IF SEATTLE IS “INDIAN COUNTRY,” WHERE ARE ALL THE INDIANS?: REPRESENTING THE PAST IN A SETTLER CITY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN AMERICAN STUDIES DECEMBER 2014 By Sarah Thornton Thesis Committee: Karen Kosasa, Chairperson William Chapman Laura Lyons Acknowledgements This thesis would never have been more than merely a formless thought and idea without the inspiration, encouragement, input, and dedicated intellectual interaction of several people that helped me along the way. My thesis committee was particularly important in inspiring and shaping this project. I would like to thank Bill Chapman for encouraging me to explore the theoretical side of historic preservation, even while instructing me in the practical aspects of the field. I also wish to thank Laura Lyons, whose classroom and conversation was always alive with the energetic endeavor to marry theory with the realities of the social and political world. Furthermore, this project would have stalled and died along the way without the continual encouragement and help from Karen Kosasa, whose engagement with the details of every page made this paper immeasurably superior to any efforts I might have made on my own. I am incredibly grateful to have had such a supportive and inspiring committee. Indeed, I am grateful to the entire department of American Studies at the University of Hawai‘i for guidance and encouragement everywhere and every time I sought it. I cannot take for granted the privilege and honor it has been to be a part of such an impressive and inspiring intellectual community. My time with them would not have been possible without the financial assistance of the American Indian Graduate Center. Outside the classroom, my family has also supported me in vitally important ways. My mother’s confidence in me has been the fuel for my endeavors for as long as I can remember, and my father’s value for my thoughts and opinions has been proven again and again in his willingness to engage (even to sometimes disagree) with all my ideas without ever placing his love for me in doubt. To be raised with such intellectual freedom has truly been a gift. Lastly, my own little family has suffered and sacrificed in so many ways in order to support me through the process of writing of this paper. I would like to thank my daughters, Hannah, Sophia and Harriet, for their patience and flexibility. Most especially, I would like to acknowledge the help of my husband, Corey. When one adds it all up, “help” is too small a word for all that he’s given. ii Abstract This paper will examine the historical representations of Native people in public venues in the Seattle area, and will especially focus on representations in the last century. How did past representations serve the settler-state? How have recent revisions changed Native-settler relations? Are these revisions powerful enough to effect any significant change to the injustices that challenge the persistence and sovereignty of Native political entities? By performing a textual and contextual analysis of public commemorative activities, museum exhibits, historic monuments and markers, this paper will investigate the way Seattle’s material culture has been preserved and mobilized for heritage tourism, paying particular attention to the ways that representations of Native people have changed over time. The goal of such an analysis is to reveal some of the meanings these “sites of memory” might convey about the relationship between Native people and the settler colonial society that has displaced them. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... ii Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Figures ...............................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION - Historical Representation and the Settler Project ...........................................1 Settler Colonialism and the City of Seattle ............................................................................................... 3 History, Politics and Place ........................................................................................................................ 8 Outline of Chapters ................................................................................................................................. 15 A Note on Terminology .......................................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 1 - The Dream and the Deed: Commemorating the Birth of Seattle ..........................20 Seattle’s Story ......................................................................................................................................... 27 The Dream and the Deed ........................................................................................................................ 31 Monuments and Markers: Making Seattle’s Commemorative Places .................................................... 44 Remembering Alki in Our Time ............................................................................................................. 59 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 64 CHAPTER 2 - The Indian in the Museum: Narratives of Native-Settler Relations ......................66 “Essential Seattle” at MOHAI ................................................................................................................ 69 Indians in the “Post-Museum” ................................................................................................................ 81 Collaboration at the Burke Museum ....................................................................................................... 88 The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition: Indigenous Voices Reply ......................................................... 93 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 107 CHAPTER 3 - The Past That Had No Future: Settler Heritage and Indian Place in Seattle .......111 Historic Preservation Saves Pioneer Square ......................................................................................... 116 Steinbrueck, Speidel and the Politics of Place ...................................................................................... 124 If Seattle is “Indian Country,” Where are all the Indians? ................................................................... 132 Re-Placing Indians in Seattle ................................................................................................................ 144 What About the Duwamish? ................................................................................................................. 153 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 159 CONCLUSION - History & Memory in the Colonial Present ....................................................162 Narrative, Memory, Identity and Power ............................................................................................... 162 Historical Revision, Imagined Communities and Native Sovereignty ................................................. 164 Progress and the “Change of Worlds” .................................................................................................. 166 Place, Preservation and Imagined Geographies .................................................................................... 167 Re-Writing the Narrative / Re-Placing the Native ................................................................................ 169 Memory Work ...................................................................................................................................... 170 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................173 iv Table of Figures Figure 1. Lady Liberty statue at Alki Beach ....................................................................................2 Figure 2. Re-enactment of the Denny Party landing at Alki, 1951. ...............................................21 Figure 3. Re-enactment of the Denny Party landing at Alki, 1951 ................................................21 Figure 4. Charlie Terry ..................................................................................................................29 Figure 5. Arthur Denny ..................................................................................................................29 Figure 6. Albert Canwell ................................................................................................................32 Figure 7. Florence James at the Canwell Hearings ........................................................................33 Figure 8. Florence James ejected from the Canwell Hearings .......................................................33 Figure 9. Illustration from Harper’s Weekly depicting the