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Reviews
PITCH WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES: ORAL TRADITIONS OF COQUELLE THOMPSON, UPPER COQUILLE ATHABASKAN INDIAN
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by William Seaburg
collected by Elizabeth D. Jacobs
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| University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 309 pages. $39.95 cloth. |
| In this book, William Seaburg presents both history and biographies of previous ethno-linguists in Oregon, as well as how his own work intersected with that of Elizabeth Derr Jacobs during the 1970s. Seaburg begins with a biographical sketch of Coquelle Thompson and then offers a narrative interview with Jacobs, providing details of her life with Melville Jacobs. Seaburg then begins analyzing the work of the Jacobses and John Peabody Harrington, all of whom worked with Thompson. Thereafter is supplied a standard ethnological "cultural sketch" of the Coquille Indians, discussions of various styles of presenting oral histories, and an analysis of problems with recording medium — including examples from the interactions between Harrington and Jack Marr (p. 31). One story, "Pitch Woman," is completely analyzed, and the bulk of the book contains presentations of forty-six other stories from Thompson and other Native storytellers, some never before published. |
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This scholarly work is well placed within the canon of work on Oregon Indians, Northwest Coast ethnohistory, and Native oral histories in general. Seaburg employs an easy style that avoids heavy scholarly jargon while using linguistic terms appropriately in some sections. One issue to note immediately is that most of the sources of the "cultural sketch" are over seventy years old. In addition, there are no references to contemporary Coquille Native interpretations of their own culture and society. Therefore, the sketch presented is dubiously accurate in a way similar to many early ethnological narratives, which were written without regard to the perspectives of the Native peoples they sought to represent. |
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This book will become an essential volume and reference work to add to any library, personal or public, of Northwest Coast Indigenous anthropology or ethnohistory. Tribal scholars will appreciate its references to other similar oral histories throughout Oregon, Washington, and California. Because the oral histories are all presented in English, there will be a wide audience of folklorists, ethno-poetics, and scholars of other disciplines. Linguists may seek the book, as there are rare uses of the Coquille language. Pitch Woman will serve as a companion volume to Coquelle Thompson, Athabaskan Witness: A Cultural Biography (2002), coauthored by Seaburg and Lionel Youst. |
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The quality of scholarship is appropriately within the confines of American Anthropology traditions. Seaburg references and supports his assertions well. There are, however, analytical areas that Seaburg does not venture into, including those of Native perspective and Native interpretation. Seaburg employs a classic anthropological style of the interpretation of Native culture and oral history through an anthropological lens. |
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This book would benefit greatly from the addition of contemporary Native interpretations of the stories. This has been a trend of the past few decades in anthropological and ethno-historical scholarship and would enliven the stories within their particular cultural contexts. It is difficult to conceive of any major ethnographic study that would not employ this protocol, because it establishes an additional layer of legitimacy and understanding in the interpretation of Native oral histories. There are a number of Native scholars within the disciplines that would be able to satisfy the vital need for Native interpretation. Two referenced in the bibliography — Loren Bommelyn and Patty Whereat — are both Native linguists from Southwestern Oregon and Northern California, specialists in Athabaskan, and published linguists. |
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Seaburg does offer the advice that "Folklorists and Anthropologists ought to take full advantage of this wealth of native interpretation and evaluation" at the end of the book (p. 274). This advice is an afterthought, however, as there is very little Native interpretation offered regarding Thompson's stories. Regardless, it seems oddly appropriate that Native interpretation is not offered, as this provides space for Native scholars to work on their own research of these subjects within or outside of the confines of anthropological or ethno-linguistic methods. |
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Seaburg seemingly presents the material of the book in homage to the great storyteller Coquelle Thompson and the ethnographic work of Elizabeth and Melville Jacobs. Seaburg presents his arguments for the book in the forward, where the main idea appears to be to approach the meaning of the oral histories as closely as possible in English language and through non-Native scholarly interpretation. |
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An additional argument for the book, which is not readily apparent but is emphasized through the many publications by Seaburg, is the second-generation scholarly study of the work of prominent ethno-linguists. Beginning with his 1994 University Of Washington dissertation, "Collecting Culture: the practice and ideology of salvage ethnography in western Oregon, 1877–1942," Seaburg has regularly published out of this document, expanding upon the original arguments and critical analyses he presented then. As part of this research, Seaburg worked with Elizabeth Jacobs in the 1970s and studied the work and methods of most other prominent Oregon scholars. His expertise on Jacobs's published and unpublished texts, as well as on the methods she used, is well presented in the dissertation. Seaburg's multilayered research history allows him to create a book with ethnographic depth that embodies his notion of it being "the first substantial collection of southwestern Oregon Athabaskan stories to be published" (p. 2). In words of thankfulness from the Athabaskan language, which honors Coquelle Thompson and those who have studied his language and histories, Hum-chi. [I offer the above as an appropriate salutation from Native person to another. I hope it will be accepted in that way.] |
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| David G. Lewis
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| Grand Ronde, Oregon |
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