Documenting Missionaries and Indians The Archive of Myron Eells

trevor james bond

riting in his diary in 1898 collection, and its museum. Eells spoke chives generally privileges white elites from the rain-drenched regularly at regional meetings, inter- of the dominant culture while silenc- WSkokomish Reservation in acted with fellow collectors, and cor- ing members of other groups. Archives western , the missionary responded with other authors. He do not simply appear fully realized and Myron Eells made a confession. “Have reached an even wider audience and neatly organized in acid-free boxes. As finished copying the journal of Rev. contributed to national perceptions of the historian Antoinette Burton ob- H. H. Spalding from 1839 to 1843, for western missionaries and Native peo- served, “Though their own origins are Prof. F. G. Young of the State ples through his academic and popu- often occluded and the exclusions on University. I have[,] I acknowledge, lar writings—particularly his efforts which they are premised often dimly omitted a few pages which speak of to burnish the reputation of Marcus understood, all archives come into some of the troubles of the missions, Whitman—and his collecting on be- being . . . as a result of specific politi- which had better never see the light.” half of Washington State and the fed- cal, cultural, and socioeconomic pres- As Eells labored over this task, spend- eral government for the 1893 World’s sures—pressures which leave traces ing four months copying “87 large Columbian Exposition in Chicago. and which render archives themselves foolscap pages” of Spalding’s “fine artifacts of history.”3 writing—205 of my smaller pages,” he Collectors of Indian cultural artifacts was both preserving and censoring a provided a skewed interpretation of ollectors and archives are critical unique manuscript created by the first Native Americans. Some believed that C for history: without archives, we missionary to the Nez Perce.1 Fortu- Indians were a vanishing race and would not have primary sources. nately, Eells’s censorship did not ex- therefore accumulated Native Ameri- Though historians routinely interrogate tend to destroying his sources.2 can materials before it was too late; individual sources for their authentic- others viewed contemporary Native ity, content, and bias, they would also Myron Eells had a vested interest in peoples as degenerate, and so they fo- benefit from interrogating the collec- showing Spalding in the best possible cused on acquiring “old-fashioned” tions from which those sources come. light. A minister and missionary in his objects—objects that showed no signs Archivists describe the provenance of own right, Eells was also the son of that the Indians had had contact with primary sources, that is, their origins, Spalding’s colleagues, Euro-Americans. Eells, however, was creation, custody, and ownership. Prov- and Myra Eells. As a systematic collec- interested in ideas of progress and the enance informs the reading, interpreta- tor of the journals and correspondence “civilizing” efforts of Christian mis- tion, and context of individual sources of the early missionaries, Eells was in a sionaries and the federal government. within a collection and also provides unique position to influence how the Though Eells gathered some “old-fash- clues to what is excluded. Provenance missionaries were viewed. He also col- ioned” artifacts for his collection and is the fundamental principle for the lected artifacts of local Native tribes, those of others, he also carefully docu- management and organization of ar- and what he chose to include and ex- mented contemporary Indian culture, chives. Archival collections are gener- clude from his collection illustrates particularly changes on the Skokomish ally organized around the collector or how he wanted others to perceive these Reservation between 1875 and 1900. creator of the sources rather than dis- peoples as well. His aim was to demon- persed and reorganized by subject or strate that western Native peoples had Archival collections are never neutral; format. However, the provenance of benefited from the government’s “civi- rather, they promote certain agendas, many collections is dimly understood. lizing” and “Christianizing” programs. leaving an incomplete legacy. The act Because Myron Eells wrote about his He left his collection to Whitman Col- of collecting is itself inherently biased, collecting and how he organized his ar- lege, providing the foundation for its and this bias informs the archive. The chives, his collection is a rich case study archives, its library’s Northwest history process of creating and preserving ar- in provenance.

Summer 2016 135 The Myron Eells Collection has its ori- tary conquest of the Cayuse. These Classes were held at Waiilatpu, but the gins in the decision of Eells’s parents to events accelerated the efforts of the seminary’s first building was con- serve as missionaries in the Oregon federal government to bring the Ore- structed in Walla Walla in 1866. The Country. In 1838, Myra Eells and gon Country into the United States. seminary became in Cushing Eells joined 1883. Cushing and his son Myron later and Mary Walker and others as part of Five months after the killing of the played critical roles in the survival of a group of missionaries sent to support Whitmans and the others, soldiers es- Whitman College, which struggled fi- the activities of and corted the Eellses and Walkers and the nancially for decades.8 and Henry Spald- couples’ eight children from their re- ing and Eliza Spalding. These Congre- mote mission to Fort Walla Walla. On After several years of helping his family gationalist missionaries received fund- their journey they stopped at the Whit- with their farm and the seminary, My- ing for their work from the American man mission station, Waiilatpu, where ron returned to Forest Grove and at- Board of Commissioners for Foreign they witnessed a macabre sight. Mary tended Pacific University. Upon com- Missions (abcfm). Founded in 1810 by Walker wrote to the Reverend David pleting his degree, Eells received some graduates of Williams College in the Greene, abcfm secretary in charge of advice from Pacific University’s presi- midst of the Second Great Awakening, the Oregon missions: “The native fields dent, who told Eells that he was “a the abcfm operated a global network were all grown up to weeds, their pretty good specimen of an Orego- of missions. fences broken down. The bones & hair nian” but he needed “to go east and be- of the Missionary & wife with others come an American.”9 In 1868, Eells The Walker and Eells families estab- had been scattered by the wolves.” started a diary that he kept until his lished a mission at Tshimakain in 1838, Mary Walker’s son, Elkanah, then four death in 1907. He went east and stud- approximately 45 miles from present- years old, saw his mother pick up some ied for the ministry, graduating from day Spokane, the most remote of the of Narcissa Whitman’s blonde hair and the Theological Institute of Connecti- missionary stations in the Oregon show it to Myra Eells.6 Though only a cut (today’s Hartford Seminary) in Country. A native of the Pacific North- child at the time, Myron Eells main- 1871. Eells’s education, his habit of west, Myron Eells was born on the tained a relic of Narcissa Whitman’s keeping a diary, and his need to pre- morning of October 7, 1843, in a crude hair in his collection. He would later pare sermons and speeches and to log cabin at Tshimakain. Marcus Whit- inherit his father’s papers and collect communicate with his fellow minis- man traveled by horse roughly 160 all available sources related to the ters as well as government officials led miles from his mission site, Waiilatpu, Whitman killings. to the formation of his own personal near Walla Walla to help deliver the archive. After a few years as a pastor in baby. Mary Walker wrote in her diary he Eells family moved to Forest Boise, Idaho, Eells moved to the that Cushing Eells had visited the TGrove, Oregon, where Cushing Skokomish Reservation as a mission- Walker home that morning “to take Eells taught school, farmed, and even- ary and teacher. His brother, Edwin, some breakfast. When he returned, he tually became principal of what was served as the Indian agent on the same found his wife nicely in bed & was pre- then and Pacific reservation for nearly 24 years.10 Here sented with a son.”4 The Walker and University (today’s Pacific Univer- Myron remained until his death in Eells families lived at Tshimakain for a sity).7 Cushing Eells did not care for 1907.11 decade, attempting to farm and to con- Forest Grove and yearned to return vert the Spokane Indians. They had east to his former missionary haunts Eells found travel to and from the little success as missionaries or farm- on the Columbia Plateau. In 1859, Skokomish Reservation challenging. ers, and by the late 1840s their mission when the U.S. military reopened the The reservation comprises some five was on the brink of failing for lack of region east of the Cascade Range to thousand acres and is located on the converts.5 settlement (it had been closed in 1856 Olympic Peninsula approximately 35 because of Indian resistance to the U.S. miles from Olympia, on the delta of Their work ended abruptly after a military), Cushing Eells traveled to the Skokomish River, where the river group of Cayuse Indians killed Marcus Walla Walla and purchased the site of empties into the Great Bend of Hood Whitman and Narcissa Whitman and the Whitmans’ mission over the objec- Canal. When Eells journeyed from the 11 others on November 29, 1847, at tions of his wife, Myra, who preferred reservation, he had to cross rivers, walk their Waiilatpu mission. The sensa- the more settled Forest Grove. After miles, ride horses, and eventually take tional deaths of the Whitmans and farming the claim, he obtained a char- ferries or catch trains. But the remote- others at Waiilatpu led to the tempo- ter from the Washington Territorial ness of the reservation afforded Eells rary closure of all Protestant missions Legislature to establish a seminary to the time to read and write prolifically. in the region and the attempted mili- memorialize the Whitmans in 1859. To research the historical topics that

136 Pacific Northwest Quarterly Eells went east in the late 1860s to study for the ministry; the above photo was taken during his theological studies. He started a diary in 1868, a habit he maintained until his death. (Photo of Myron Eells and Myron Eells, diary, July 25, 1868, box 2, both in Myron Eells Collection, Whitman College and Northwest Archives, Penrose Library, Whitman College) interested him, including Indian eth- were published posthumously.12 wife, Sarah. The trip included their nology, linguistics, western church his- boat “sticking in the river” and their tory, and especially the lives of Marcus While Eells’s reputation as an author “wading to haul the boat along, & then Whitman, Henry Spalding, and his and collector grew, he struggled as a meeting a strong head tide.” As a result, father, Cushing, Eells systematically missionary. Though he remained on the Eellses arrived late for the funeral, collected manuscripts and printed the Skokomish Reservation his entire where they discovered that the Indians sources. Collecting was a matter of ne- life, he complained in his diary about had not waited for them. Some of the cessity. With no libraries nearby, Eells being taken for granted by government “Catholic Port Madison Indians being had to develop his own collections to officials and Indians and not being present, one of them had acted as support his scholarship. His diaries paid for officiating at funerals and priest, and they finished the funeral and voluminous correspondence also weddings. As he recorded in his dia- just as we arrived.” That these Skoko­ provided sources for his writing. His ries, he expected some compensation mish Indians were Catholics especially literary output included hundreds of for his travel and time. He might also bothered Eells. He continued, “I do not newspaper and journal articles, some have felt undercompensated in com- know when I have been treated so; fifty pamphlets, and four books. A parison with his fellow pastors. In Sarah feels it very much. . . . No won- number of these works were still in 1888, Eells recounted a difficult jour- der Sarah said, we might as well leave, manuscript form upon his death and ney to a funeral at Puyallup with his for there is no gratitude in these Indi-

Summer 2016 137 ans.” Not wishing to end on such a knowledge in one room or piece of Presbyterian faith. For Eells, tamahn- sour note, Eells concluded the entry furniture. Early cabinets of curiosities ous objects represented indigenous re- with the hopeful sentiment, “But such jumbled diverse materials with little ligion and therefore were something trials will be overruled for good.”13 attention to individual descriptions. that should be removed from the res- Eells created a number of focused cab- ervation so that the Skokomish could Eells had an uneasy relationship with inets, including an Indian cabinet, an embrace Christianity. According to the Skokomish. His brother, Edwin, in Indian literary cabinet, a historical Eells, a “great difficulty in the way of his capacity as Indian agent, sup- cabinet, and cabinets devoted to cur- [the Skokomish] accepting Christian- pressed their traditional religion and rency, minerals, autographs, history ity is their religion. The practical part punished drunkenness with jail time, and natural history, and Chinese of it goes by the name of ta-mah-no- hard labor, or even banishment from culture. us. . . . It signifies the supernatural in a the reservation. While Edwin enforced very broad sense.”20 By removing the harsh discipline, Myron set inflexible Eells’s Indian cabinet was organized post from its context as part of an “old criteria for entry into his church. He into three primary categories: man, Potlatch house” and adding it to his refused baptism to those who gambled habitations, and food. The first fea- cabinet, Eells imposed his authority or practiced their traditional religious tured an old Native American skull and the authority of Christianity over rites or medicine. The two Eells broth- that Eells found on the ground be- this sacred object and, by extension, its ers were committed assimilationists, tween the Skokomish Reservation and creators. The historian Curtis M. as were many in that era, and sought Union City (present-day Union).17 Hinsley described this process as “a to end traditional Indian culture by Habitations included a carved tamahn- discourse of domination through or- having Native peoples adopt their ver- ous, or spiritual, post that Eells ob- dering.”21 Eells’s disdain of Native reli- sion of white Protestant “civiliza- tained from an “old Potlatch house.” gious traditions was manifest in his ac- tion.”14 Myron and Edwin couched Eells noted that after he cut the post tions. He clearly knew what he did was these aims in a paternalistic concern down he learned that it belonged to wrong, because he admitted in his cab- for the well-being of the Skokomish Tyee Charley. According to his cata- inet catalogue that the “Indians would Tribe. logue for the cabinet, Eells “satisfied” probably not have allowed” him “to get Charley with a sack of flour and some it.” That the item was so hard to get While caring for the Skokomish peo- sugar, remarking that if he had not ob- and thus rare also made it a more de- ple, Myron Eells also kept a certain dis- tained the post “in the way” he did, the sirable piece for his collection. tance. He confided to his diary that a “Indians would probably not have al- move from the damp climate of the lowed” him “to get it.” It is difficult to ells’s second major collection was reservation would not only improve ascertain whether Charley was indeed Ehis library. As with his Indian cabi- the health of his wife, but also allow “satisfied” or to gauge the reactions of net, Eells meticulously catalogued his their children to be “better educated & the Indians to Eells’s hacking off the library in a dedicated journal. He cre- civilized, i.e. surrounded by a white at- carved post. Indeed, their voices never ated an accession number for each mosphere.”15 The belief Eells held directly appear in the catalogue or book in the collection, entering that about the superiority of white civiliza- Eells’s diary.18 These silences might along with the title and cost (or, if do- tion influenced his relationship with have been deliberate on Eells’s part. nated, source) of the book.22 He cre- Native peoples, his missionary efforts, Perhaps he thought the Native voice ated cross-references by placing a and his collecting. not worthy of recording. Or perhaps nameplate or calling card in the book the silences were the result of his in- on which was written the accession n his collecting of research materials ability to communicate with the Indi- number, year of acquisition, and cost. Irelated to the region’s Indians and ans directly. Although Eells wrote the Around 1875, Eells began adding en- western church history, Eells followed most extensive dictionary of the Chi- tries in the journal for a more expan- the best standards of his day, modeling nook Jargon of his era, he was not a sive range of materials, including his collection on those he had seen in linguist. He never mastered any of the scrapbooks, pamphlets, and manu- the East during his theological studies, languages of the Indians to whom he scripts. While published books such as such as at the libraries of Williams ministered.19 those found in Eells’s collection gener- College and Yale University as well as ally are readily accessible in library col- private collections.16 One prevailing His desire to obtain this sacred lections, the other materials, particu- method of organization, the cabinet, tamahnous post may be interpreted as larly the scrapbooks and manuscripts, harks back to the Renaissance, when follows. As a missionary, Eells wished are unique.23 Europeans assembled cabinets of curi- to convert the Skokomish from their osities in an attempt to organize traditional spiritual practices to his A newspaper article pasted in the back

138 Pacific Northwest Quarterly of the journal cataloging his collection dians, for more than 30 years, creating tion is too great for some one to rob the sheds light on the broader conceptual one of the region’s most noteworthy grave, as unprincipled white men have framework Eells employed. The author collections. occasionally done.” Revealing his bias as of the article, Selah Merrill, was an ar- a missionary, Eells continued, “An In- chaeologist and curator of the mu- henever Eells traveled to preach dian I think has never been known to seum at the Andover Theological Sem- Wor attend meetings, he visited do such a thing, partly from supersti- inary. According to Merrill, “A few libraries and collections. In 1883, for tious fear, I presume.”28 Eells routinely persons in different parts of the world example, he combined a public read- described all indigenous religious tradi- are engaged in the gathering of special ing of his essay on western Indian tions as “superstitious.” collections of books; but there ought missions with a trip to a private col- to be thousands engaged in it instead lection in Umatilla, Oregon. He noted Eells sometimes crammed his travel of dozens, as now.” Merrill rejected in his diary that the reading was “ex- with research and collecting, as he did amassing books because of their “age tra well rec[eive]d.—the [Congrega- during a visit to Oregon in 1882. At the or binding, or to gratify any particular tionalist] Assoc[iation] wishing to have start of the trip, Eells consulted the taste, whim or fancy, of the collector.” it printed in the Oregonian, Pacific, collections of the Washington Territo- Instead, he urged “the making of col- Advance Congregationalist, while Mr. rial Library in Olympia, “looking up lections that shall be of positive and Himes offered to print 1000 copies points about Dr. Whitman’s work, very important service to the world.”24 free, for me. . . . Thank God & not me.” Ind[ian] missions & Indian customs of Eells did not have the resources to ac- After the reading, Eells visited the In- religion.” Afterward, he conducted quire expensive books with fancy dian cabinet of Helen A. Kunzie. In his business in Portland, took a trip to a bindings. However, the notion of pro- diary, Eells gushed about the collec- subscription library run by the Library viding a “service to the world” reso- tion. “It is splendid, having in it Stone Association of Portland, and inspected nated with his missionary work. Eells beads, Glass, shell & antelope teeth the cabinet of D. Raffety, where he devoted his energies to aiding others, beads, bone awls . . . a baboon, arrow made drawings. Then he “stopped at rejecting more lucrative careers to fo- heads . . . [and] also native glass beads.” Mr. Griffins & looked over a number cus on his missionary work, his writing Eells noted that the objects were “evi- of Mr. Spalding’s letters.” Eells next and collecting, and his role as a trustee dently very old, most of them not be- took part in an excavation of an old In- for Whitman College and Pacific ing claimed by the present Indians, who dian “mound or fort.” The details of University. say they have no knowledge or care for this work Eells did not mention, but the graves where they are found.”26 instead noted in his diary, “The ethno- To create such special collections, Mer- Though Eells assumed the veracity of logical work I shall embody in an arti- rill recommended that individuals this statement, we can easily imagine cle or two so will not repeat it here.” “save the books that have been printed that if the Indians in question did know After attending commencement at Pa- and still exist, and to collect others that about the objects and cared about the cific University, he visited one of the are now being printed or that may be looting of graves, they might have opted missionaries who worked with his par- printed on any given subject, and to not to inform Kunzie or Eells. Grave ents, Mary Walker, at whose home he have such books gathered into one robbing was a common form of collect- found “a large number of Dr. Whit- place.” Unlike the “miscellaneous col- ing during this period. Scholars esti- man’s old letters.”29 In this diary entry, lections” that most people assemble mate that the skeletons of more than Eells provides a glimpse into how that “are of very little use to the 500,000 Native Americans are held by much manuscript material was in pri- world[,] . . . special collections are in- repositories and private collectors in vate hands, if one knew (as Eells did) valuable.” Merrill concluded, “If young the United States and another 500,000 on whom to call. persons would commence the collec- by European institutions.27 tion of books, articles, pamphlets, etc. In 1882, Eells contacted the Whitman on any given subject and follow it up Eells did not object to collecting Native College president Alexander Jay An- for a number of years, they would be American bones for “scientific” research derson, offering to donate some of his surprised at the results. It would be a or to adding human skulls that he found books and $25 to support the college’s far more noble and useful work than on the Skokomish Reservation to his library. On November 17, 1882, Ander- indulging the stamp collecting ma- own Indian cabinet; however, he did son wrote in response to Eells’s offer, nia.”25 Eells followed Merrill’s advice; criticize robbing graves for money or “The books you think of sending us no philatelic indulgences for him. other goods. In a description of the are such as will aid us. . . . Whitman Rather, Eells retained his focus on burial practices of the Twana, he wrote College library has now four books. western history, particularly the re- that the Indians no longer left money Send yours.” Anderson was delighted gion’s churches, missionaries, and In- with the corpses because “the tempta- that Eells also proposed sending $25

Summer 2016 139 attle, there were few research libraries in the Northwest.34 His inability to consult the major research libraries in the East was likely one of his motiva- tions for ensuring that research mate- rials remained in the West.

The research topic that most interested Eells, beginning in the 1860s, was the region’s early missionaries, particu- larly Marcus Whitman. From the 1860s through the early 20th century, most of the literature on Marcus Whitman centered on the reasons for his trip east during the winter of 1842, rather than on his death or accomplishments as a missionary. Whitman supporters argued that this journey was political, to prevent a treaty that would cede Oregon to the British. According to the story, Whitman was a chief booster in raising the large emigration party that he led west on his return journey the following spring, with the aim of increasing the number of U.S. citizens in the and thereby ensuring that the territory would become part of the United States. These elements became part of the “Whitman saved Oregon” story or the “Whitman Legend,” a tale that cast a he- roic light on Marcus Whitman and the conquest of the Northwest.

Eells published numerous newspaper Eells meticulously documented his library in a dedicated journal, which he called the “Catalogue of Library.” Note that he even cataloged the catalog as item 638. (Myron Eells, articles about Whitman before gather- “Catalogue of Library,” 1892, box 3, Eells Collection) ing his views on Whitman’s ride east in book form. His 1882 History of Indian Missions on the Pacific Coast laid out along with the books. Anderson con- was particularly strong on American several arguments in support of the tinued, “I cannot say which is better— Indian topics and Indian missions. Whitman Legend.35 The historian, col- to make your $25 the beginning of a Eells recorded that he had “23 books & lector, and Seattle civic booster Ed- library fund or spend it now for needed 13 pamphlets on Indian missions, 36 mond Meany joined Eells in promot- reference books.”30 books & 13 pamphlets on Indians po- ing the legend. Meany saw Whitman as litically & 42 books & 32 pamphlets on a saint and heroic figure. According to After more than a decade of serious Indians, scientifically.”31 To put this in Meany, “The lives and deeds of Dr. collecting, Eells noted in his diary on some perspective, Eells earned $725 a Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Pren- December 9, 1885, that he had finished year, on which he supported a family tice [sic] Whitman will forever remain cataloging his library up to this point. of seven.32 In spite of this modest sal- a brilliant, impressive and instructive “I find I have 630 volumes, & 229 pam- ary, he was able to build an important chapter in the history of America.”36 phlets worth putting in the catalogue, collection. Eells stated that he was worth at first cost [$]797.26.” Eells “very thankful for so good a library.”33 Frances Fuller Victor, a contributor to continued, “Of these[,] 211 volumes & Eells had cause to be thankful. Beyond Bancroft’s History of Oregon, though 206 pamphlets, worth [$]281.45[,] the Territorial Library in Olympia and initially a promoter of the Whitman have been given to me.” His collection the Territorial University library in Se- Legend, later argued that surviving

140 Pacific Northwest Quarterly sources did not support it. Other his- that she and her fellow missionaries to break me down. So I suppose that torians followed suit. Edward Gaylord were concerned about being criticized settles it.”43 Bourne, a history professor at Yale as the Methodists had been for “leav- University, and William I. Marshall, a ing their legitimate missionary calling Eells’s stature as an author, an author- Chicago school principal, became the to make money.” She wrote, “Mr. ity on Indian history, and a collector chief debunkers of the legend. Bourne Walker and associates felt that Dr. led to both Washington State and the published what is widely considered to Whitman in leaving missionary work U.S. government inviting him to col- be the definitive essay on the subject in and going on this business was likely lect professionally for the 1893 World’s the January 1901 issue of the American also to bring disgrace on the cause, and Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Historical Review. Marshall’s writings were so afraid of it that for a long time The exposition would be a major were more combative and his attacks they would hardly mention that object event. Fair organizers planned to re- personal, directed at Eells and his fa- of Dr. Whitman’s journey publicly.”40 make a section of Chicago’s lakefront ther.37 Bourne and Marshall could not As he had done with the Spalding di- into a white, neoclassical city that cel- find any contemporary evidence that ary, Eells censored unfavorable mate- ebrated American technology, though Whitman traveled back east with the rial—in this case, the second part of at the same time they would deny Afri- goal of saving Oregon. They argued in- Walker’s letter—in order to show the can Americans, Native Americans, and stead that his winter trip was related to missionaries in the best possible light. women the opportunity to participate missionary business. The abcfm had Eells may certainly be faulted as a his- in the fair on equal terms with white ordered Whitman and Spalding to torian, but as a collector he preserved men.44 One of the displays planned for close their missions and for Spalding valuable sources. the exposition was an exhibition of liv- to return east. Whitman, they insisted, ing indigenous peoples wearing exotic, made the journey to plead in person n the late 1880s, Eells’s growing “traditional” costumes. Grouped to- with the abcfm to reverse its decision. Ireputation led to further opportu- gether in an area called the Midway nities and honors. In 1888, President Plaisance, these exhibits would appear As he prepared to respond to Bourne Anderson of Whitman College wanted next to other major amusements, in- and Marshall, Eells collected every- to hire Eells to raise money in the East cluding a massive Ferris wheel. Nearby, thing he could. He drew on family con- for the college’s endowment and op- just off the exposition grounds, Buf- nections and his position as a minister, erating expenses. Though Eells was falo Bill would stage his popular Wild writing to missionaries, pioneers, and tempted by the salary and the oppor- West show. others involved with Whitman. This tunity to visit libraries and museums research culminated in his final major in the “East looking up points in re- Frederic Ward Putnam, curator of the work, Marcus Whitman, Pathfinder and gard to Dr. Whitman, Anthropology Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Patriot, published posthumously with Missions &c,” he ultimately declined Ethnology at Harvard University, was support from the Whitman College because he thought that the financial in charge of organizing the living ex- president Stephen Penrose.38 needs of Whitman College were too hibits as well as the displays in the An- great.41 In 1890, Eells received an hon- thropological Building. Putnam began By comparing Eells’s posthumously orary doctorate of divinity from Whit- planning years before the exposition, published book with his surviving ar- man College. He noted in his diary writing to state officials across the chive, we can see how Eells used, and that he “was surprised at it—did not country about his vision of presenting censored, materials in his collection to work for it—or ask for it, nor did fa- “a living picture as complete as possi- create the image of Whitman he ther.” Eells was not entirely satisfied ble of the actual home life of the native wanted others to see. In 1883, Eells had with the honor, remarking, “Because peoples in different parts of America.” received a letter from the missionary of my writings I had earned [a] PhD Putnam noted, “Arrangements have Mary Walker, who had served with his but doubted whether anyone would been made to bring to Chicago a fam- parents, on the Whitman controversy. give it to me and I would not ask for ily of native Mayas from Yucatan, who, In his book on Marcus Whitman, Eells it.”42 The following year, Eells rejected dressed in their native costumes will quoted the first half of Walker’s letter another job offer: this time the presi- live in their native dwelling surrounded verbatim, but did not cite the second dency of Whitman. Although he had by their utensils, implements, weap- half of the letter.39 In the quoted para- “ideas in regard to the general manage- ons, etc. and carry on their characteris- graph, Walker confirmed Eells’s argu- ment of colleges, & esp. in regard to the tic industries of pottery making, bas- ment that Whitman “went East in 1842 denominational relations,” he wrote in ket weaving, etc.” In addition to this mainly to save the country from falling his diary, his doctor advised that the display, Putnam would organize live into the hands of England”; however, strain from “the care of a College un- representations of indigenous peoples in the rest of the letter Walker revealed der my circumstances would be likely from Peru, Bolivia, Patagonia, Tierra

Summer 2016 141 del Fuego, and other parts of South dian boarding school showing stu- as tamahnous sticks.50 America.45 dents clothed in Euro-American uni- forms and stripped of their cultural While Putnam and Boas planned the Putnam planned his exhibits within affiliations at the end of a series of ex- U.S. exhibit, preparations for individ- a teleological framework combining hibits showing the progression of Na- ual state exhibits also began. On No- ideas of American progress with levels tive civilization solidified the theme of vember 17, 1891, Eells wrote to Nel­ of civilization. In partnership with Euro-American superiority.47 Putnam son G. Blalock, president of the Thomas Jefferson Morgan, commis- therefore arranged the exhibit to re- Washington World’s Fair Commission, sioner of Indian affairs, Putnam placed flect his own prejudices, much as Eells to offer his advice regarding Washing- the Natives of Tierra del Fuego on one had assembled a collection that repre- ton’s contribution to the World’s Co- end of the grounds to indicate that sented his own bias. lumbian Exposition. Based on his vis- they represented the least civilized of its to libraries and collectors around the humans exhibited and arranged To fulfill his ambitious plans, Putnam the region, Eells confidently reported, the rest of the tribes in order of their enlisted the help of the anthropologist he knew of “but four collections . . . on level of civilization. The exhibits cul- Franz Boas. The two men had met at this side of the Cascades” and that minated in the display of a model In- Harvard in 1891. Later that year, Put- “Judge [James] Swan had a good one.” dian boarding school representing the nam put Boas in charge of creating Eells also noted that he had “some- apex of civilization. This racist order- charts of detailed measurements of the thing of a collection” to contribute. ing reflected Putnam’s idea—shared by bodies of Indian peoples that would be However, he confessed, “I do not know others at the time—that a group’s as- displayed in the Anthropological Build- what collections there may be east of similation into the dominant culture ing and of securing a major collection the mountains, Judge Swan’s collec- meant that it had reached the highest of Northwest coastal ethnology.48 tion, Mrs. Kunzie’s and mine represent level of civilization. decidedly differed types of Indian life.” Boas himself did not collect; instead, Eells elaborated, “Judge Swan’s being n his instructions to exposition he hired his contacts from the Pacific largely from British Columbia of arti- Iplanners and collectors, Putnam Northwest to acquire and ship artifacts cles made there but many of which cautioned, “Particular attention should for the collection to Chicago. Eells have been used by the In- be paid to the fact that the most im- would gather Puget Sound Salish ma- dians. Mrs Kunzies representing east- portant things to be collected are those terials. James Deans of Victoria would ern Oregon and Washington in An- of genuine native manufacture; and es- assemble a collection of Haida materi- cient days it being largely of articles of pecially those objects connected with als from the Queen Charlotte Islands; stone and bone and mine being largely the olden times.” Although American Filip Jacobsen and Odille Morison of articles of Indian make.”51 Blalock, a Indians and Europeans had interacted would collect materials from the successful businessman and doctor in for centuries, “objects traded to the na- Skeena River region; and James G. Walla Walla, knew Eells through their tives by the whites are of no impor- Swan, who had previously collected for mutual involvement with Whitman tance and are not desired; the plan be- the Smithsonian, would gather arti- College and was evidently impressed ing to secure such a complete collection facts from Cape Flattery. Finally, by Eells’s knowledge of available col- from each tribe as will illustrate the George Hunt would collect what would lections. He appointed Eells superin- condition and mode of life of the tribe be the focus of the display, material tendent of the Department of Ethnol- before contact with Europeans.” Put- culture of the Kwakwaka’wakw tribe. ogy for the Washington World’s Fair nam sought to create a picture of Indi- Hunt would also arrange for a group Commission. ans before white contact, ignoring, in of Kwakwaka’wakw from Vancouver some cases, centuries of exchange and Island to travel to Chicago, stay in a re- n January 2, 1892, Eells wrote to adaptation by indigenous peoples. His constructed big house, and serve as a OBlalock to accept the appoint- emphasis on objects from “olden living display of First Nations life.49 ment. “I do not know how I shall suc- times” was ahistorical and led to an in- Seven full pages of a detailed ledger ceed, but will try and do something so accurate portrayal of Indians as primi- Eells started in 1892 are devoted to the that you shall not be ashamed of me.”52 tive and unchanging.46 The exhibit ar- items he collected for Boas on behalf Eells was now collecting for both the tifacts were later added to the of the federal government. Boas appar- state and federal governments. In May collections of the Field Museum, the ently covered Eells’s traveling expenses of that year, Eells told Blalock he had Smithsonian Institution, and the Pea- in exchange for a vast range of coastal visited J. Y. Collings in Whatcom and body, among other repositories, and Indian material culture, including viewed his “considerable” collection of thus perpetuated ideas of Indian stasis. mats, baskets, fishing gear, canoes, gar- hammers, arrowheads, and hatchets. Furthermore, the placement of an In- ments, tools, and sacred objects such Eells reported that Collings would loan

142 Pacific Northwest Quarterly As Eells noted in the above caption, the photograph shows several items in the collector’s Indian cabinet. Eells provided a key to the artifacts on each side of the photo. (Myron Eells, “The Indians of Puget Sound Manuscript,” Vol. 1, 1894, box 15, Eells Collection) items for the exposition if a “guaranty” added, “It seems to me that this would ket of mountain sheep wool and a was given of their return and would really be a very important point and I woman’s skirt of beaten cedar bark.” also “sell what duplicates he has, earnestly recommend it.”54 In essence, He had also written to Indian boarding though he is not anxious to do this.” Eells attempted to justify his mission- schools around the state requesting the Eells continued, Collings “finds that ary work through his collecting and manufacture of items “of civilized there are so many buyers in this field displaying of contemporary “civilized” style” and noted that “some of them now, and that the articles are becoming Indian items. Eells sought to showcase are already at work and some will so scarce that he has to pay and charge the assimilationist work to which he probably contribute without any ex- more than he did a few years ago.”53 had devoted his life. The “civilizing pense to us.”55 This was an important During the latter 19th century, intense and Christianizing” policy adhered to point to report. Blalock assumed that interest in purchasing Indian art and by missionaries such as Eells fit nicely Eells would pay for the collections he artifacts drove up prices. within the framework of U.S. progress acquired for the state and then be re- showcased at the exposition. The imbursed later. However, Eells did not Eells finished his letter by estimating United States had conquered the West have enough money to comfortably fi- that “$250 will pay for a fair collec- and now set to civilize it. For Native nance his collecting, so any items he tion” and “would make a good begin- peoples, such as those on the Skoko­ obtained without expense were wel- ning for the State.” Eells had one other mish Reservation, it was a full, con- come. The lack of money available to request that revealed both his vision certed assault on their traditional Eells became acute in July 1892. for the exposition and his view of Na- culture. tive Americans. “I should also recom- In an emotional four-page letter to mend that from [$]25.00 to 50 be In June, Eells reported to Blalock that Blalock, Eells threatened to resign from spent in obtaining articles of Indians he had been “fortunate enough to se- the Washington World’s Fair Commis- of civilized make, from our schools cure some old fashioned things from sion unless $50 could be advanced to etc. to show the progress they have the Indians” that he had not “seen him for six months. Eells recalled that made under the civilizing and Chris- among them” in his “18 years” of living he and Blalock had spoken previously tianizing policy of Government.” Eells on the reservation, including “a blan- of an advance for Eells’s collecting, but

Summer 2016 143 Blalock had told him he “could not compensate Eells for his troubles. Millions of Americans and interna- furnish the money in advance” and With prompt payments from Blalock tional visitors viewed the exhibits in that Eells must borrow it. Noting that for all of his subsequent invoices, Eells Chicago. The gate counts indicated his wife had urged him to resign un- did not complain further about money that 21,477,212 attended. The federal less he received money to purchase problems. government spent $5,840,330 on the collections, Eells said he was “deter- fair, more than twice as much as it had mined to hold on.” Eells said he had By the end of 1892, Eells had com- on any of the other expositions and approached the treasurer for the pleted his collecting for Washington fairs of the 19th century. At closing, Washington World’s Fair Commission, State. As he was collecting for the state the exposition generated a slight Samuel Collyer, for a loan and was ini- and federal governments, he had also profit: receipts were $28,787,532, and tially rebuffed, but Collyer relented been collecting items for his own In- outlays $28,340,700. The fair was a when Eells threatened resignation. Ac- dian cabinet. He noted that he had massive spectacle, filling 686 acres cording to Eells, Collyer “let me have gathered more than “100 specimens with some 65,000 exhibits.62 In addi- fifty dollars for one month and I signed for my cabinet, & did all that it seemed tion to the magnificent exposition a note the first time I ever signed a le- to me possible to be done for the State, grounds, amusements, and anthropo- gal note in my life.” Having spent the under the circumstances.”58 In January logical collections, something else was money, Eells reported that he received 1893, Eells finished collecting for the offered to the visitors: the story of the a “dun for it.” Eells wrote at length of U.S. exhibit at the fair. On January 16, West. In this narrative of manifest des- his financial troubles, his unpaid work he noted in his diary that he had tiny, the United States took vast swaths as a trustee for Whitman College and shipped to Boas that day 15 packages, of western land and, in the process, re- Pacific University, his poor pay for his which included “5 boxes, 2 canoes, 7 named, settled, and subdued the in- preaching and missionary work, and bundles boards for house, & 1 [bundle digenous populations whose material his need to support a family of seven. of] spears.” The shipment comprised culture became part of museum col- On top of all of this, he had “a sick wife “231 articles besides the house, which lections. The historian Curtis Hinsley which has cost me $125 during the last has 69 pieces in it. Have also thus far termed this narrative the “museum three months and now in addition to obtained 341 articles for the state ex- process.” According to Hinsley, Native ask me to furnish my own money to hibit, & 40 for Mrs Dyer, who expects peoples were encased in many forms, buy for the State seems to me to be ask- to enter her collection as the finest pri- including world’s fairs, Buffalo Bill’s ing too much.” Eells noted that the vate one in the U.S. making in all 681 Wild West show, and anthropological conditions while working for Boas articles.”59 Ida Dyer, the wife of a U.S. publications. Hinsley argued that these were much different. “The United Indian agent, ultimately received a cer- attractions and publications shared a States has asked me to purchase some tificate and medal for the exhibit. The common aim—recasting “Indian de- things for them and have advanced me Dyers donated the collection; it cur- mise as regrettable but inevitable within $150 with which to do so. I would rently resides in the Kansas City the teleology of manifest destiny.”63 rather work for this State than the U.S. Museum. however.”56 This statement reflects The exposition had a lasting influence Eells’s local pride. Only three years ear- ells never saw the exhibits at the on western history and archives. At the lier, Washington had become a state. EColumbian World’s Exposition in ninth annual meeting of the American The exposition was a major forum to person. He did not have the means or Historical Association, held in con- showcase Washington State’s culture, the leisure to travel east again, al- junction with the exposition, Frederick natural resources, crops, and industry though the objects he acquired for the Jackson Turner presented the paper on an international stage. exposition enriched the collections of “The Significance of the Frontier in the Smithsonian and the Field Mu- American History,” in which he de- Eells’s letter to Blalock had the desired seum. Some 240 objects displayed at clared that the western American fron- result. Blalock sent a voucher to Eells the exposition, mostly related to the tier was closed. Settling the frontier, on July 30, 1892, for $100 for 33⅓ days Washington coastal tribes, also went according to Turner, was the process of work collecting on behalf of the to the Burke Museum of Natural His- that transformed European immi- Washington World’s Fair Commis- tory and Culture in Seattle.60 Of these grants into Americans. Indians are sion. Eells replied that Blalock had items, Eells collected 123 and Swan nearly absent from Turner’s theory, been “more literal and kind to me in 118. (Like Eells, Swan was collecting making the essay, in the words of the signing the voucher . . . as I have not on behalf of both the federal govern- historian Steven Conn, “the nineteenth to date performed 33⅓ days work.”57 ment and the state government, fo- century’s last, best word on the rela- Blalock overpaid for work that Eells cused on gathering Makah fishing tionship between Native Americans had not yet completed as a way to artifacts.)61 and history.”64 Turner largely excluded

144 Pacific Northwest Quarterly Native Americans from his theory gencer titled “Myron Eells Library: A members of the American Historical about the frontier and in doing so ex- Valuable Collection Bearing on the Association. Eells said that he treated cluded them from the most significant History of the State.” After a full col- Marshall as “gentlemanly as I could,” historiographical idea of the next 50 umn describing Eells’s books related to though his visitor had more “cheek years. Turner did, however, highlight missionary, Indian, and regional his- than most any man I ever saw.”69 the role that the early Euro-American tory, the paper noted that Eells “has missionaries played in the settlement also a small soap box full of correspon- In addition to acquiring materials for process, missionaries like the Whit- dence about Whitman college, two his personal collection and for the mans and Eellses. Turner’s paper would larger ones full of correspondence World’s Columbian Exposition, Eells influence American history for the about Pacific university, and two coal facilitated a lively trade in Indian bas- next century, and his ideas directly af- oil boxes full of papers which were left kets. In 1899, he noted in his diary that fected the writing about and teaching by his father and Rev. H. H. Spalding.” over the last two years, he had multiple of the West in the Pacific Northwest. In addition, the paper mentioned 24 requests for baskets, with sales of more Edmond Meany and Herman Deutsch, scrapbooks of newspaper clippings than $250. Eells remarked that collect- historians at the University of Wash- and many interesting “relics,” includ- ing baskets had “become quite a fad ington and State College of Washing- ing a “sample of the Beaver money of with certain rich women.” This trade ton, respectively, received their training Oregon” (gold coins minted in Oregon in baskets also provided much-needed under Turner at the University of Wis- Territory in 1849), “a buckskin flour money for the basket makers. Eells consin.65 Also at the meeting, histori- sack,” and “some of the hair of Mrs. noted that he had received nothing be- ans gave presentations on the need for Narcissa Whitman picked up by one of yond 10 cents per order for packing a national archive, and after the con- the Volunteers in the .” Of and numerous thank-you letters from ference, the American Historical Asso- course, Eells’s collection was much collectors. These baskets went to pri- ciation created the Public Archives larger than described in the paper: it vate collectors for the most part, Commission.66 Historians had recog- also included his extensive diaries and though some were also shipped to a nized the importance of archival col- vast correspondence. curios dealer, S. B. Dickens. Given the lections for their work and the need to volume in trade, Eells believed that systematically collect records at the na- ecause of the collection’s growing more baskets could be sold, if it were tional and local level. Meany and Brenown, Eells increasingly fielded not for the fact that the reservation was Deutsch collected archival sources for research requests from scholars around nearly “cleaned out” of baskets, except their own teaching and research and the country. On October 1, 1898, he for “some good ones that the owners also ensured that such collections were noted in his diary, “Finished writing will [not] sell.”70 preserved at their respective academic for Col. Wood, Indian words, tradi- institutions. tions, legends &c. It seems as if much In his final years, Eells continued his of my time was spent for others for writing, collecting, and missionary ac- The same year as the exposition Eells nothing. . . . From Tues to Fri. wrote tivities. He recorded in his diary that in inherited unique materials for his per- historical matter for Prof Young. Yes- 1905, he had written “1204 letters & sonal collection. His father, Cushing terday wrote hard for Col. Wood.” Eells postals, including 57 newspaper arti- Eells, had died in February 1893. The wondered “how much work of this cles,” traveled 5,838 miles, and added senior Eells left the bulk of his estate to kind I ought to do, to the neglect of 66 books to his library.71 Eells died in Whitman College, but did bequeath a other work. Heretofore I have never re- 1907. On January 10, the Seattle Daily substantial sum of money and items fused such information & help when Times announced, “Myron W. Eells, from his own collection to Myron and asked for it, but lately it has been com- pioneer clergyman and historian who his brother Edwin. Myron wrote in his ing very thick.”68 died last week, endows Whitman.” Ac- diary, “After paying debts & funeral ex- cording to the paper, Eells left Whit- penses, he gives Edwin & I each In 1902, a great critic of Eells and de- man College a “magnificent collection [$]1000—our choice of his books, me bunker of the Whitman Legend, Wil- of books and manuscripts.” The gift to his manuscripts, & the rest of his books liam Marshall, stayed at the Eellses’ Whitman also included artifacts and & property to Whitman College. He home for two days to consult and copy historical objects. President Penrose of has left a rich legacy to us all in his life, extracts from Spalding’s diary. Eells Whitman College attended Eells’s fu- prayers, &c.”67 described Marshall as an “anti Whit- neral service, noting that the bequest manite, & very cranky.” Eells was par- “was a priceless one and would be of The reputation of Eells’s collection was ticularly upset that Marshall had sent a inestimable benefit to the college.” growing, as is evident from a May 5, pamphlet stating that Eells and his fa- 1896, article in the Seattle Post-Intelli- ther were “fool friends” of Whitman to When Eells’s collection arrived at

Summer 2016 145 Eells left his carefully documented collection of books, manuscripts, correspondence, and artifacts to Whitman College, pictured here in 1907, upon his death. The gift was instrumental in building up the library, archives, and museum of the college, which struggled financially for decades. (“Campus Scenes, View from South across Boyer, Memorial, Reynolds, Gymnasium, Billings,” 1907, box 7b, Whitman College Photograph Records, Whitman College and Northwest Archives)

Whitman, college officials divided it rator, warned campus administrators, edge in these areas and his noted col- between the library and the museum. “Unless funds can be secured from lection allowed him to engage with The artifacts and natural history speci- other sources the museum will be left other scholars around the country and mens went to the museum, and the in a very undesirable state and disinte- resulted in a rich archive of corre- books, pamphlets, and newspaper clip- gration will soon take place.” Decades spondence. He used his collection to pings went to the library.72 In 1907, the later, George Castile, an anthropology support his own writings, which Whitman librarian Arminda Fix re- professor and the museum curator, though no longer widely read, influ- ported that “the donations to the Li- told the Whitman president Robert enced early Pacific Northwest histori- brary this year have been, perhaps, the Skotheim that the museum needed “a ography.77 Eells’s expertise was sought largest ever given.” The most signifi- half time curator/half time archeolo- by Boas and Blalock, organizers of dis- cant gift of the year according to Fix gist position to clean up the museum’s plays for the federal and state govern- “was the Library of the late Dr. Myron karma once and for all.”75 It took the ments at the 1893 World’s Columbian Eells. . . . It consists of 978 volumes and passage of the Native American Graves Exposition. His efforts resulted in the 336 pamphlets, and clippings, treating Protection and Repatriation Act in development of collections both for of the history of the Northwest.”73 The 1991 for Whitman to invest in fully the Field Museum and Smithsonian as Whitman College archives had not cataloging the museum’s Native Amer- well as the Burke Museum. been established yet, so manuscripts ican collections so that it might com- from the collection were stuffed in a ply with the act’s mandate to return Eells was a systematic collector. Be- trunk and kept in the attic of the Whit- Native American bodies and sacred ar- cause of his meticulousness and dedi- man Memorial Building. They re- tifacts to their source communities.76 cation, he created a well-organized col- mained there for decades.74 Over time, Eells collected Native American bones lection of materials. His detailed and as the campus archives and museum and sacred items without qualms honest observations as a longtime resi- hired trained staff, the Eells materials about removing such objects from dent of the Skokomish Reservation are were reorganized. their communities, but the ethics of a key source for those seeking informa- keeping such collections had changed. tion on topics such as the development The Eells materials at the Whitman li- of the Indian Shaker Church and dec­ brary received better treatment than yron Eells deliberately created ades of failed U.S. government policy those placed in the museum, where Mone of the earliest collections of aimed at the forced assimilation of Na- storage conditions were poor and only books, manuscripts, and artifacts re- tive peoples, including implementa- part-time curators oversaw the collec- lated to the Indians of the Pacific tion of boarding schools and the tion. In July 1938, Howard S. Brode, a Northwest and the missionaries who Dawes Act, which broke up commonly biology professor and the museum cu- sought to convert them. Eells’s knowl- held reservation lands into individual

146 Pacific Northwest Quarterly allotments, many of which were then estant missionaries to the Columbia gard to the collection of Myron Eells, lost by their owners.78 Eells’s own par- Plateau, and also include the journal he valued the sources that documented ticular agenda, to show the positive and correspondence of Henry Spald- his missionary work and his observa- elements of assimilation and Chris- ing. Eells’s decision to gift his collec- tions of Native peoples, that pertained tianization of the region’s Native pop- tion to Whitman, an institution cre- to the culture of the Pacific Northwest, ulations and to burnish the legacy of ated through the efforts of his father, and that justified and celebrated the Marcus Whitman and his fellow mis- meant that the archive he assiduously Protestant missionary enterprise. Un- sionaries, shaped the archive he cre- created over 40 years was not removed derstanding the provenance of collec- ated. His articles, pamphlets, and post- to more established and wealthier re- tions provides us with a fuller under- humously published biography of positories and remained in the region standing of the limits of the stories we Marcus Whitman, though criticized by it documents. Eells in part developed tell of the past. professional historians, solidified an the archive he did because he could not enduring image of Whitman as a he- access the research collections held in Trevor James Bond earned a doctorate roic missionary who saved Oregon for eastern repositories. in public history at Washington State the United States. University (WSU) in 2017. He is the By questioning the provenance of ar- associate dean for Digital Initiatives His collection formed the nucleus of chives such as that of Myron Eells, and Special Collections and codirector Whitman College’s Penrose Library scholars gain a richer understanding of of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Maxey Museum, as well as its the creation and preservation of col- and Curation at WSU. He is currently Whitman College and Northwest Ar- lections. Libraries, archives, and muse- revising his dissertation on the Nez chives. Eells’s personal papers, which ums take on distinct identities based Perce Tribe’s purchase of the Spalding- include 22 boxes of correspondence on their collections. These collections Allen Collection for publication. The and an additional 42 boxes of note- in turn reflect the passions, egos, and author wishes to acknowledge his ad- books, diaries, manuscripts, scrap- agendas of their creators. Furthermore, visor Robert McCoy, Leah Pepin at the books, and photographs, survive in a the earliest collections acquired by re- Burke Museum, and Melissa Salrin, collection of 35 linear feet. The papers positories influenced later acquisi- Bill Huntington, and James Warren at he inherited from his father, which in- tions. No archives are objective or neu- Whitman College for their assistance clude correspondence, diaries, and ser- tral; instead, collections privilege some with this research. mons, document the first wave of Prot- individuals and silence others. In re-

1. Myron Eells, diary, Sept. 29, 1898, box 6. Mary Walker to David Greene, July 8, 1848, in Saving Oregon to the United States 2, Myron Eells Collection, Whitman in Drury, 2:329. and in Promoting the Immigration of College and Northwest Archives, Penrose 7. Myron Eells, Father Eells; or, The Results 1843 (Portland, Oreg., 1883); Ten Years Library, Whitman College, Walla Walla, of Fifty-Five Years of Missionary Labors in of Missionary Work among the Indians at Wash. (hereafter cited as Eells diary, with Washington and Oregon (Boston, 1894), Skokomish, Washington Territory, 1874-1884 appropriate date). Eells did not differentiate 168. (Boston, 1886); and Marcus Whitman, among commas, periods, semicolons, or 8. G. Thomas Edwards, The Triumph of Pathfinder and Patriot (Seattle, 1909). colons in his diary—all appear as dots. Tradition: The Emergence of Whitman 13. Eells diary, Oct. 3, 1888. The author has replaced the dots with College, 1859-1924 (Walla Walla, Wash., 14. George P. Castile, “The ‘Half-Catholic’ conventional punctuation. 1992), 1-93. Movement: Edwin and Myron Eells and the 2. Spalding’s original diary survives in box 2, 9. Myron Eells, “Fragments of a Frontier Life,” Rise of the Indian Shaker Church,” PNQ, Spalding Collection, Whitman College and 21, Eells Collection, quoted in Michael J. Vol. 73 (October 1982), 168-69. Northwest Archives. Paulus, Jr., “The Myron Eells Northwest 15. Eells diary, July 30, 1888. 3. Antoinette Burton, ed., Archive Stories, History Collection, Whitman College,” 16. Michael J. Paulus, Jr., “The Converging Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History Libraries and the Cultural Record, Vol. 43 Histories and Futures of Libraries, Archives, (Durham, N.C., 2005), 6. (2008), 215. and Museums as Seen through the Case 4. Walker quoted in Clifford Merrill Drury, 10. Castile, 61. of the Curious Collector Myron Eells,” First White Women over the Rockies: Diaries, 11. Paulus, 215. Libraries and the Cultural Record, Vol. 46, Letters, and Biographical Sketches of the Six 12. Myron Eells’s publications include Justice to No. 2 (2011), 187. Women of the Oregon Mission Who Made the Indian: Read before the Congregational 17. There were three human skulls in the the Overland Journey in 1836 and 1838, Vol. Association of Oregon and Washington, Myron Eells Collection. One was described 2: Mrs. Elkanah Walker and Mrs. Cushing July 14, 1883 (Portland, Oreg., 1883); as Twana; the other two were of unknown Eells (Glendale, Calif., 1963), 259. History of Indian Missions on the Pacific Native American origin. Inventory of 5. George P. Castile, “Edwin Eells, U.S. Indian Coast: Oregon, Washington and Idaho artifacts donated to Whitman College Agent, 1871-1895,” PNQ, Vol. 72 (April (Philadelphia and New York, 1882); by Eells, n.d., in author’s possession. 1981), 61. Marcus Whitman, MD: Proofs of His Work Whitman College returned these human

Summer 2016 147 remains under the provisions of the Whitman,” American Historical Review, an accession list in the Burke Museum Native American Graves Protection and Vol. 6 (January 1901), 276-300; William archives indicate who collected each object. Repatriation Act. Isaac Marshall, History vs. the Whitman See “State Museum of Washington List of 18. Myron Eells, “Descriptive Catalog of Indian Saved Oregon Story: Three Essays toward Specimens Accession No. 1119 Collection Cabinet,” 1878, box 1, Eells Collection. a True History of the Acquisition of the of Wash. World’s Fair Comm.,” n.d., acc. 19. George Pierre Castile, ed., The Indians of Old Oregon Territory (Chicago, 1904). 1119. Puget Sound: The Notebooks of Myron Eells For a bibliographic overview of this early 61. “State Museum of Washington List of (Seattle and Walla Walla, Wash., 1985), 452. historiographical debate, see Clifford Specimens.” 20. Eells, Ten Years of Missionary Work, 37. Merrill Drury, Marcus Whitman, MD, 62. Reid Badger, The Great American Fair: The 21. Curtis M. Hinsley, “Collecting Cultures Pioneer and Martyr (Caldwell, Idaho, 1937), World’s Columbian Exposition and American and Cultures of Collecting: The Lure of the 447-55. Culture (Chicago, 1979), 132. American Southwest, 1880-1915,” Museum 38. Eells, Marcus Whitman, Pathfinder and 63. Hinsley, 18. Anthropology, Vol. 16 (February 1992), 15. Patriot. 64. Steven Conn, History’s Shadow: Native 22. See Myron Eells, “Catalogue of Library,” 39. Ibid., 166-67. Americans and Historical Consciousness in 1892, box 3, Eells Collection. 40. Mary Walker to Myron Eells, June 7, 1883, the Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 2004), 23. Paulus, “Myron Eells Northwest History box 21, Eells Collection. 220-23 (qtn., 222). Collection,” 215. 41. Eells diary, July 30, 1888. 65. Trevor James Bond, “From Treasure Room 24. Selah Merrill, “Special Collections of 42. Ibid., June 9, 1890. to Archives: The McWhorter Papers and Books,” Library Magazine, Vol. 6 (January– 43. Ibid., May 14, 1891. the State College of Washington,” PNQ, Vol. April 1888), 178, clipping, in Eells, 44. Robert W. Rydell, “A Cultural Frankenstein? 102 (Spring 2011), 72-73. “Catalogue of Library.” The Chicago World’s Columbian 66. Francis X. Blouin, Jr., and William G. 25. Ibid., 178-79 (1st qtn.), 179 (2d, 3d, last Exposition of 1893,” in Grand Illusions: Rosenberg, Processing the Past: Contesting qtns.). Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893, ed. Neil Authority in History and the Archives (New 26. Eells diary, July 23, 1883. Harris, Wim de Wit, James Gilbert, and York, 2011), 36. 27. Megan J. Highet, “Body Snatching and Robert W. Rydell (Chicago, 1993), 141-70. 67. Eells diary, Feb. 25, 1893. Grave Robbing: Bodies for Science,” History 45. Frederic Ward Putnam, “Instruction for 68. Ibid., Oct. 1, 1898. and Anthropology, Vol. 16 (December 2005), Collectors of Ethnological Material,” n.d., 69. Ibid., July 28, 1902. 434. acc. 1119. 70. Ibid., March 29, 1899. 28. Eells quoted in Castile, Indians of Puget 46. Ibid. 71. Ibid., Jan. 1, 1906. Sound, 337. 47. Nicole Tonkovich, The Allotment Plot: 72. Trevor James Bond, “The Hunt for Oregon 29. Eells diary, June 12, 1882. Alice C. Fletcher, E. Jane Gay, and Nez Perce Missionary Sources: Clifford M. Drury’s 30. Alexander Jay Anderson to Myron Eells, Survivance (Lincoln, Nebr., 2012), 241-42. Enduring Archives Legacy,” Oregon Nov. 17, 1882, box 4, Anderson Family 48. Douglas Cole, Franz Boas: The Early Years, Historical Quarterly, Vol. 114 (Spring 2013), Collection, Whitman College and 1858-1906 (Seattle, 1999), 153. 45-46. Northwest Archives. 49. Ibid. 73. “Librarian’s Report, 1906-1907,” box 17, 31. Eells diary, Dec. 9, 1885. 50. Myron Eells, Ledger, 1899-1906, box 3, Eells Penrose Library Records, Whitman College 32. Myron Eells to Nelson G. Blalock, Collection. Eells used this ledger to record and Northwest Archives. July 16, 1892, accession 1119, Burke his collection for Boas in 1892. 74. Bond, “Hunt for Oregon Missionary Museum of Natural History and Culture, 51. Myron Eells to Nelson G. Blalock, Nov. 17, Sources,” 45-46. University of Washington, Seattle. 1891, acc. 1119. 75. “Museum History,” in “Maxey Museum 33. Eells diary, Dec. 9, 1885. 52. Myron Eells to Nelson G. Blalock, Jan. 2, Exhibitions and Collections Manager 34. In 1878, the Territorial University of 1892, ibid. Handbook,” n.d., copy in author’s Washington held 162 volumes. With 53. Myron Eells to Nelson G. Blalock, May 3, possession. regular funding starting in 1879, the 1892, ibid. 76. Ibid. collection grew to 2,000. Jessica Chandler 54. Ibid. 77. For example, Eells’s extensive writings on Potter, “The History of the University of 55. Myron Eells to Nelson G. Blalock, June 29, the Indians of western Washington are Washington Library,” MA thesis (University 1892, acc. 1119. cited by William W. Elmendorf and A. L. of Washington, 1954), 10-12. 56. Eells to Blalock, July 16, 1892. Kroeber, The Structure of Twana Culture 35. Eells, History of Indian Missions. 57. Myron Eells to Nelson G. Blalock, Aug. 8, (Pullman, Wash., 1960); and George Castile 36. E. S. Meany, “In Memory of Marcus 1892, ibid. produced a scholarly edition of Eells’s Whitman and Narcissa, His Wife,” Seattle 58. Eells diary, June 29, 1892. manuscript notebooks, Indians of Puget Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 21, 1897, quoted 59. Ibid., Jan. 16, 1893. Sound. in George A. Frykman, Seattle’s Historian 60. The items collected by Eells and Swan are 78. For more on Eells’s observations of the and Promoter: The Life of Edmond Stephen now part of accession 1119. Individual Indian Shaker movement, see George Pierre Meany (Pullman, Wash., 1998), 77. artifacts in the collection are listed in the Castile, “The Indian Connection: Judge 37. Hubert Howe Bancroft and Frances Auretta Burke’s online museum catalog and while James Wickersham and the Indian Shakers,” Fuller Barrett Victor, History of Oregon, on display as a gift from the Washington PNQ, Vol. 81 (October 1990), 122-29; and 2 vols. (San Francisco, 1886-88); Edward World’s Fair Commission. Eells and Swan idem, “‘Half-Catholic’ Movement,” 165-74. Gaylord Bourne, “The Legend of Marcus are not named as the collectors; however,

148 Pacific Northwest Quarterly