486 pages
18 photographs, 2 illustrations, 9 maps, 3 appendixes, index
Rights Remembered is a remarkable historical narrative and autobiography written by esteemed Lummi elder and culture bearer Pauline R. Hillaire, Scälla–Of the Killer Whale. A direct descendant of the immediate postcontact generation of Coast Salish in Washington State, Hillaire combines in her narrative life experiences, Lummi oral traditions preserved and passed on to her, and the written record of relationships between the United States and the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast to tell the story of settlers, government officials, treaties, reservations, and the colonial relationship between Coast Salish and the white newcomers.
Hillaire’s autobiography, although written out of frustration with the status of Native peoples in America, is not an expression of anger but rather represents, in her own words, her hope “for greater justice for Indian people in America, and for reconciliation between Indian and non-Indian Americans, based on recognition of the truths of history.”
Addressed to indigenous and non-Native peoples alike, this is a thoughtful call for understanding and mutual respect between cultures.
Pauline R. Hillaire, Scälla–Of the Killer Whale (Lummi) (1929–2016), was a historian, genealogist, artist, teacher, and conservator of Coast and Straits Salish knowledge and culture. In 2013 she was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as a National Heritage Fellow, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. She is the author, with Gregory P. Fields, of A Totem Pole History: The Work of Lummi Carver Joe Hillaire (Nebraska, 2013). Gregory P. Fields is a professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. He is the author of Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga, Ayurveda, and Tantra.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: American Indian History and the Future
A Short Autobiography
Prologue: The Abundance That Was the Great Northwest
Part 1. The Nineteenth Century and Before
1. Forgotten Genocide
2. The Building of America
3. Centuries of Injustice
4. Reservation Creation
5. After the Treaty
Part 2. The Twentieth Century and After
6. Legal and Land Rights
7. A Shrinking Land Base, Persecution, and Racism
8. Aboriginal Fishermen
9. Break Through Ahistory
Part 3. Oral History and Cultural Teachings
10. Scälla—Of the Killer Whale: A Song of Hope
11. Earth, Our First Teacher
12. Poems by Joseph R. Hillaire and Pauline R. Hillaire
13. History in the Time of the Treaty of Point Elliott: An Oration by Joseph R. Hillaire
Afterword: And to My Father
Appendix 1: Treaty of Point Elliott, 1855
Appendix 2: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007
Appendix 3: Events in U.S. Indian History and Policy, Emphasizing the Point Elliott Treaty Tribes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
