Shoalwater Bay
The Shoalwater Bay Tribe is an American Indian tribe living in western Washington state . He belongs to the Chinook tribal group and thus to the coastal Salish . His 2.693 km² reservation, the Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation , had exactly 70 inhabitants in the year 2000 and is located west of Tokeland in Pacific County on the shores of Willapa Bay .
The Shoalwater Bay speak a dialect of southwestern coastal Salish , the Chinook .
history
According to legend, Shoalwater Bay came in a canoe from a distant, very cold country. Like all coastal salish , Shoalwater Bay conducted seasonal migrations depending on salmon , game, and vegetation cycles. This meant that permanent houses, known as plank houses, were only moved into in winter.
With their canoes they traded in the Puget Sound and up to the Fraser River , at the same time they controlled trade with the inland as part of the Chinook . But through this trade they also brought in European diseases such as smallpox .
Americans, reservation, chief dynasty
Chief George A. Charley kept a knife that is said to have been passed down his lineage since 1792. This knife is said to have been given to one of his ancestors by the American navigator Robert Gray .
The reserve (reservation) was instruction of President Andrew Johnson built on 22 September. 1866 It was intended for 30 to 40 families on Willapa (now Shoalwater) Bay. Around 1879 they spoke the dialect of the Lower Chehalis , which belong to the southwestern coastal Salish, possibly speaking an Athapaskan language , namely Kwalhioqua, before the epidemics that resulted in the Lower Chehalis immigrating to their area . Some of the residents of the Shoalwater Reservation were from the Quinault Reservation. This is characteristic of the situation in Washington, because the close family ties meant that the tribal boundaries were extremely blurred.
The reservations were supposed to allow the Indians to fish and hunt, but the increasing settlement pressure repeatedly forced house groups to take up residence in other places - today this is often a hurdle for recognition as a tribe, which is a criterion for continuity as an association.
With few other employment opportunities within the reserve, many worked in sawmills and oyster farms in Willapa Bay.
Their chief was Lighthouse Charley Ma-tote (or Toke), son of chief Ma-tote. He was followed by his son George A. Charley in office from 1889 to 1935. He was one of the last Indians in the northwest whose head had traditionally been flattened as a child, indicating his lineage. He drowned fishing in the Quinault River at the age of 70; he was buried in Georgetown . He was followed by his son Roland. His children Mitchell, Lizzie, Stanley, Nina, and Irene also survived.
George A. Charley and his wife Caroline Matil (Matell) had twelve children. They lived temporarily in Taholah, but they still had a house on the reservation. There part of the land was rededicated as a cemetery, although initially no markings were put up. Later the names and dates of life were registered. The family, who had long lived in Bay Center , moved to Georgetown in the 1920s.
Roland Charley and his wife Catherine McCloud had seven children: Myrtle, Edwin (known as Audy), Hazel, Thelma, Bernice, Earl, and Christine. Roland followed his father, George Charley. Daughter Hazel Charley McKenney, born in Bay Center in 1916, moved with the family to the reservation and attended school in Tokeland. She then attended an Indian High School in Oregon from 1931 to 1936 . In 1938 she married Harry Baker, her second marriage was Fred McKenney. The chief has now been elected by the reservation residents. These chiefs were Myrtle Charley Landry, Dennis Baker, Earl Davis, and Herbert Whitish.
Recognition and land rights
The tribe opposed the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 but adopted a constitution. It was recognized as a tribe on May 22, 1971. Shortly thereafter, the election of a Shoalwater Bay tribal council took place. In 1984 they accepted $ 1 million for relinquishing 8 acres of land in Tokeland, land that had been granted to a private owner in 1872.
Current situation
Shoalwater Bay has suffered a terrifying number of miscarriages since 1992 and the 200-soul tribe fears for its future. Between 1988 and 1992, ten out of nineteen pregnancies ended in miscarriage, and that number is still increasing. In 2000, the miscarriage rate was 50 out of 67 including stillbirths, molar pregnancies, or babies who died before the age of one. Since 1997, only one in 16 pregnant women has given birth to a healthy baby. The causes are unknown. Government agencies first looked at the case in 1994 and assisted the tribe by setting up a clinic. In addition, the EPA ( Environmental Protection Agency ) tested the soil near the reservation and found high levels of pesticides, but they could not identify the environmental toxins as the cause of the miscarriages.
Years later, the CDC ( Center for Disease Control ) confirmed the high rate of miscarriages in the Shoalwater Reservation and also suspected a threat to neighboring whites.
Tribe chairman Herbert "Ike" Whitish asked Congress in April 2000 to grant him $ 600,000 in assistance. The tribe decided to take preventive measures themselves.
Today the tribe operates the Shoalwater Bay Bingo and Casino .
The children of Shoalwater Bay continue to attend school in Ocosta, outside the reserve.
See also
literature
- Joseph C. Dupris, Kathleen S. Hill, William H. Rodgers, Jr .: The Si'lailo way: Indians, salmon, and law on the Columbia River , Durham: Carolina Academic Press 2006.
- Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 191f.
- Wayne Suttles (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 7: Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1990. ISBN 0-87474-187-4
Web links
Remarks
- ^ According to the 2000/01 census: [1] .
- ^ Robert H. Ruby, John A. Brown: The Chinook Indians: Traders of the Lower Columbia River , University of Oklahoma Press 1976, ill. Between pp. 80 and 81.
- ↑ The Sou'wester of the Pacific County Historical Society and Museum Summer 1999, Vol. XXXIV no. 2, p. 23