know, as a family, like, I, I have a hard time imagining going through that. And I’ve got a two year old myself.

But so we saw at the end of that excerpt, kind of what, what all these promises from Simpson came to for then a stack of people, which is basically nothing. And so we’re going to skip ahead to, another document when the Siletz agent later at the end of 1877, is meeting with in the Nestucca and Salmon River people, and Sam, who was the leader at that time, is giving his words about how all this know this last act of of Indian removal, like, like 20 years after the reservation had been established, how it was working out for him and his people.

He said, my chief is dead. He died with a sad heart. He has not received from the government such things as we had been promised him. Now I have a sick heart. I want to know how much I am going to be paid for my former home, which I have given up to the whites. I do not know where my agent is now.

Next summer I will try to learn. Where is my agent? I say this because my mind is unsettled and I am discontented, or people are all sad because we do not know where our agency is next summer, the president will inform us, where we are to go to see our agent. We will be glad. This is all I have to say on the subject, but, we’ll talk a little while about what Ben Simpson promised us before we came to salmon River.

He said our village is at Nestucca. He came to our village and a Nestucca and talked good to us, promising us many things if we would leave our country and go to salmon River. We took, him at his word and went, have been there now a long time, and do not find the things he promised.

So that was, that was talking about, the conditions that, you know, that generation of your family had to undergo back in the 1870s. And also about this weird controversy because that was happening at the time where, the agents at Siletz and Grand Ronde were basically fighting over who was responsible for the people on the lower salmon River, because even today, like if you’re down there by, the north end of Lincoln City, it’s a quicker drive to get from Grand Ronde than it is to drive on to 229 you know, all the way up the river here to Siletz

And so a lot of people back at that time, you know, in, would walk or take their horses up to Grand Ronde for services and, you know, get the distributions and that sort of thing. And so, it, it led to, you know, people being caught in between and a lot of this weird bureaucratic infighting that, then the stack of people were, were caught in between.

And so that’s what all of what Sam was referring to. And this continued into the next year, where we have a different, Siletz agent holding another meeting with the council at salmon River on the same issue. Still going on. And on the back page of that, there’s a speech, and sorry, my pages got a little out of order here, but there’s a speech from, young Dick, who I think must be, your four great granddad, salmon River Dick.

Okay. And he’s explaining, you know, he’s there. He’s at the meeting. He’s advocating for his people, is being the leader.

Okay. So, the speech from young Dick. Mr. Bagley, you understand, what I have to say today, you left the agency and came to see the salmon River people.

Our chief first thought, you are who we would have for our agent. We have made up our minds today that you are our agent. All of us, came to this conclusion. I think that it is best to have our agent as Siletz That is all I have to say. And then the other leaders kind of carry on just echoing the same.

But. So I just think that’s cool. It’s kind of rare to have the direct words of somebody that far back in your family line that again, that’s your four greats, grandpa. Just laying down the law and advocating for his people and, yeah. And now we’re going to, flip over the page to another photo.

And this is. Yeah, you’re looking at it. This is Hannah. Again, the older woman from that family portrait that we looked at before. You can see she’s a little older in this one, but she still looks the same. And that’s at her cabin there on salmon River. And, you know, it’s a bit of a stereotype about from this time of, like, pictures of sad old Indian folks.

But what strikes me about this picture is that you really do, I think, see, the cares of those years. You know, in the previous picture, they’re dressed a very high class. In the other one, you know, she had a pearl necklace on, you know, and, and in this one, it has a hole in her dress, you know, and she’s sitting on a rustic porch.

 

There’s a random shoe, that nobody thought to move for the photo. That’s right. And so, you know, you can you can tell different pictures with photography, but you’re right. But the contrast between those two photos, and, you know, maybe it’s a little bit of like, Sunday best versus, you know, a photographer really wanting to emphasize the poverty and, but I think, you know, kind of both truths are probably in her life.

And experience. But the point being that that Hannah there, lived through an awful lot. And the next page, is her is Hannah’s statement,

To that same McChesney, role about that judgment fund. So if you want to go ahead and read maybe that second paragraph there, beginning with my father.

Yeah. So it says my father was named. How will I guess, is that correct? Okay. And he was a Tillamook Indian alive in 1851 when the treaty was made with the Tillamook Indians. But has since died. My mother was an execution. Yeah, I think maybe a Kishan, but I don’t know. Okay. And she was a Tillamook woman who died before the treaty of 1851 was made.

I have no brothers now alive, nor any sisters. I had one brother named Nelson Howell, I guess, who died about a year after the treaty of 1851, was made unmarried and without issue. I have never had any sisters. So she’s going through her family tree for that statement. And in the next thing talks about her marriage to salmon River deck or Dick Bob and her kids.

But I think that that statement that goes backward is really cool and important because, again, you have names, in Tillamook language, of those would be your five great grandparents, same generation as Tillamook Bob, who we were talking about earlier. And people who were living, you know, before treaty time. And I think it’s really kind of special to have, you know, even if we may never really know all that much about them.

We know their names. Yeah. I, I didn’t realize that my family tree went this deep into our history for sure. And I don’t think, and there was even, at this time, I don’t know if it’d be your direct ancestor, but one of Tillamook Bob’s wives. Sally, was still alive to give a statement to this, commission.

So. So that were even back at this time when they were taking this testimony in 1906, there were still some of your, like, five greats, generation alive. Which is a little wild to me. So for our, our, our last chapter, we’re going to be talking a little bit more about that Tillamook Bob character who I mentioned, who would be, I guess Hannah’s who we were just talking about her father in law, salmon River Dick’s dad.

And, if we turn over the page, this is again, one of those family lists from before they took a real census of Siletz Indians from back in 1877. And it shows, in this case, it’s all the all the Klamath, meaning Shasta. People with, like, the number of males and females in their household in different age brackets and then the Nestuccas.

And so you’ll see Dick there, your four greats, grandpa and then old Bob, is that’s your five greats, grandpa, Tillamook Bob, or Nestucca Bob. Okay. And so, you know, in some ways that’s a really like a dead end bureaucratic record up there. It’s just like, you know, it’s literally like a tally of Indians. And it’s hard for someone, to have, like, the direct words of or experiences of that of somebody who is that many generations back.

But we’ve got it. Turn over the page. You did some homework. I’m so impressed. Okay, so, this is from the published journal of this. I think it was an Episcopal reverend, named R.W. Summers who was visiting. He was in Oregon, in the 1870s and was going around, it seems like a remarkably friendly guy, like making friends with Indian folks and buying up antiques for his collection.

And so he traveled down to. So let’s. And folks gave him a ride around the bay in a canoe and, it just seemed like kind of like a tourist having a a good time way back in the 1870s. And so there’s this he kept a journal and it was published, and one of the anecdotes in that, story is,

1878 where he says another of our visitors, Nestucca Bob, known as, Kala Nasca in his native tongue.

He says that in his home river, the proud Nestucca, the salmon are better than anywhere else. They have a more delicate flavor and paler color in the fall. Many Indians, and many white farmers to go over there on horseback with kegs and tubs, for a yearly supply of them. The fish crowd up the river in such numbers that they form one dense moving mass and can be tossed out on the bank, with either a jig, a simple spear, or a mere pitchfork.

As, fast as a man on the shore can wield his weapon. They, then they are salted in kegs and transported over the mountains, by trails that have existed ever since. There were Indians that that last parts in quotes. Alternatively, the Indians, and will stay longer in camp to deal with the fish and have their own better way.

Again, that’s in quotes. They will cut them in place and, dry them on. Scaffolding is made of poles covered with bark. Conversation continues little and then ends with. Finally we gratified Bob, by giving him permission, to give us, salmon to purchase next autumn. And he sits silent for a few moments, at the expiration of which, contemplative pause, a Klickitat pipe comes from his pocket and he, proffers it to us with the assurance that it is ancient, very ancient, and made by the Klickitat.

It’s not a calumet. But I add it to my collection anyway. So we talked a lot about how much, how much? Tillamook Bob’s, I guess, would be his, like, grandson in law, Henry Curl fought for his fish. And and we’re back now, like 50 odd years before that with your five great’s grandpa talking about how much he loves fishing in his home river.

And,him, you know, being generous enough to give a family antique to this guy who was traveling through the reservation right, with the promise of fish. Next year, they are in abundance. That’s right. And that pipe probably still exists in a museum. Yeah. This Reverend R.W. Summers fellow, sold his collection to somebody who sold it to somebody else.

I forget the exact story, but it actually ended up in the British Museum in London. So somewhere back in storage cabinets next to, like, obelisks from Egypt and Viking swords and coins from Anglo-Saxon whatever is a pipe, there is a little Klickitat pipe that belonged to your five greats. Grandpa, that’s really, really awesome. That’s pretty cool. I, we could leave it at that, but I think I’ve got one final, mind blowing.

 

At least to me thing in the tank. Okay, so again, we’re with this thing from Tillamook Bob, where in 1878. Let’s go back 90 more years. Okay. And turn over the page. This is the log book of the first ever American flagged ship to enter our waters. Just like ten years after Captain Cook, who was kind of, like, among one of the very early European guys to map our coast.

Like, you can look at maps of the world from the 1770s and 80s, and like, our whole region of the world is just like, wow, I don’t know, there’s probably some rivers over here. This is like the very earliest this is the 1788, the year after the Constitution is ratified, that the United States is brand new. We are many.

We are generations away from anyone considering Oregon as even a thing. We’re just like our folks back in our home villages. And, because people are hearing about all the money that’s being made off of trading sea otters from our waters, folks are sailing, you know, from, whatever. Boston and London, all the way around South America, all the way the heck back up here to try and make some money off of that trade.

And one such is the, on set ship is the Columbia under a fellow named Robert Gray. And the first mate, was a guy named, Haswell. And we have his log and it was published, in the Oregon Historical Quarterly in the 1920s. So this is the first, like, American, American contact with what would become Oregon.

Okay. And, he’s describing, you know, they’re sailing along. It’s a sailing log. So it’s kind of like a lot of weather and wind kind of stuff. And then he says at 11 a.m. there came alongside two Indians and in a small canoe, very differently formed from that. We had seen, to the southward. It was sharp.

At the head and stern and extremely well built to paddle fast. They came very, very cautiously toward us a little further down. We made them to understand that skins was the articles we most wanted. So they paddle off again and he says, the place, that these people came from was latitude 45 degrees. So that’s right by Cascade Head, right by salmon River.

So it’s, a pretty good bet because it’s like a small community, right? That the guys in that canoe, those would be like Tillamook Bob’s maybe grandparent’s generation, because it’s 90 years before that conversation we just had about that he was just having. What about salmon on the Nestucca. And the next day, you know, they’re still hanging out at around that place.

And he says there came alongside two Indian canoes, the one containing two, and the other six people among them, were our yesterdays friends. They brought us several sea otter skins. But they’re pretty, pretty cautious. They got weapons with them, and he says, we admitted one of them on board. But he would not come without his weapon.

And 2 or 3 of our visitors were much pitted with the smallpox. Oh, no. So. Okay, this is again, like like the first American ship ever to come into what would be Oregon. And we’re dealing with, you know, talking about folks who are, very, in all likelihood, you know, direct ancestors of yours and back at a time when there barely even was a United States.

And already those effects of colonization, those diseases had already made their way here.

And that’s likely why they were still just hanging out there as well, because they had sick crew members. I mean, I’m sure there was plenty like, we need to know what we’re doing. They didn’t make a game plan waiting for, my ancestors to come back to their ship. Maybe, but also likely they were like, oh, well, we got two sick members.

 

Well, and that’s. And you talk about the, all of these Tillamook guys being super cautious and coming with weapons, like I think they already knew, like these, these ships, when they come bring bad, bad things, bad stuff can go down okay. But also also money also it’s worth, you know, selling them our sea otters and trying it, trying to get ahead.

Okay. So if you feel like your native side doesn’t have history the way that some of us can feel sometimes, I think it’s, you know, there’s the hardship that’s implied here from just this little bit. But it’s also worth knowing that if anyone ever, you know, whatever, gets on their high horse about. Oh, yeah, I had ancestors on the Mayflower or, you know, whatever.

You can know that your five great grandpa was taking pride in the fish that he took out of his river. Heck, yeah. In the 1870s and 90 years before that, folks who are almost certainly relatives of yours were in their place doing their thing, surviving, and, you know, impressing this guy who just sailed halfway around the world with how good they were at, paddling, you know, bringing their canoe up alongside this great big ship, being fit and having the best skins he had seen.

That’s right. Very, very interesting. Very interesting. All right. That’s all I’ve got in the tank, folks. That was amazing. Peter, I would like thank you so much. This was a really awesome idea. I’m super excited about how this turned out. And this was so much more work than I had anticipated. You doing as well. And I hope that you didn’t like, like, put blood, sweat and tears into this because that that just I mean, I can see that you did, but I hope you didn’t too much.

Honestly, it was it was a fun thing to get to volunteer to do because there were there was lots of this, that when I started working on this like a couple weeks back, you know, I’ve been just kind of, dipping into it in my spare time between other stuff. And I had no idea about that story about your four great grandpa John Woodman.

You know, fighting a battle in the rogue River War. I had no idea about your three greats. Grandpa Henry, Carl being a fishing rights activist, 110 years ago or more. Like there is, there is a lot out there. I think, you know, this. There are there’s definitely other stuff to fill in. I don’t know that we’re going to get, you know, many, many more generations back in your family.

But again, like, if you ever, well, I just hope that you never have to feel like you don’t have family history again. I hope we can. Like for you and the folks related to you, have this, share this, know this, and carry it forward. Thank you. Know, I really do. And I, I have thought about approaching this a few times and being like, oh, let’s I’d like to know some family history.

I’d like to know. And, but then I immediately become uncomfortable because I, I don’t know how to approach it. I don’t know who to talk to. I didn’t know how to find any of this and to be quite honest, if you hadn’t presented this to me, I probably, maybe would have waited until I was an old lady.

It just it it’s. I’ve never been. I guess I don’t have the as comfortable approaching it. I don’t know if it’s just self-confidence or, lack of, connection, but it’s it’s there. Well, and I think, you know, in families like, like mine and it sounds like yours where there’s not like, a lot of oral tradition about those old generations of the family.

 

It’s hard because there are like these, these crumbs, a select student, who, who I’ll it, in, in their thesis called them, fry bread crumbs, which I really like, like that little, little tidbits of history scattered all over the place. But we also live at a time where it’s easier than it has ever been to, build up these skills and find out this kind of information, because, a lot of this stuff, a lot of these old census records we were looking at or on, the LDS church organizes a website that’s called Family Search, if you don’t mind.

You know, you can also pay for ancestry, but but FamilySearch has access to a lot of these things for free. All these newspaper articles we’ve been looking at are at a free resource that’s, you know, searchable, where they’ve they’ve scanned all these newspapers that’s, put up for anybody to use at the University of Oregon. So, yeah, everything that you were reading or, all the documents you showed me here were scans.

And they are sometimes not the best quality, but they are there, and the history is there. That’s right. So, so I want, you know, I don’t want this to feel like. Although I thank you for for saying so I did try and put a lot of good work into this. I don’t want folks to feel like it’s some kind of special magic trick, like the these resources are there, and it’s a matter of, like, learning a little bit of skills and taking what you know.

And, you know, sometimes it’s difficult because there have been. So for instance, there have been a couple different guys named Henry Curl living in Oregon at some time. And so you kind of have to take your guesses about like, okay, that one, that’s probably your ancestor was this one over in eastern Oregon. At the same time, it probably wasn’t in two places at once.

And and, you know, there are there are deductive skills that you’ve just got to figure out, but it it builds on stuff and it’s not magic. It just, takes a little practice and learning where to look. And, I really want, you know, us in the culture department to be here to help as other folks are taking their own journey.

So initiate your own family tree. And if you have questions or need some assistance, reach out. And you guys are there to help fill in some holes. We would love to. Okay. Thank you again, Peter. So much for this. And honestly, I really do love it. I really do love it. I’m excited to share this with my family.

Yeah. You’re welcome. Thank you for the time.

Thank you.