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Reviews
Changing Landscapes: "Sustaining Traditions" Proceedings of the Fifth and Sixth Annual Coquille Cultural Preservation Conferences
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Edited by Donald B. Ivy and R. Scott Byram
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Coquille Indian Tribe, North Bend, Ore., 2002. Illustrations, photographs, maps, bibliography. 200 pages. $25.00 paper.
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Reviewed by David V. Ellis
Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Portland, Oregon
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At a time when the media portray controversies such as those surrounding
Kennewick Man as clashes of irreconcilable worldviews, Changing
Landscapes: "Sustaining Traditions" provides good evidence that
anthropologists and Native Americans can work together. Since 1997,
the Coquille Indian Tribe has hosted the Coquille Cultural Preservation
Conference and published three collections of papers from the conferences.
This is the third volume in the series, all entitled Changing
Landscapes, and it offers a selection of papers from the 2001
and 2002 conferences.
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Changing Landscapes: "Sustaining Traditions" includes one poem and eleven papers written by Coquille Indians, members of other tribes, and non-Indian scholars. The contributions are a diverse mix, treating traditional stories, ceremonies, tool-making, insights from historical Indian correspondence, the natural history of sea otters, Coquille use of resources, reconstructions of cultural geography, the pre-contact and early contact environment of the Alsea Valley, and the history of the word Coquille. Beneath their eclectic character is a common theme of maintaining traditions and recovering forgotten history. |
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The Indian and non-Indian authors provide an excellent balance to the volume. George Wasson — a Coquille Tribal member who holds a Ph.D. in anthropology — recounts the engaging tale "Coyote and the Strawberries." Honoring the Coquille tradition that such stories can be told and discussed only in the winter, I can only urge the reader to enjoy this story and the comments offered afterward by Wasson and Barre Toelken, a professor of folklore studies at Utah State University. Patty Whereat of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians and David Lewis of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde offer examples of how forgotten anthropological and historical records can help recover traditional legends and shed light on early reservation life. Coquille Tribal member Jason Younker discusses how the potlatch tradition was quietly sustained by individual tribal members despite official suppression through the late 1800s and early 1900s and is now experiencing a public revival. David Brainard of the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians writes of his personal experiences in replicating traditional tools. |
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The articles by the non-Indian researchers follow the articles by tribal authors. An article by David Hatch, a Siletz Tribal member, and a joint paper by Marguerite Forest of the University of Wisconsin and Donald Ivy of the Coquille Tribe mark this transition with complementary discussions of the biological evolution of the Pacific Northwest sea otter and its extinction in historical times. Hatch's discussion is especially poignant in his insights on how the overhunting of the otter adversely affected coastal ecosystems and on the challenges facing recent efforts to reestablish otter populations. |
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The four articles by non-Indian authors focus primarily on the relationships between Native populations and their natural environments. Roberta Hall discusses how archaeological data and oral histories can offer insights on traditional use of sea mammals, shellfish, and birds. Using historical accounts, Bob Zybach reconstructs the environment of the Alsea Valley at the time of Euro-American settlement. His article is an important contribution to the growing body of work on the active management of landscapes by Native peoples, dispelling the myth that non-Indian settlers encountered a pristine "wilderness." Mark Tveskov approaches the use of the landscape from a social perspective, examining how social differences among the Coos and Coquille people shaped how they settled on the land. |
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Finally, Scott Byram pursues the origin of the name Coquille and its pronunciation. He traces the evolution of the name for the river from Coquell (pronounced "kå-kwel" and derived from the Chinook jargon word for lamprey) to Coquille (pronounced kå-keel"), with its supposed origin in the French word for shell. |
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The authors and editors of the volume are to be lauded for preparing papers that are both informative and readable. Only a few of the more scholarly articles are occasionally burdened by anthropological terms that might challenge the lay reader. Very effective use has been made of maps, photographs, drawings, and other illustrations. |
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Changing Landscapes: "Sustaining Traditions" demonstrates not only that Indian and non-Indian scholars have interests in common but that their different perspectives and approaches are complementary. This notable example of collaborative research can serve as a model for building relationships among those who are working toward a better understanding of past and present Native life in the Pacific Northwest. |
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