Kalmath River Indian woman, Lucy Tompson, decided to tell her own story of her and her people. She wanted her people to remember how they lived as true Kalmath. Her people’s way of life was diminishing, and she feared their ways would be forgotten. This title, To The American Indian, was first published in 1916. It received the American Book Award in 1992. I bought the republished edition of August 2019.
Thompson describes in detail the beginnings of her people and the consequences of contact with white people. The main contact she describes came via the owner and subsequent owners of the general store along the Kalmath River. The attitude and disposition of the owner mattered a great deal. Some treated her tribe with respect and didn’t sell alcohol, while others who did the opposite caused tension and division among the tribes, sometimes causing violence and overall, the degradation of her people’s customs.
She describes the three tiers of marriage within her people from the high born to lower castes. The value of trees as medicine and supply for food, clothing and utensils. How they built their plank houses, which were sturdy, kept them dry and warm and lasted many years. A village would have 10 – 40 houses, with sweat houses among them for the men and healers. The years of training involved to become a healer and spiritual leader. The tribes along the Kalmath River had a structured, ordered culture and society. Her people managed life in the forest and along the Kalmath River for centuries.
Thompson relates their belief of the Creation of the World by the Creator. This is very similar to Genesis, except the creatures of the Earth are respected, revered and so is the Earth itself, which makes sense to me – shouldn’t all that God created be respected, as in having an equal right to life! She describes how God created man, then woman and next populated the Earth. Her people call God, Wah-pec-wah-moh, meaning Father of All. They consider God an Invisible Omnipotent Being, who rules the universe with an all-seeing-eye, God is everywhere. (Question – If the Europeans were truly Christians, why couldn’t they live with people with these beliefs, similar to theirs, in harmony?)
Thompson recounts how and why her people trusted and welcomed whites that came among them first, only to find out the whites did not want to live among them peacefully, didn’t respect their traditions and customs. They literally caused them harm and took their lands in just a short period of contact from the 1830’s to the 1860’s. by 1866, what remained of her people, ceded control of their land via treaty – about 6 million acres you guys!
Taking a lesson from my last post in February, it is always more valuable and important to get the perspective of an insider, someone actually indigenous to the experience. Lucy Thompson, an advocate for her people, believed in the value of her people’s history, folklore and customs and recorded them in this book. I thank her for writing To The American Indian.