1 Wǝ́xa Sxwuqwálustn Pulling Together Identity, Community, and Cohesion in the Cowlitz Indian Tribe Leah Wheeler A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD Department of Sociology University of Essex 2016 Abstract In the last 30 years many changes have taken place within the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. These changes involve the tribe’s sovereignty and have greatly impacted the emic identity of the tribe. Previous identity research with the Cowlitz predates these changes and no longer accurately describe the Cowlitz. The question for this research was how have these changes affected the emic identity of the Cowlitz today as seen in their community and interactions? And how does their identity now compare with their identity in the times of pre-contact and initial contact with whites? This research uses Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory to assess and compare the emic identity of the contemporary and historical tribe in terms of sovereignty, identity, and cultural rejuvenation. When the structure, relationships, activities, and purposes of the tribe and groups within the contemporary tribe were analyzed, there was a striking resemblance to the community system described in early settler journals and histories of the Cowlitz. The research was cross-sectional, including ethnographic study, interviews of tribal members, document analysis, and historical analysis. In an attempt to allow the Cowlitz people to speak for themselves rather than project ideas onto the tribe, each section of the research first allows tribal members to voice their opinions and then relies on Cowlitz voices to confirm the analysis. The final dissertation was then submitted to the tribe for comment. 2 Thanks and acknowledgements When this research first came into the works during a casual conversation with tribal leaders at the Cowlitz Tribal Office in Longview, WA, the tribal leaders were open to the idea but skeptical of the motives behind the research and the ethics of academic researchers, especially one from outside the tribe. I would like to thank the tribe for their willingness to take a risk, and I hope that this research was performed in accordance with tribal expectations regarding ethics and tribal regulations, and with the utmost respect for the Cowlitz people. It is also my sincere hope that the research will be of benefit to the tribe in some measure, rather than a reinforcement of hegemonic and academic views which have plagued research in Native American circles for centuries, or simply an exercise allowing the researcher to obtain more letters behind her name. Thank you to every person who was willing to participate in this research. Without your cooperation and interest, this could not have been accomplished. Thank you for putting yourselves in a vulnerable position and doing so with generous hearts. Your time and help have been invaluable, and your love for the Cowlitz Tribe was obvious in every interaction. Náxwłqwul’as! Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1 - Identity in the Cowlitz Context Chapter 2 - Sovereignty and the Cowlitz Context Chapter 3 - Cultural Revitalization Chapter 4 - Assemblage Theory Chapter 5 - The Historical Cowlitz Tribe Chapter 6 - The Contemporary Cowlitz Tribe Conclusions - Reason and Motive in Contemporary Cowlitz Community Structure 3 Introduction “Grandma taught me things I realize now were Indian. But she wouldn’t teach me ‘Indian’. You wouldn’t do that. You just teach your child what you know. You don’t point out the source of it… Lot of plants, licorice root, peel it off a tree and chew it, things like that. Berries that you can eat. I’d go out in the woods and didn’t have a bucket to put them in. She’d pull off a big leaf and make a temporary holder, like a basket basically, and we put the berries in that. Put skunk cabbage leaves into a cup and drink out of a stream… I’m going to tell you something that I didn’t tell anybody until this summer. Now I guess a lot of people know about it…I would go down in the field near where we lived to pick flowers…and as a child I would kneel to the four directions and not know why I was doing it… I would hope nobody sees me because they would ask why I’m doing this and I don’t know why I’m doing it” Juanita Clark Cowlitz Tribal Elder and Ka`ya For years the Cowlitz Indian Tribe existed in the hearts and minds of its people and as a semi-annual meeting. Outside the tribe, they existed in history books and a few scattered place names like Cowlitz County in Washington State. While one history book notes the disappearance or complete assimilation of the tribe by the 1893 (Ruby, Brown and Collins 2010:111), US Federal Court Opinions verify that the Cowlitz remained intact as a tribe throughout the late 1800’s up to today (Grand Ronde v Jewell case 1:13-cv-00849-BJR, §3c ¶3). The court also upheld the Secretary of the Department 4 of Interior’s finding that the tribe not only existed as an entity but had interaction with the US government on a regular basis from the 1850’s on. Juanita Clark is 81 years old and remembers back to her childhood, recalling that she learned Indian traditions from her grandmother and mother but was never told “this is an Indian tradition”. These traditions were simply things they did to survive like picking berries and learning how to make baskets and cups from plants. These traditions activities were engaged in on a small, private, family scale. The only tribal activities Juanita remembers were the semi-annual gatherings of the Cowlitz, which met at the Grange Hall in Toledo, Washington in an area known to the Cowlitz as Cowlitz Prairie. People came from all over the Pacific Northwest, where they had located for jobs, allotments1 with other tribes, or in order to stay near family. According to tribal histories and individual memories, the gatherings of the tribe in Juanita’s youth were focused around land claims against the US government in an attempt to receive 1 “In 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, which authorized the president (at the time Grover Cleveland) to survey Indian tribal land and divide the area into allotments for individual Indians and families. The Allotment Act (also known as the Dawes Act, named for Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts, the Act’s lead proponent) was applied to reservations whenever, in the president’s opinion, it was advantageous for particular Indian nations. Members of the selected tribe or reservation were either given permission to select pieces of land—usually around 40 to 160 acres in size – for themselves and their children, or the tracts were assigned by the agency superintendent. If the amount of reservation land exceeded the amount needed for allotment, the federal government could negotiate to purchase the land from the tribes and sell it to non-Indian settlers. As a result, 60 million acres were either ceded outright or sold to the government for non-Indian homesteaders and corporations as “surplus lands.” (Indian Land Tenure Foundation 2016) 5 compensation for lands that were appropriated without compensation by President Lincoln in an 1863 presidential proclamation2. In contrast to Juanita’s experience as a youth and similar experiences of others her age, Cowlitz tribal activities today are vibrant expressions of a group of 4,000+ members who engage in them not for family survival, but purposefully for tribal cohesion and development. In the words of Juanita herself, “It’s a lot more fun. We’re together as a group now”. In the last 30 years, the tribe has begun to have a wider scope of operation than the former family lines, including a health care system, youth activities, an ecology department, and tribal programs like Canoe Family. These are made possible in part by these other changes: the tribe has partially distributed funds from Docket 2183, been federally acknowledged, won a legal battle granting a land trust (commonly known as a reservation), and signed a gaming compact with the State of Washington. Perhaps the most interesting change, and the focus of this dissertation is the unpremeditated revitalization of historical Cowlitz community systems. A community system, for this research, refers to a combination of structure, relationship, activity, and 2 Docket 218 of the Indian Claims Court determined that official extinguishment of land for the Cowlitz took place on March 20, 1963. 3 In 1973, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe won a suite against the US government in the Indian Claims Commission for land appropriated by the government without consent of the tribe on March 20, 1863. The settlement was for $1,550,000 which was considered fair market value for a portion of the territory claimed by the tribe. This decision and the money awarded are referred to by the tribe as ‘Docket 218’. 6 purpose. Community structure is the grouping together within a society at different levels, such as individual, immediate family, extended family, hobby groups, work groups, tribe, nation, etc. When the structure, relationships, activities, and purposes of the tribe and groups within the tribe are analyzed, there is a striking resemblance to the community system described in early settler journals and histories of the Cowlitz. The initial research question for this dissertation was ‘what impacts are these legal and sovereignty changes having on the tribe, particularly its internal identity?’ As the research progressed, the questions narrowed to ‘what is the emic identity of the Cowlitz today as seen in their community and interactions4?’ ‘How do their dealings with other tribes, the state, and the US government reveal their emic identity?’ and ‘How does their identity now compare with their identity in the times of pre-contact and initial contact with Euro-Americans?’ This research, therefore, is not a comparative research with other tribes or first nations, but an informative research where interaction with other groups is noted only for the sake of reflexive examination of emic identity.