Poles to Lift the Sky

Port Gardner Bay, circa 1905 by Asahel Curtis. UW Digital Collections.

William Shelton (1868-1938)

William Shelton, 1913
(Photo: J.A. Juleen, Everett Public Library)

During my research into the history and culture of the Tulalip Tribes, I kept coming across a name I'd never heard before in connection to Everett's history: William Shelton (1868-1938). So I started to take a closer look at Shelton, and as I learned more about him and read his writings, I really came to admire him. He plays a major role in the preservation the region's Native culture, and did everything he could to create a bridge between his people and an unfamiliar white culture.

During the early 1900s, at the height of the U.S. Government/Indian Agency effort to "kill the Indian, save the man" (via cultural assimilation into white American culture and the systematic destruction of Native language and culture) at the Tulalip Indian Boarding School, Shelton was going to great lengths to preserve a way of life and bring a greater understanding and appreciation of that way to those outside of the reservation.

From historylink.org:

"William Shelton (1868-1938), cultural leader of the Tulalip Tribes, spent much of his life attempting to bridge the divide between regional Indians and whites through traditional storytelling and art. Shelton gained an understanding of his own native culture through family teachings and by learning from many of his tribal elders. He also was adept at working with Bureau of Indian Affairs and city government officials, gaining their respect and support. Shelton spent years mastering the art of wood carving in order to create story poles through which he shared many of his tribes’ cultural teachings. To accompany one of his carved poles, Shelton wrote a booklet published in 1913 titled Indian Totem Legends which told the stories of the pole’s carved figures. The booklet also carried the author’s autobiography. On January 2, 1914, a longer version of this same piece was published in The Everett Daily Herald."

As far as I can tell, a major newspaper printing the autobiography of a local Indian was pretty unheard of at the time. Shelton was seen as a leader by both the Tulalip and the citizens of Everett.

The Herald published these comments along with Shelton's story:

"The following interview with William Shelton, a full-blooded Indian of the Tulalip Reservation, is remarkable . . . seldom has an Indian talked so freely of himself and his tribe and of the white race. The interview is interesting in its reference to the early practices of Indian fathers to make their sons strong and courageous. William Shelton, carver of the wonderful double totem pole at Tulalip, also originator of the plan that resulted in the totem's creation, is a remarkable red man and a valuable attache of Tulalip Reservation. There is nothing in the way of an assignment that he is unable to fulfill. He has been tested many times along various lines. Here is Shelton's story."

(Shelton's story can be found in his book Indian Totem Legends of the Northwest Country and The Story of the Totem Pole, available at the Everett Public Library, as well as at the Shelton link above. Herald quote found in Indian Totem Legends)

Shelton understood that education was the key to stopping cultural genocide. Although there was no way he could stop the white culture's domination of the area, he did succeed in recording pieces of Native culture, and presenting them to the mainstream community. He was able to give the Tulalips a voice in a time when they were afforded none, and to bring some of their discourses back to Everett.

Shelton is, without a doubt, a key figure in Everett and Tulalip history ... a bit of an unsung hero. I'd like to see him honored more. In any case, he serves as role-model to me in his belief that histories and discourses are valuable, and that multitude of diverse voices need to be heard within the region.

Grand Avenue Park: "Near this Spot"

I've been to Grand Avenue Park a million times over the years, and I've never thought of it as much of a "park." With its well maintained walking path and narrow strips of grass, it's not really a place to play, but more of a space to relax, sit on a bench, and enjoy the best view in the city of Port Gardner Bay and the Everett waterfront.

It's fitting that it feels like a place of reflection, because on my visit there a week or two ago, I came upon something I'd never realized was there before:

A stone marker with a plaque that reads:

"On the Beach

near this spot

Vancouver

landed June 4, 1792"

 

 



I could instantly imagine the waterfront as a sprawling beach, untouched by modernization -- and the giant masts of the Discovery appearing over the horizon. The grand mansions and old Everett homes behind me vanished in an expanse of deep forest, and I could picture the people of the Snohomish, going about their daily business as they had since the beginning of time, unaware that their world was about to change forever.

According to The History of Everett Parks by Allan May and Dale Preboski:

"The granite marker so inscribed was put in place 123 years later [after 1792] by the Marcus Whitman Daughters of the American Revolution . . . Captain George Vancouver never stood on the bluff. The solid reminder at Grand Avenue Park is meant to approximate the location of his visit.

History has it that the English explorer was fascinated by the place. He should have climbed the bluff. Despite what must have been a voyage of adventure and beauty for Vancouver in the late 1700s, he could have added from this outlook a memorable view . . . Then, the water was nearer to the bluff. Landfills extending into the bay were far in the future. Arriving through the forest, the view from the bluff must have been spectacular.

The native Snohomish tribe knew this place. The rough stumped and struggling city preserved it, with a park created in 1906. Thirteen years after the city was established . . . land for the Grand Avenue Park was sold to the city by the Everett Improvement Company for the legal fee of $1" (25).

Everett's parks have a way of encapsulating the divergent strands of its environmental and social history (as we'll explore more): the Native tribes, the European explorers, the settlers, the capitalists. In this way, I see them as a crossroads -- a physically constructed signpost of Everett's imagined identity, a space to connect its history to its future -- carved out of the natural landscape.

Early Maps 2: Vancouver's "Voyage of Discovery"

In contrast to the Lushootseed tale of "Doh-Kwi-Buhch" and the imagining of the region as derived from diversity, communal participation, and creative interaction with nature, the first major European imagining of Everett is found in the story of British Capt. George Vancouver's "Voyage of Discovery." Here we find the region born out of imperialistic adventure and a driving push for commerce.

In William Whitfield's 1926 History of Snohomish County Vol. 1, he writes:

"We are particularly interested in the epochal expedition of George Vancouver in the waters of Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia, because it was here, in the very locality of Everett and the shores of Snohomish County that the famous navigator planted the sign of British authority, and proclaimed possession of all the land laved by these sheltered waters, for King George III, at the same time naming the country "New Georgia" in honor of that monarch.

Vancouver had sailed from England on April 1, 1791, in command of the sloop Discovery with 100 men and 20 guns, and accompanied by the armed tender, the brig Chatham, forty-five men and ten guns, commanded by Lieut. W. R. Broughton, vessels and officers and men being of the British navy" (30).

Vancouver had been sent to examine the coast of North West America, comprised between Lat. 60 degrees North and lat. 30 degrees North. A letter from William Grenville, British Secretary of State to the Lords of the Admiralty, instructed him to "receive" the area from the Spanish, and to "acquire accurate information with respect to the nature and extent of any water communication which may tend . . . to facilitate an intercourse for the purpose of commerce" (Derek Hayes, Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest, 85).

On June 4, 1792 he went ashore in the vicinity of Tulalip, near the future city of Everett.

In his journal, Vancouver wrote of the event:

"A fortnight had been dedicated to the examination of the inlet, which I have distinguished by the name of Admiralty inlet [he had already names the sound south of Seattle, Puget Sound, and the waters south of the Gulf of Georgia were included as Admiralty inlet -- Whitfield]

...On Monday, June 4 they [his crew] were served as good a dinner as we were able to provide for them, with double allowance of grog to drink the King's health, it being the anniversary of His Majesty's birth; on which auspicious day I had long since designed to take formal possession of all the countries we had lately been employed in exploring, in the name of, and for His Britannic Majesty, his heirs and successors.

To execute this purpose . . . I went on shore about 1 o'clock, pursuing the usual formalities which are generally observed on such occassions . . . took possession accordingly . . .

This branch of Admiralty Inlet I distinguished by the name of Port Gardner, and its smaller eastern (northern) one by that of Port Susan."

Vancouver described the residents who inhabited the land he had just taken "formal possession" of as "... helpful and non-threatening" and went on to document some of the traits, cultural practices, and lifestyle he witnessed there.

 1798 Vancouver Map of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and Washington

"To the European mind, the etching of routes and roads onto maps makes certain returning to a desirable place. Find it on paper; get your colonels, bureaucrats, and men of the cloth there in person. To the imperial mind, charted trails and thoroughfares become announcements of possibility, invitations to invasion." -- Chellis Glendinning, Off the Map

Everett Mills by moonlight, 1938

Photo by Everett Murray, Everett Public Library (Image No. 0531). Accessed via HistoryLink.org.

Early Maps 1: "Doh-Kwi-Buhch"

The following is one of the earliest existing maps of the Everett area, a Native creation story attributed to the Snohomish and related tribes who inhabited the beaches along the Snohomish river and what is now the Everett waterfront between the Snohomish and Port Gardner Bay. Although this story has been handed down for generations, this particular telling is by William Shelton (1868-1938) as he recorded it in The Story of the Totem Pole: Early Indian Legends (1913-1914):

"Doh-Kwi-Buhch"


Doh-Kwi-Buhch was the name of the great and mighty man who created the world. He started his wonderful task away over the East and gradually worked towards the West, creating everything as he went along. He carried with him a great variety of languages and as he created each group of people, he gave them a language, being careful to select the best languages he had.

While working his way West, he reached Puget Sound country and decided that he would go no farther West or North. In his hand he still had a great number of languages left and at a loss to know what to do with them he scattered them all around him and to the North, and that is very reason why there are so many different languages among the Indians of the Sound country and the North.

After Doh-Kwi-Buhch had scattered the languages about in this wasteful fashion, the different tribes of Indians, found they could not understand one another; they were not satisfied with the way in which Doh-Kwi-Buhch had created the world -- they found that the sky was much too low to suit their convenience, for the taller people would very often bump their heads on the sky. Also, people got into the habit of climbing trees and making their way into the next world, which was not as it should be.

The wiser Indians of the different tribes held a meeting and it was agreed that the people should try to shove the sky up higher and it would be possible to do this if all the people would shove at the same time. How could they make them all understand just when they were to shove? Doh-Kwi-Buhch had given animals, birds, insects, people all different languages and it would be difficult to make them all understand just when they were to shove. Finally, one of the wiser men thought of the word "Ya-hoh," which means to lift together and so these wise men who were attending the meeting scattered news among the different tribes and the date for lifting the sky was set.

In the meantime everybody was busy making poles with which to lift the sky. You will see a bundle of these sticks or poles carved on the big story pole -- they are carefully wrapped in matting and tied with Indian packing straps to that they may be preserved for a long time. You can only see the ends of the stick protruding from the matting.

On the day set for the lifting of the sky, all the people braced their poles againstt the sky and the command "Yay-hoh" was given and everybody lifted as hard as they could and they succeeded in raising the sky a little bit; after the second "Yah-hoh" the sky was raised a little higher and after the third attempt they raised the sky up to its present position.

Now it happened that just as the people had been ready to shove the sky up, three hunters who had been chasing four elk for several hours came to where heaven and earth nearly met and the elk jumped into the next world, and, of course, the hunters followed them, so that when the sky was raised the hunters and the elk were raised with it. To this very day, you can see them in the sky at night; the three hunters form the handle of the dipper -- the one in the center is leading his dog, the tiny star so close to him -- and the four elk form the rest of the dipper. Then, too, you have noticed the skatefish formation of stars in the sky; two canoes with three Indians in each canoe and a little fish happened to be making their way into the sky when the people shoved the sky up and so they have had to remain there ever since. All the Indians know that the hunters and the little dog, the elk, and the little fish, the fishermen in the canoes were on earth once upon a time and all the tribes have the same names for these stars.

From the time the people moved the sky, there was no more jumping into the next world, and the people were content and happy. Although they could not yet understand the language of all the different tribes, they were happy because they had been able to use the wonderful word "Ya-hoh" and in that way that had been able to accomplish what they had set out to do.