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Reviews
Lelooska: The Life of a Northwest Coast Artist
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By Chris Friday
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University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2003. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 304 pages. $24.95 paper.
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Reviewed by Bill Mercer
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
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| Don (Lelooska) Smith was one of the most recognized and beloved Native Americans living in the Pacific Northwest during the second half of the twentieth century. He was a skilled artist and master storyteller who devoted his life to learning about Native American cultures and then sharing that knowledge through performances at his family's compound in Ariel, Washington. A huge man with a commanding presence, Lelooska delighted in sharing Kwakiutl culture with children and adults alike through songs, dances, and stories that were dramatically enhanced by the carved masks and ceremonial regalia that he and his family created. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, the shows attracted as many as thirty thousand people each year; and for many in the audience, the performances were their only exposure to the rich cultural traditions of Native American life on the Northwest Coast. |
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One enthralled fan of Lelooska was Chris Friday, a longtime family friend and professor of history and director of the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Over the course of several years before Lelooska's death in 1996, Friday began a series of interviews that both hoped would provide a narrative of the life of this extraordinary man. The original intent was simply to record the interviews and to place them in an archive where Lelooska's family and friends could access them. Ultimately, Friday and Lelooska decided to publish the transcripts in this volume as what the author refers to as a "collaboration" between the two men in an effort to describe Lelooska's life as both "exceptional and emblematic" in the context of twentieth-century Native American history. |
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Lelooska: Life of a Northwest Coast Artist is accessible to a wide range of readers. Chapters deal with general topics or family members rather than being organized into strictly chronological descriptions of the major events in Lelooska's life. In this respect, the book is much more an oral memoir than an analytical biography. Each chapter consists of a series of recollections, often only loosely related, about a particular person or theme that perfectly captures the spirit of a master storyteller such as Lelooska. As author, Friday provides an introduction that is intended to provide an intellectual framework for the ensuing chapters. He contends that Lelooska's life was not unlike those of many other twentieth-century Native Americans who were compelled to create an identity outside of the tribal context in the face of oppressive government policies and societal pressures that discouraged the expression of Native American culture. Friday attempts to support this thesis with copious footnotes and endnotes as well as a brief introduction to each chapter. Unfortunately, the main introduction and chapter introductions seldom relate directly to the subsequent stories, thereby creating a dissonance that does not sustain the thesis and only serves to interrupt the narratives. |
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As entertaining as the stories are, there is little in the way of personal introspection and nothing of the emotional highs and lows of human life. For example, Lelooska barely acknowledges the controversy surrounding his adoption by James (Jimmy) Sewid's family into Kwakiutl society by mentioning that "... they have their traditional enemies, which, I'm proud to say, are my enemies too!" (p. 208). It is as if Lelooska were acutely aware of the public persona that he had created for himself and was unwilling, or unable, to share his innermost feelings. Friday, for his part, does not pursue the subject and provides no analysis of the controversy. Throughout the interview process, he allows Lelooska to direct the course of the conversations instead of attempting to have him fully reveal himself. Undoubtedly, this book will be of interest to the legions of Lelooska fans who have fond memories of attending performances at the family's compound. Ultimately, however, its primary value is as a collection of personal recollections rather than as an essential reference in the field of Native American studies. |
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