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Reviews
TAKHOMA: ETHNOGRAPHY OF MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK
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by Allan H. Smith
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| Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2006. Illustrations, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 182 pages, $22.95 paper. |
| In 1963, Washington State University anthropologist Allan H. Smith (1913–1999) was commissioned to study and report on the aboriginal use of the area encompassed by the Mount Rainier National Park (MRNP). In under a month, Smith managed to review the relevant literature and to interview about fifteen informants born before 1963 and living on the Yakama Reservation near Yakima, as well as a handful of Natives living on the Nisqually Reservation near Olympia. |
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Takhoma: Ethnography of Mount Rainier National Park is an edited version of Smith's 1964 report, supplemented with commentaries by cultural anthropologist Barbara Lane (University of Victoria, Canada), archaeologist Richard Daugherty (emeritus professor of the University of Washington), and MRNP archaeologist Greg Burchard. After those interesting historical notes and updates, the bulk of the book is composed of seven chapters, which are well-organized but of very different lengths, reflecting the relative emphases of Smith's findings. |
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Chapter 1, the introduction, is a twenty-page review of the geography and ecology of the MRNP (including the useful identification of twenty-seven important passes and alpine meadows), an overview of Smith's research design, and an introduction to place-names and tribal boundaries. Chapter 2, "Native Topynomy," is a five-page discussion of Native place-names. That discussion clearly shows that most local groups identified Mt. Rainier as some variety of the phonetic 'ta(k)-o-mah', meaning, roughly, 'mountain' or 'the mountain,' which Stevens determined was "used precisely as we use the term 'mount'." (p. 25). |
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Chapter 3, "Tribal Identity and Boundaries," is one of the book's two hearts, comprising nearly half its length, detailing in nearly seventy pages such esoteric (but necessary) issues as "Problems in Boundary Definition," "The Concept of Boundary in Mountain Areas," and "Tribal Boundary Changes Through Time." Each of these issues is a well-known and fearsome hydra for ethnographic researchers and others working to project historic land-use patterns into the abyss of the pre-contact period. Having said this, Smith makes convincing arguments that his informants provided useful information on aboriginal land use. The chapter is very technical and goes into great detail; it is not for general readers. Figure 3.4 is a useful visual summary of the regions of the MRNP claimed by the five main historic-era groups concerned — the Muckleshoot, Yakama, Taidnapam, Nisqually, and Puyallup. |
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Beginning with Chapter 4, "Village Sites and Structure," Smith reveals what his informants knew about specific Native uses of the MRNP region. Because most use was related to limited-term activities such as hunting or vision quests, permanent villages were essentially absent and substantial structures were also reportedly few (most were on the order of drying racks, or temporary sweat-lodges), the chapter is less than ten pages long. |
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Chapter 5, "Economic and Other Uses," is the second heart of the book, a fifty-page treatment of the great variety of short-term activities that were historically carried out within today's MRNP's boundaries, dominated by hunting (deer, elk, bear, some birds, and marmots), meat-smoking, and gathering all manner of seasonally-specific resources (mainly berries). But, importantly, other activities took people into the mountain environment and even above treeline, including vision quests, trade voyages through various passes, and the collection of a wide variety of plants for medicines, basketry, and other purposes. A graphic in the concluding chapter nicely summarizes late-summer resources by altitude, showing that as Natives went higher into the mountains, they encountered first bear and huckleberries, then mountain goats, and, finally, marmots. More detailed summaries would be useful, and I found myself sketching them in the margins as I read. One activity, interesting by omission, is quarrying. Although traces of stone-quarrying activity were found in the MRNP in the late 1980s, such activity was not mentioned by Smith's informants. Smith's research led him to suggest that most activity took place "near ... huckleberry fields between 3,000 and 5,500 feet in elevation" (p. 149). In an update, the editors note that this prediction was accurate; since the time of the survey, nearly 100 prehistoric sites have been documented in the specified areas. |
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Chapter 6, "Trails, Travel, and Trade," is another brief summary of findings, this time focusing on Smith's repeated indications of the native use of certain passes in the MRNP area. Many of these passes are the same as those used by hikers today. In Chapter 7, "Conclusion," Smith nicely summarizes his findings, indicating that all native groups near Mount Rainier claimed and used parts of the landscape that are now encompassed by the MRNP. |
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In sum, Takhoma is a useful resource for professional and avocational researchers — and should be on the bookshelf of any MRNP researcher — but is too technical for general reading. If a popular guide to Native uses of the MRNP area does not exist, Smith's book would be an excellent guide to producing one. |
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| Cameron M. Smith
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| Portland State University |
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