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Reviews
OREGON INDIANS: VOICES FROM TWO CENTURIES
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edited by Stephen Dow Beckham
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| Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2006. Illustrations, photographs, bibliography, index. 608 pages. $45.00 cloth.
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| Oregon Indians: Voices from Two Centuries is well researched. Editor Stephen Dow Beckham has brought together obscure materials that are rich with firsthand accounts of early explorers and testimonies of Oregon Indians who are attempting to preserve their lifeways. My feelings were mixed regarding the book. It was at times intriguing and informative and at other times depressing and disgusting. It also reflects considerably more on western than eastern Oregon history, which I expected from this editor. |
1
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Irony runs deep in this book. All early accounts of Native contacts indicate a willingness to trade with and extend friendship to the new people. Yet, one hundred years later, open season was declared on so-called rogue Indians. Only a few non-Indians protested the hate-filled extermination of once friendly people. Who were the real rogues? Here is a quote attributed to Jeff Riddle, regarding the conduct of Captain Jack, chief of the Modoc people: "The Modocs never harmed one child or woman since Capt. Jack became a chief. Major Jackson's soldiers shot down women and children in Jack's village. Mind, kind reader, these men that shot the squaws and children were white men, government soldiers, supposed to be civilized. Jack, a born savage, would not allow his men to do such a coward's work, as he called it" (p. 287). |
2
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In another section, the record of a council meeting gives readers a glimpse of the emotion felt by Indians of the Alsea sub-agency, who were trying to maintain what little they had: "Long ago Gen. [Joel] Palmer made a treaty with us which was never carried out. The whites do not lie to each other. If they owe each other they pay. Why did they not pay us as they agreed when we made the treaty. [sic] I do not want them to make any more promises of what they will do if we will leave our country. Our chief who helped make the treaty died and got nothing from Washington. I do not want to give up my country like that any more" (p. 267). |
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This book was difficult for me to read. The history of oppression of Native people is well documented and I have read plenty of accounts of injustice. I have even experienced them firsthand. This book opens new wounds and digs very deep into the murderous intention of early settlers of Oregon, whose policy of killing Indians was overt. |
4
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The text's proofreader had a tough job and missed quite a few typos, which were often hidden among the non-standard English used in quotations. I found missing words and misspellings throughout. In one case, the Warm Springs Casino is misnamed (p. 486). It is the Indian Head Casino, named after a prominent rock nearby. A critical mistake was the omission of all the maps that were referred to in the text. Their mention piqued my interest and their exclusion left me wondering what I missed. The maps could have provided good context for readers' understanding and many should have been included. An article on lifting the prohibition on interracial marriage in Oregon indicated that my "white" mother married my "Indian" father one month after the prohibition ended. This I had not known. |
5
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The final two articles missed some very important points concerning Kennewick Man. Those selections would have been much more useful if the author had included material written by the only Umatilla tribal member trained as a professional archeologist. Kennewick Man has usually been discussed in the context of science versus religion, with little consideration of laws governing federal agencies responsible for managing cultural resources within a National Register Archeological District. Most of those laws were ignored in the Kennewick Man case. |
6
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A historian can view the past dispassionately in the interest of representing it as accurately as possible. This book cries out for an opinion to be formed and a course of action to be taken in order to right horrible injustices. Clearly, the author is sympathetic in his presentation of Indian history. This book can help bring a better understanding of Oregon history to non-Indians, and I highly recommend it for that purpose. |
7
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| David M. Liberty
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| StreamNet Library, Portland, Oregon |
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