The Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center in Wenatchee, Washington, has a display of American Indian photos.
Wenatchee is, of course, named for the Wenatchee Indians who lived along the Columbia River for thousands of years prior to the European invasion. Linguistically, the Wenatchee language is a part of the Columbian Group of the Plateau Salish language sub-family and is, therefore, most closely related to Chelan, Entiat, Method, and Columbia.
Christine Quintasket, writing under the name Mourning Dove, was the first American Indian woman to write a novel. Cogewea: The Half-Blood had actually been completed in 1916, but it took another decade to find a publisher for it. The novel remained an obscure piece of Native American literature until it was republished in 1981.
Mourning Dove was born in a canoe about 1885 when her mother was crossing the Kootenay River in Idaho. Her father was Joseph Quintasket, an Okanagan from British Columbia and her mother was Lucy Stukin, a Salish Colville from north central Washington.
Coyote Stories was published in 1933. This is a collection of traditional Okanogan stories. However, working with an editor who was primarily concerned with reaching a non-Indian audience, these stories are presented in a fashion that would be acceptable for this audience. Thus, stories about incest, transvestism, and infanticide were omitted from the collection. The alterations in the stories to make them appeal to a non-Indian audience often makes them unrecognizable to the traditional Okanogan from which they came.
Baskets were often a trade item. Mary Dodds Schlick, in her chapter in Woven History: Native American Basketry, writes:
“The Native people of the Columbia Plateau are rich in basketmaking tradition. For thousands of years their ancestors have used the roots, bark and grasses of the region to fashion containers for all their needs.”
In his book People of the River: Native Arts of the Oregon Territory, Bill Mercer writes:
“Basketry is an art form that reached great heights of creative expression among the people of the Columbia River region. Although baskets served primarily functional purposes, they were nevertheless constructed with great care and decorated with sophisticated designs that lent them an aesthetic status beyond mere utilitarian objects.”
Indians 101
Twice each week Indians 101 looks at different American Indian topics. More museum tours from this series:
Indians 101: Indian photographs in the Washington State History Museum (photo diary)
Indians 101: Nisqually and Puyallup baskets (photo diary)
Indians 101: Native Baskets from the Olympic Peninsula (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Columbia River Beadwork (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Horse Regalia (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Model canoes (museum tour)
Indians 101: Exploring Glass Art by Native Artists (Art Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Cradleboards (Photo Diary)