Chapter 12 Native Americans Section 1 When Indians Plied Its Waters By Gene Yoachum Skokomish elder Joseph AndrewsSr. Hood Canal offered bountiful the canal as a much simpler, more pristine fishing amid cool waters and a place in their youth, when it was a base for picturesque aquatic highway to their subsistence. the three major Indian tribes Joseph A. Andrews Sr., 76, recalled the living there in the decades prior years just prior to 1920as a time when he to the 20th Century. The history rarely wore clothes and when Hood Canal of the canal was shaped by the Twana, was a "beautiful place" to be while growing Chemakum and S'Klallam tribes, but only up. Early in the morning, he'd watch deer remnants remain today: the Skokomish, the along the shores of the canal lick salt off Suquamish and the S'Klallams. rocks at low tide. Elders from the three tribes describe Andrews' eyes glistened as he talked 790 Native Americans »191 about how the autumn sky "just turned the portage between Hood's Canal and the dark" as huge flocksof migrating geese flew main waters of the Sound, where the Indian, overhead, issuing sounds "that were like a by carrying his canoe three miles, avoids lullaby to my ears." rowing around a peninsula 50 miles long." He remembered sitting in the bow of Skokomishmeans "River People," his grandfather's 24-foot shovel-nose canoe derived from their settlement at the mouth of as a preschooler, "eating salmonberries that the large freshwater river that empties into hung out over the canal.I wasn't a very good the canal. The Northwest picker,but I could eat them pretty good. The Chemakums are believed to have Coast tribes "When I was a young boy, before I originated from the Kwilleuts, who lived went to school, the Indians traveled the canal south of Cape Hattery on the PacificCoast. lost most of by canoesand rowboats equipped with Eellswrote that a portion of the Kwilleut their creative sails,"said Andrews, an elder among the tribe, according to the Kwilleut tradition, traditions Skokomish, whose reservation sits at the came inland from the coast followinga very within a few GreatBendof Hood Canalin MasonCounty. high and sudden tide long ago and settled decades of the "We had camps on both sides of the near Port Townsend, calling themselves treaties they canal," he said. "Therewere plenty of fish "Chemakums." and clams. There were trees along both sides; By 1887,Eells said the Chemakums signed with the loggingcamps were just getting started." were "virtually extinct," there being only 10 whites in the Andrews said he "didn't wear clothes left who had not married whites or members mid-19th until he was 8 years old. There was no need of other tribes.Only one four-member family Century. to becausethere was lots of privacy out was included in the total. At one time, the Indian culture there." Chemakums occupied lands from the mouth When he was about 13 years old, of Hood Canal to Port DiscoveryBay. was banished Andrews had an encounterwith a coupleof The S'Klallam tribe derived their name during the whales that he's not forgotten. from"Nusklaim," a word in their language school year at "About halfway across the canal, these which meant "strong people." boarding two whales buzzed me," Andrews recalled. The S'Klallams had claimed territory "They bumped the boat and made waves from Port Discovery Bayto the Hoko River schools the that bumped me, and the dogs barked, but on the northern coast of Washington. children were they didn't tip me over." Shortly before the turn of the 20th sent to. When he told about being accostedby Century, Eellsnoted many S'Klallams had the whales, Andrews said his mother moved to Little Boston,opposite Port explained the huge beasts may have been Gamble; to Jamestown north of Sequim; and trying to get to the dog and her puppies, Port Townsend and Port Discovery Bay, noting that whales eat seals and other small where most were employed at sawmills. animals. Another band ofS'Klallams made their Andrews' tribe shared use of the canal home in Elwah, about eight miles west of with two others, the Suquamish and the Port Port Angeles, living largely on fish. (Al Gamble S'Klallams. though the Port Gamble clan changed the The Skokomishelder said his people spelling of the tribal name to S'Klallam, the had friends among the Suquamish Indians, closestreflection to the correctpronuncia although"theyhad a hostility among them. tion, the Jamestown and Lower Elwah clans It seemed like they always had to have still use Klallam in their names.) someone's permission to be in the area. We never worried about it, but they did." Ihe Suquamish and the Skokomish were the main users of Hood Canal during Doth sides of Hood Canal originally the latter years of the 19th Century, accord were inhabited by the Twana Indians, ing to Lawrence Webster of Indianola. divided into three bands, the Du-hlelips, At 91, Webster is the eldest of the Skokomish and Kolsids, the Rev. Myron Suquamish tribe, centered on the Port Eells wrote in The Twana, Chemakum and Madison Indian Reservationin North Kitsap. Klallam Indians of Washington Territory, 'They used the west side, we used the published in 1887. east side" of the canal, he said. The Klallam He said the word 'Twana" was Tribe, particularly those from Port Gamble, believed to meana portage,coming"from didn't begin to make substantial use of Hood 292 • The People of Hood Canal Canal until after Pope &Talbot built its it required. Younger Indians "began to get lumber mill at Port Gamble in 1854, Webster busy with other things." added. He recalled taking a cedar dugout canoe on a month-long fishing trip on the Irene Purser, 90, an eldermember of canal when he was about 4 years old. the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe at Little "It was a family canoe, seven of us," he Boston, also remembers the canal as a major The S'Klallam said. It was large enough for four adults, thoroughfare for early settlers. She and two other Tribe derived three children and the group's camping equipment. Hood Canal S'Klallam tribal elders — her its namefrom They paddled the half-sister, Mildred Decoteau, "Nu-sklaim," a canoe northward from Miller tribes 64, and Catherine Moran, 81 word in their Bayaround the Kitsap — recalled how game, fish language that Peninsula, into the mouth of and other forms of life were meant "strong Hood Canal and all the way found alongside the canal. Then commercial ventures people." to the south end of the saltwater channel. and increasing numbers of The group had timed residences began to change the journey to the canal to the life they'd grown to take advantage of the tides enjoy. because without help from "In those days, you tidal currents, their canoe trip could go where you wanted would have been much to dig clamsor go fishing," longer.Evenwith tides Decoteau said. "It was an working in their favor, the important part of daily life." trip required the better part Purser said she could of a day. The Skokomish (1), remember when there was They spent the next the Port Gamble "only one store on the canal month living in canvas tents S1 Klallam (2) and — at Lofall. People went pitched along the banks of the Suquamish (3) there to buy hardtack, flour the canal, sleeping on cattail and sugar." mats, fishing each day and allfound She recalled her drying their catch over sustenance in the grandparents taking her to campfires to keep it through bounty of the Hood Puyallup with them to pick the winter. Canal watershed. hops and going to Brinnon to After they'd caught and catch and dry fish for the dried what they could take back in their winter. She also remembered family mem canoe,they returned home.The trip back, bers baking bread by burying loaves in hot however, took a full day's paddling and part sand and "eating fishon a stickevery day of another, Webster recalled, because they and never getting tired of it." had miscalculated the tides needed to make Moran said her people would dig their journey easier. clams each winter and sell them for 50 cents When he was growing up, Webster a bushel. said Anderson Hill Road in Central Kitsap Purser's family had a large canoe, large and the Port Gamble-Suquamish Road in enough fora bed in the middle for the North Kitsap werenot roads,but merepaths childrenin her familyto sleep, with room on — routes used frequently by his people to each end for adults to sit and paddle the get to and from Hood Canal.He said tribal craft. members who were in fishing camps on the In addition to paddling and using tidal canal for extended periods often used the currents to their advantage, the Indians also trails to tend to matters back home. The nine- relied on the winds to power their canoes mile trek could be made within a few hours. and flat-bottomed boats, Moran said. She Webster recalled the Suquamish didn't recalled how sails were created by sewing go over to the canal as much starting in flour sacks together. about 1910. Older tribal members were less 'The canoe was how they got around," inclined to make the trip becauseof the effort she said. Native Americans »193 Section 2 Tribes Seek Their Spirit Song ByJulie McCormick Skokomish spiritual leader Bruce Miller brought theold cleansing ritual back to his tribe.