NEWS FROM THE
Chinook Observer
Posted: Thursday,
September 13, 2012
CHINOOK — Slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and
his family are members of the Chinook Indian Tribe, which has put out a call
asking for prayers on their behalf.
Chinook Chairman Ray Gardner said Wednesday, “To all of the
Chinook members and all the friends of the Chinook Nation I am hopeful that you
will include the family of Chris Stevens the former Ambassador to Libya
Stevens’ mother Mary Commanday is the first cousin of
Chinook tribal elders Catherine Herrold Troeh and Charlotte Davis, both of whom
are well known in Pacific County Columbia River . Willapa
Bay
“This will be a hard time for their family and they will
need our prayers,” Gardner
Another family member, Joe Brown, posted this message on
Facebook late Wednesday:
“My cousin Mary (Chris Stevens’ mom) got two very
important phone calls today. One was from President Obama. The other
was from from Ray Gardner, Chief of the Chinook Indian Nation, who told me, ‘I
did call Mary Commanday and let her know that the prayers of the Chinook Nation
are with all of your family during this difficult time. I will pass this
information along to all of our members tomorrow and I will go down to the
banks of the Willapa and give a special prayer for all of you. No
better place to give prayers then on the banks of the rivers of our ancestors.’
We’re covered. Thank you, Ray Gardner, and klahowya.”
Chinook Tribe Mourns Ambassador Chris Stevens
BY CHERYL CEDAR FACE · 09/14/2012
Chinook Tribal Chairman Ray Gardner issued a
statement mourning the loss of Chris Stevens. Stevens, the U.S. Libya Washington
The ambassador was killed during a violent riot in Benghazi Libya U.S. United
States Middle
East , prompting numerous protests across the region.
A rising star in U.S. Benghazi Libya
“It’s especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi Benghazi Libya
President Obama also referred to Stevens as “a role model to
all who worked with him and to the young diplomats who aspire to walk in his
footsteps.”
In an editorial published in Ilwaco’s local
newspaper, the Chinook Observer, it described the tribe’s federal
government wrangling as “unjust” and brought similar comparison to Stevens’
untimely death. “The innocent suffer while the guilty often go free,” the
editorial read. “Will it be any different this time?”
Despite these correlations that have been drawn in the
aftermath of Stevens’ death, Gardner Canada British Columbia Gardner
In an email, Commanday echoed similar sentiments. “Someone
said to me that Comcomly was bridging the space between two cultures in his
kind reception and aid to Lewis & Clark, just as my Chris was doing in his
work in the Middle East ,” she wrote. “I thought that was
an interesting idea, but later remembered that the Chinook's reward for the
Chinooks' kindness, ultimately, was to be rounded up off their property.”
The Chinook Nation consists of the western most Chinookan people - Our history and constitution define us as being Lower Chinook, Cathlamet, Clatsop, Wahkaikum, Clatsop Willapa and Kathlamet. We have always resided in the lower
The Chinook Nation’s Culture Committee has put a significant
amount of work into the Center for Columbia River
History’s website highlighting the Chinook community’s history. It is
a one of a kind resource and will be available for pubic viewing in
mid-September of 2012. Another excellent source of history for our membership
and the general public is the Portland State University Chinookan Studies
volume, Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia River
that has been in the works for approximately 10 years. It is nearing completion
and will be published sometime in late 2012 or early 2013.
William Clark of Lewis and Clark 's
Descendants Make Up for Stolen Canoe
It was a long time coming, but the descendants of explorer
William Clark have tried to make amends for a 205-year-old theft.
A descendant of the explorer in the Corps of Discovery
expedition that opened a land route to the West presented the Chinook Indian
Nation with a replica of a canoe that the corps stole in 1806.
Some of Clark 's descendants and a few
donors stepped forward to pay for the canoe, which was custom built in Veneta ,
Ore.
The five-hour ceremony on Saturday included songs, gift
exchanges and the maiden voyage of the replica canoe.
Ray Gardner, chairman of the Chinook Nation's tribal
council, said the return of the canoe is a "good place to begin
healing."
"It's nice to see a circle completed," Gardner
Major insult
After completing their journey west and spending a wet and wretched winter at the mouth of the
See Photo: a.
William Clark's 8th generation descendants Rick Holton, and
Anna Haala, 77, of Seattle, look on during the canoe reparation ceremony,
Saturday Sept. 24, 2011, at Fort Columbia, near Chinook, Wash. Back in 1806,
explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stole a canoe from native
Americans living on the Pacific Coast Clark 's descendants are
making amends to the Indian's descendants by having a 36-foot replica built for
them. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The Clatsop later became one of five tribes to form the
Chinook Indian Nation. It has long been a sore subject with the tribes in the Pacific
Northwest , who perceived the theft as a major insult.
Canoes were a sacred part of their culture and an important
mode of transportation.
The Chinook Indian Nation is not formally recognized by the U.S.
Federal recognition would make the tribe eligible for
economic assistance, land, housing grants and other government benefits.
"I cannot help but think, if one family can step
forward and right a wrong that has been committed against the Chinook nation
205 years later," Gardner
Holton learned of the theft while working at a Washington ,
D.C. Gardner
"It's been a wonderful experience. The Chinook people
totally accepted us," Holton said. "After 205 years, it was certainly
overdue."
Lewis and Clark stole a canoe from the Clatsop Indians who
kept them alive all winter
So they stole one from the Native Americans who had kept
them alive all winter.
It has long been a sore subject with Chinook Indians in the Pacific
Northwest , who perceived the theft as a major insult. Canoes were
a sacred part of their culture and an important mode of transportation.
More than 200 years later, William Clark's descendants will
make amends by presenting a 36-foot replica of the canoe to the Chinook Indian
Nation during a ceremony here Saturday.
"We talked about what happened 205 years ago, and we
believed that things could be restored if something like this were done,"
said Carlota Clark Holton of St. Louis , Mo.
"I think everyone acknowledges that it was wrong, and
we wanted to right a wrong," she said. "The family was very much
behind it."
The Lewis and Clark expedition arrived at the Columbia
River 's estuary in late 1805. They built a fortification outside
present-day Astoria Fort
Clatsop
Though they braved the previous winter in North
Dakota Pacific Coast
"The winds violent," a grumpy Clark
wrote. "Trees falling in every (direction), (whirl) winds, with gust of
rain, hail and thunder, this kind of weather lasted all day, certainly one of
the worst days that ever was."
The expedition couldn't find any elk and was running low on
tobacco and goods to trade with Native Americans.
The captains decided to head home that spring but found they
were also short on boats. So they took one from the Chinook.
The expedition then whitewashed the theft by saying the
tribe owed them for six stolen elk, a debt the Native Americans -- and
historians -- say was repaid by delivering three dogs to Fort
Clatsop
Historian James Ronda, an expert on the Corps of Discovery's
dealings with American Indians, said the theft was significant because it
violated the explorers' code of ethical conduct.
"The captains were abandoning a two-year tradition of
never stealing from the Indians," Ronda wrote in his book "Lewis and
Clark Among The Indians."
Ronda told The AP in a phone interview from Tulsa ,
Okla.
The expedition left Fort
Clatsop
Two hundred years later, Clark Holton was working at a Washington ,
D.C. Virginia
Some of Clark 's descendants and a few
friendly donors eventually stepped forward to pay for the canoe, which was
custom built in Veneta , Ore.
The Chinook Indian Nation is not formally recognized by the U.S.
Whatever happens with the Chinook's continued efforts for
recognition, the tribe is looking forward to the Saturday ceremony with Clark 's
descendants.
The canoe will be cleansed, blessed and named, Gardner
"Once it's named, then we'll take it down and put it in
the Columbia River ," Gardner
Klahooya, everyone! My name is Cliff Snider and I am the
honorary chief of the Chinook Indian Tribe.
My fourth great grandfather was Chief Concomly that met
Lewis and Clark in 1805. Well, I always say they discovered the Lewis and Clark
expedition at that particular time at the mouth of the Columbia
River . And he was the most famous Chinook Indian chief of all
time.
Arlie Neskahi: Today on Turtle
Island Storytellers, we join Cliff Snider, honorary Chief of the Chinook
Indian Tribe, who tells us ancient legends about the origins of the Chinook.
Off mic, he tells us how the Chinook peoples originally lived in the Pacific
Ocean . Every season, they would turn themselves into salmon and
come up the river, where their relatives, the Indians, would harvest them, eat
them, and then throw their bones back into the river. The salmon would then
swim back to sea where they would turn into humans again.
Snider: As Lewis and Clark came down the river, they found
the Watlas, the Wasukles, Skilliutes Cathlamets, the Wahkiakums, the Lower
Chinooks, and the Clatsops, and so at that particular time there were over
16,000 Chinook Indians living on the river. And actually, they didn’t live in
one camp like Sitting Bull with tipis and many tribes around him, but they
lived in little villages along the river at the mouth of every stream. And
there might be 40 in a village, 50 in a village.
And as everyone knows, the Chinook had one of the best
canoes in the world. And, in fact, they were so good, that when the white
man later built their clipper ships, they patterned the shape of their clipper
ships after the Chinook canoes. And they were the fastest ships in the world.
When Lewis and Clark came down the river in those logs that were hollowed out,
they were no match for the Chinooks.
I also have another famous relative and his name is Selowish
he was a chief at Skamokawa. And so actually my hereditary runs, my family
tree runs back to two different chiefs on the lower Columbia
And I have another famous relative who is Ilche, who is
Concomly’s favorite daughter. And her name was moon woman. First it was moon
girl and then moon woman. And her statue is along the Vancouver Columbia Vancouver
The story about her goes is that one day she said that the
white man would come, and the rivers would flow, and the red fish would come no
more. And this has happened now since we have put in all of our dams. And so
the prophecy came true.
And when the white man came with the disease, Ilche took
many of the tribe to the hills to escape the disease. And that is probably the
reason why we are still here today.
The Tribe now was recognized and we were all allotted on the
Quinault Reservation in the early 1930′s. And my mother was allotted, I was
allotted, and all my relatives were allotted. Had eighty acres and some even
more. So we were recognized by the United States Government at that time.
Sometimes, I am asked a question, where the Chinooks really
came from. We know they have been here over 10,000 years according to
carbon dating. And if you really want to know and put it into perspective,
that’s 8,000 years before Jesus Christ.
Old Man South Wind, long long ago, was traveling north along thePacific
Ocean and eventually neared the mouth of the Columbia
River . And there he met Giant Woman and told her he was hungry.
Giant Woman had no food, but she lent him a net and told him he could catch
fish in it.
Old Man South Wind, long long ago, was traveling north along the
Old Man South Wind headed to the great waters of the
Pacific. When he got there, he unfolded the net and he drug it along the
ocean floor until he caught a fish. It was not an ordinary fish, but
a small whale, which Old Man South Wind brought ashore and begun to cut. Giant
Woman, who was present at the scene, instructed him to slice the whale
lengthwise from head to tail. But Old Man South Wind was so famished that he
ignored Giant Woman, and because it was quicker, drew the knife over the arc of
the whale’s back from side to side.
Suddenly the fish turned into a monstrous bird. The bird
then rose into the air, flapping his wings so powerful that they shook the
earth. As he climbed, bird monster blotted out the sun. Soon Old Man South Wind
and Giant Woman saw that it was really Thunderbird. They were in awe of this
great bird as they watched it fly to the mouth of the Columbia River .
There atop Saddle Mountain
One day, when Thunderbird flew away, Giant Woman climbed
high to the bird’s nest. She mischievously cracked an egg, but it was bad and
she threw it down the mountain. She cracked another, and another, until she had
broken them all, and hurled them from the peak.
Each time the leg landed at the base of the mountain, it
became an Indian. This is how the first Chinook men, women and children came to
be.
Another story I’d like to talk to you about is on my Indian
button blanket given to me by Kathryn Harold Trow, one of the elders of the
tribe. The legend inscribed on my button blanket is this.
Once when the world was very young, Raven, Killer Whale,
Beaver, and Eagle decided to have a picnic. At this time in the world, things
were not as we know them now. There were no oceans or continents and nothing
familiar to us. But there was a very high mountain from which the gods could
watch how the world grew.
Eagle decided to have a picnic on top of the mountain. All
the creatures arrived, each bringing his own food. Everyone put his food in a
big pile with all the food that others had brought, everyone that is, except
Eagle. He arrived with no food in sight, just carrying a small basket under his
wing.
The others sat around and talked and laughed, but not Eagle.
He just sat quietly and every once in a while, when he thought he was not seen,
he dipped his beak into the basket and just as quietly withdrew. He said not a
word.
Now Raven, who is a very gay talker, enjoyed a joke, became
a little worried about Eagle and kept darting little glances out of the corner
of his eyes at Eagle. He soon saw that Eagle must have something very wonderful
in his basket, so good that he had to look at it from time to time to see if it
was still there. Raven became so worried that he just had to do something. So
he lured Eagle into putting down his basket and coming over to the main group.
Quick as a wink, Raven was over to Eagle’s basket and scooping it up and
putting it under his wing. He flew away with it.
And the basket was the first water in the world. As Raven
flew away with it, the water spilled out of his basket and fell to the dry
earth where it became ponds, river, seas, and oceans of the earth. That is how
water came to the earth.
Committed to Native American cultural sustainability,
multimedia
Education and race reconciliation, Wisdom of the Elders,
Inc. (Wisdom) records and preserves the oral history, cultural arts, language
concepts, and traditional ecological knowledge of exemplary American Indian
historians, cultural leaders and environmentalists in collaboration with arts
and cultural organizations and educational institutions. We especially seek to
correct misconceptions, end prejudice, bring health and wellness to Native
people, and demonstrate how Indian culture has and is continuing to enrich our
worlds.
Committed to Native American cultural sustainability,
multimedia Education and race reconciliation, Wisdom of the Elders, Inc.
(Wisdom) records and preserves the oral history, cultural arts, language
concepts, and traditional ecological knowledge of exemplary American Indian
historians, cultural leaders and environmentalists in collaboration with arts
and cultural organizations and educational institutions. We especially seek to
correct misconceptions, end prejudice, bring health and wellness to Native
people, and demonstrate how Indian culture has and is continuing to enrich our
worlds.
Today on Turtle Island Storytellers, we join Cliff
Snider, honorary Chief of the Chinook Indian Tribe, who tells us ancient
legends about the origins of the Chinook. Off mic, he tells us how the Chinook
peoples originally lived in the Pacific Ocean . Every
season, they would turn themselves into salmon and come up the river, where
their relatives, the Indians, would harvest them, eat them, and then throw
their bones back into the river. The salmon would then swim back to sea where
they would turn into humans again -
Snider: As Lewis and Clark came down the river, they found
the Watlas, the Wasukles, Skilliutes Cathlamets, the Wahkiakums, the Lower
Chinooks, and the Clatsops, and so at that particular time there were over
16,000 Chinook Indians living on the river. And actually, they didn’t live in
one camp like Sitting Bull with tipis and many tribes around him, but they
lived in little villages along the river at the mouth of every stream. And
there might be 40 in a village, 50 in a village.
And as everyone knows, the Chinook had one of the best
canoes in the world. And, in fact, they were so good, that when the white
man later built their clipper ships, they patterned the shape of their clipper
ships after the Chinook canoes. And they were the fastest ships in the world.
When Lewis and Clark came down the river in those logs that were hollowed out,
they were no match for the Chinooks.
I also have another famous relative and his name is Selowish
he was a chief at Skamokawa. And so actually my hereditary runs, my family
tree runs back to two different chiefs on the lower Columbia
And I have another famous relative who is Ilche, who is
Concomly’s favorite daughter. And her name was moon woman. First it was moon
girl and then moon woman. And her statue is along the Vancouver Columbia Vancouver
The story about her goes is that one day she said that the
white man would come, and the rivers would flow, and the red fish would come no
more. And this has happened now since we have put in all of our dams. And so
the prophecy came true.
And when the white man came with the disease, Ilche took
many of the tribe to the hills to escape the disease. And that is probably the
reason why we are still here today.
The Tribe now was recognized and we were all allotted on the
Quinault Reservation in the early 1930′s. And my mother was allotted, I was
allotted, and all my relatives were allotted. Had eighty acres and some even
more. So we were recognized by the United States Government at that time.
Sometimes, I am asked a question, where the Chinooks really
came from. We know they have been here over 10,000 years according to
carbon dating. And if you really want to know and put it into perspective,
that’s 8,000 years before Jesus Christ.
Old Man South Wind, long long ago, was traveling north along thePacific
Ocean and eventually neared the mouth of the Columbia
River . And there he met Giant Woman and told her he was hungry.
Giant Woman had no food, but she lent him a net and told him he could catch
fish in it.
Old Man South Wind, long long ago, was traveling north along the
Old Man South Wind headed to the great waters of the
Pacific. When he got there, he unfolded the net and he drug it along the
ocean floor until he caught a fish. It was not an ordinary fish, but a
small whale, which Old Man South Wind brought ashore and begun to cut. Giant
Woman, who was present at the scene, instructed him to slice the whale
lengthwise from head to tail. But Old Man South Wind was so famished that he
ignored Giant Woman, and because it was quicker, drew the knife over the arc of
the whale’s back from side to side.
Suddenly the fish turned into a monstrous bird. The bird
then rose into the air, flapping his wings so powerful that they shook the
earth. As he climbed, bird monster blotted out the sun. Soon Old Man South Wind
and Giant Woman saw that it was really Thunderbird. They were in awe of this
great bird as they watched it fly to the mouth of the Columbia River .
There atop Saddle Mountain
One day, when Thunderbird flew away, Giant Woman climbed
high to the bird’s nest. She mischievously cracked an egg, but it was bad and
she threw it down the mountain. She cracked another, and another, until she had
broken them all, and hurled them from the peak.
Each time the leg landed at the base of the mountain, it became
an Indian. This is how the first Chinook men, women and children came to be.
Another story I’d like to talk to you about is on my Indian
button blanket given to me by Kathryn Harold Trow, one of the elders of the
tribe. The legend inscribed on my button blanket is this.
Once when the world was very young, Raven, Killer Whale,
Beaver, and Eagle decided to have a picnic. At this time in the world, things
were not as we know them now. There were no oceans or continents and nothing
familiar to us. But there was a very high mountain from which the gods could
watch how the world grew.
Eagle decided to have a picnic on top of the mountain. All
the creatures arrived, each bringing his own food. Everyone put his food in a
big pile with all the food that others had brought, everyone that is, except
Eagle. He arrived with no food in sight, just carrying a small basket under his
wing.
The others sat around and talked and laughed, but not Eagle.
He just sat quietly and every once in a while, when he thought he was not seen,
he dipped his beak into the basket and just as quietly withdrew. He said not a
word.
Now Raven, who is a very gay talker, enjoyed a joke, became
a little worried about Eagle and kept darting little glances out of the corner
of his eyes at Eagle. He soon saw that Eagle must have something very wonderful
in his basket, so good that he had to look at it from time to time to see if it
was still there. Raven became so worried that he just had to do something. So
he lured Eagle into putting down his basket and coming over to the main group.
Quick as a wink, Raven was over to Eagle’s basket and scooping it up and
putting it under his wing. He flew away with it.
And the basket was the first water in the world. As Raven
flew away with it, the water spilled out of his basket and fell to the dry
earth where it became ponds, river, seas, and oceans of the earth. That is how
water came to the earth.
William Clark of Lewis and Clark 's
Descendants Make Up for Stolen Canoe
NBC NEWS
— It was a long time coming, but the descendants of
explorer William Clark have tried to make amends for a 205-year-old theft.
A descendant of the explorer in the Corps of Discovery
expedition that opened a land route to the West presented the Chinook Indian
Nation with a replica of a canoe that the corps stole in 1806.
Some of Clark 's descendants and a few
donors stepped forward to pay for the canoe, which was custom built in Veneta ,
Ore.
The five-hour ceremony on Saturday included songs, gift
exchanges and the maiden voyage of the replica canoe.
Ray Gardner, chairman of the Chinook Nation's tribal
council, said the return of the canoe is a "good place to begin
healing."
"It's nice to see a circle completed," Gardner
Major insult
After completing their journey west and spending a wet and wretched winter at the mouth of the
Rick Bowmer /AP
William Clark's 8th generation descendants Rick Holton, right,
and Anna Haala, 77, of Seattle, look on during the canoe reparation ceremony,
Saturday Sept. 24, 2011, at Fort Columbia, near Chinook, Wash. Back in 1806,
explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stole a canoe from native
Americans living on the Pacific Coast Clark 's descendants are
making amends to the Indian's descendants by having a 36-foot replica built for
them. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The Clatsop later became one of five tribes to form the
Chinook Indian Nation.
It has long been a sore subject with the tribes in the Pacific
Northwest , who perceived the theft as a major insult.
Canoes were a sacred part of their culture and an important
mode of transportation.
The Chinook Indian Nation is not formally recognized by the U.S.
Federal recognition would make the tribe eligible for
economic assistance, land, housing grants and other government benefits.
"I cannot help but think, if one family can step
forward and right a wrong that has been committed against the Chinook nation
205 years later," Gardner
Holton learned of the theft while working at a Washington ,
D.C. Gardner
"It's been a wonderful experience. The Chinook people
totally accepted us," Holton said. "After 205 years, it was certainly
overdue."
Lewis and Clark stole a canoe from the Clatsop Indians who
kept them alive all winter
So they stole one from the Native Americans who had kept
them alive all winter.
It has long been a sore subject with Chinook Indians in the Pacific
Northwest , who perceived the theft as a major insult. Canoes were
a sacred part of their culture and an important mode of transportation.
More than 200 years later, William Clark's descendants will
make amends by presenting a 36-foot replica of the canoe to the Chinook Indian
Nation during a ceremony here Saturday.
"We talked about what happened 205 years ago, and we
believed that things could be restored if something like this were done,"
said Carlota Clark Holton of St. Louis , Mo.
"I think everyone acknowledges that it was wrong, and
we wanted to right a wrong," she said. "The family was very much
behind it."
The Lewis and Clark expedition arrived at the Columbia
River 's estuary in late 1805. They built a fortification outside
present-day Astoria Fort
Clatsop
Though they braved the previous winter in North
Dakota Pacific Coast
"The winds violent," a grumpy Clark
wrote. "Trees falling in every (direction), (whirl) winds, with gust of
rain, hail and thunder, this kind of weather lasted all day, certainly one of
the worst days that ever was."
The expedition couldn't find any elk and was running low on
tobacco and goods to trade with Native Americans.
The captains decided to head home that spring but found they
were also short on boats. So they took one from the Chinook.
The expedition then whitewashed the theft by saying the
tribe owed them for six stolen elk, a debt the Native Americans -- and
historians -- say was repaid by delivering three dogs to Fort
Clatsop
Historian James Ronda, an expert on the Corps of Discovery's
dealings with American Indians, said the theft was significant because it
violated the explorers' code of ethical conduct.
"The captains were abandoning a two-year tradition of
never stealing from the Indians," Ronda wrote in his book "Lewis and
Clark Among The Indians."
Ronda told The AP in a phone interview from Tulsa ,
Okla.
The expedition left Fort
Clatsop
Two hundred years later, Clark Holton was working at a Washington ,
D.C. Virginia
Some of Clark 's descendants and a few
friendly donors eventually stepped forward to pay for the canoe, which was
custom built in Veneta , Ore.
JENNI MONET:
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated J.
Christopher Stevens was 1/8th Chinook, when he was 1/16th along with certain
family details.
When President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations
General Assembly in New York Libya
“Chris Stevens embodied the best of America
Stevens was among four Americans who lost their lives on the
evening of September 11th after the U.S. Consulate was attacked in Benghazi ,
Libya
Family and friends mourning Stevens’ death have noted the
small irony and overwhelming tragedy tied to his tireless work to support a
free Libya
While the world has learned in greater detail about the
ambassador’s life and work, what also surfaced in the days following his
passing was the little-known fact thatStevens was
also a direct descendent to a great Chinook Indian chief who
reigned throughout the late 18th and early 19thcenturies. Chief Comcomly, also
spelled Concomly, according to cemetery records, was
principle chief of the Chinook Confederacy that extended along the Pacific
coastline in what is present-day Oregon Washington State
The chief had a daughter by the name of Elvamox, also known
as Marianne. She married a Scottish fur trader who later joined the Astor
Expedition—the ambitious trade war financed by millionaire John
Jacob Astor and led by Lewis and Clark in the early 19th century. When the
voyage made its way to the mouth of the Columbia River ,
Comcomly helped the Americans fight the British during the War of 1812.
Elvamox’s husband would never return. So, she remarried,
this time to Etienne Alexis Aubichon, a French fur trader. Mary Commanday,
Stevens’ 75-year-old mother, says relations with white explorers impacted the
way of life for her Chinook ancestors. “The interesting thing about this story
to me is that Elvamox, considered a privileged woman in Chinook society—she
somehow saw the handwriting on the wall and realized that the future lay with
these white men who were coming out,” Commanday said.
According to Stevens’ mother, formerly Mary J. Floris,
Elvamox is her great-great-great grandmother. Their shared family legacy lives
on in the pages of a book that was penned by Commanday’s mother, Beryl Marjory
Brown Floris, in 1980. Entitled, Elvamox:
Memories of a Pacific Northwest Family, the bound manuscript was
never commercially distributed, despite its 200 copies that ultimately went to
print. Rather, the book has become a source of prideful representation of a
family lineage Commanday says helped shape her own identity along with that of
the young Stevens and his two siblings, Anne and Thomas. “There’s always been
kind of a close feeling although we haven’t lived up there [in Washington
State Oakland , California
Today, there is a cemetery in the coastal community of Ilwaco ,
Washington
In August, one month before Stevens’ death, Commanday and
her 50-year-old daughter Anne visited the cemetery. It’s where, in 1979,
Commanday said Stevens, then 19-years-old, helped spread and preserve the ashes
of his grandmother Floris. She was the author of the book that has chronicled
the stories of the family’s rich Chinook heritage. “Chris went with my dad and
took my mother’s ashes up there and took care of the whole burial in Ilwaco
because he was very much a part of that whole process,” said Commanday.
During their recent visit to Ilwaco, Commanday said she and
her daughter lunched with their relative, Charlotte Killien, the daughter of
Charlotte Davis, a twin of the late historian and Chinook elder, Catherine
Troeh. Commanday was second cousins with Davis and Troeh who have walked on in
recent years. Both of the sisters were well known throughout Pacific County,
the region in which Ilwaco is situated. Chinook tribal leaders say the twins
were well skilled in crafting traditional button blankets and straw
hats—customary regalia that have long been used among the Chinook people over
the generations.
Yet, much of Stevens’ and Commanday’s Chinook heritage is
rooted in a family bloodline that was seemingly destined for integration into
white society. As Commanday put it, “There was very little connection with the
Indian population in these generations because they had intermarried with the
French, and as you know, there was a great amount of prejudice of non-Caucasian
people in that time.”
Even so, there are places in Ilwaco that stand as a
testament to Stevens’ forebears, including the 19th century home built by
Commanday’s great grandfather, Frederick Colbert, the husband of Catherine
Petit Colbert, Chief Comcomly’s great-granddaughter. The two-story Victorian
house, known as the Colbert House, was passed down through three generations of
Commanday’s matriarchal ancestors until it was enlisted in the state of Washington
An endearing chuckle escapes from Commanday upon recalling a
certain story about the home. After Catherine inherited the house from her
mother, Amelia Aubichon Petit, she was fixated on permanently moving
the kitchen stove. As Commanday recounts, Catherine was an “able woman”
who took to the task all on her own, including building a new chimney that
would scale through two stories and an attic before reaching the roof. But
Commanday says Catherine caved into the ways of the 19th century and its
views on women in society. “You know it wasn’t ladylike to be climbing around,
seen on the roof, finishing your own chimney,” Commanday laughed. “So, she
hired somebody to go out on the roof to finish it even though she was perfectly
able to do it herself.”
While Commanday’s and Stevens’ family stories remain vibrant
in the southern Washington hamlet of Ilwaco, it’s about 30 miles north
in the community of Bay Center — home of the Chinook Indian Nation
headquarters — where Chairman of the tribe, Ray Gardner looks on with pride.
“I’m very proud to say [Commanday’s family] are from Chinook people and that
they promote that lineage within themselves, even making sure their children
are enrolled and keeping their traditions and cultures alive.”
According to Commanday, Stevens was a 1/16th enrolled
citizen of the Chinook Indian Nation; she is listed as an 1/8th. All three of
her children are members of the tribe that today represents a citizenry of an
estimated 3,000 people. Yet, the Chinook are not considered a federally
recognized Indian Nation—a status people like Gardner have doggedly been
fighting to obtain over the years.
Like many tribes across North America, the Chinook people
lost their lands to white encroachment in the 19th and 20thcenturies. By
the 1950’s the Chinook Nation dissolved under federal termination policies
designed to assimilate Native Peoples into white society. In 2001, the U.S.
Department of the Interior initially granted the tribe federal recognition. Yet,
it’s unclear why this status was overturned under George W. Bush’s
administration in 2002. Since then, Gardner and other tribal leaders have been
engaged in regaining their formal recognition as a sovereign tribal
government—a status that would open the doors to a host of federal Indian
entitlement programs linked to trust lands, low to no-cost
healthcare, education benefits, housing assistance, and gaming
opportunities.
In an editorial published
in Ilwaco’s local newspaper, the Chinook Observer, it described the
tribe’s federal government wrangling as “unjust” and brought similar comparison
to Stevens’ untimely death. “The innocent suffer while the guilty often go
free,” the editorial read. “Will it be any different this time?”
Despite these correlations that have been drawn in the
aftermath of Stevens’ death, Gardner
In an email, Commanday echoed similar sentiments. “Someone
said to me that Comcomly was bridging the space between two cultures in his
kind reception and aid to Lewis & Clark, just as my Chris was doing in his
work in the Middle East,” she wrote. “I thought that was an interesting idea,
but later remembered that the Chinook's reward for the Chinooks' kindness,
ultimately, was to be rounded up off their property.”
LINKS:
The Chinook Indian Nation is not formally recognized by the U.S.
Whatever happens with the Chinook's continued efforts for
recognition, the tribe is looking forward to the Saturday ceremony with Clark 's
descendants.
The canoe will be cleansed, blessed and named, Gardner
"Once it's named, then we'll take it down and put it in
the Columbia River ," Gardner
Klahooya, everyone! My name is Cliff Snider and I am the
honorary chief of the Chinook Indian Tribe.
My fourth great grandfather was Chief Concomly that met
Lewis and Clark in 1805.
Well, I always say they discovered the Lewis and Clark
expedition at that particular time at the mouth of the Columbia
River . And he was the most famous Chinook Indian chief of all
time.
http://www.americanindianreport.com/wordpress/2012/09/chinook-tribe-mourns-ambassador-chris-stevens/
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/ambassador-j.-christopher-stevens%E2%80%99-motherAmbassador
J. Christopher Stevens’ Mother Spells Out Family Legacy
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