Twana narratives : native historical accounts of a Coast Salish culture

Book

Twana narratives : native historical accounts of a Coast Salish culture / William W. Elmendorf.

Elmendorf, William W. (William Welcome), 1912- (Author).

Summary:

The Twana speech community of Coast Salish Indians lived, before 1860, in nine villages in western Washington. Twana Narratives presents first-person, insider accounts of Twana history, society, and religion, as told by natives Frank and Henry Allen to anthropologist William Elmendorf between 1934 and 1940. The Allens were born in the Hood Canal area in the mid-nineteenth century and were fluent in both English and Twana. The vigorous language of the eighty narratives, while predominantly English, is freely interspersed with key native terms denoting personal names, genealogical connections, and spirit powers and rituals. The texts, unique for the region and the period, reveal a strong sense of the local diversity within the larger Salish area and of the intricate interrelationships between village communities. Elmendorf encouraged his informants to select and discuss at length topics and events of interest to themselves, rather than respond to directed questioning. They were responsible for narrative emphases and for the expression of opinions and value judgments regarding reported events and activities. Elmendorf offers background information on the narrators themselves and notes the circumstances preceding their discussions. He suggests a chronology of datable events reported and discusses a history-myth continuum. To facilitate ethnographic analysis and cross-referencing, he groups the narratives within seven topical categories: movements and contacts (including origins of the Duhlelap Twana, missionaries, intervillage relations, and the Shakers); classes and class functions (including slaves, potlatches, and secret societies); society and the individual (including marriage. names, menstrual observances, and burial); war, feud, and murder; spirit power (including bodily possession and inherited power); shamans; and souls, magic, and ritual (including soul loss, love magic, and hate magic). With these narratives in hand, it is possible to compare their emphases, representing the culture as recalled by participants, with the published accounts of outside analysts. This confrontation and comparison of two patterns - the natives' own ethnography and that of nonparticipant anthropologists - may afford new perspectives on participants' expression of cultural views. Elmendorf's skillful presentation of the material will make Twana Narratives an essential sourcebook for students of Northwest Coast ethnography.

Record details

ISBN: 0295972386
ISBN: 9780295972381
ISBN: 0774804750
ISBN: 9780774804752
Physical Description: lv, 306 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
Publisher: Seattle : University of Washington Press ; ©1993.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-269) and indexes.
Formatted Contents Note:: I. Movements and Contacts. 1. Founding of the Duhlelap community (FA). 2. Early Skokomish Reservation days (HA). 3. Yakima are not smart west of the mountains (FA). 4. Skokomish relations with Vance Creek and Satsop (FA). 5. Skokomish and Carr Inlet people try to eat each other up (FA). 6. Skokomish beat Sahewamish at disk game (FA). 7. Skokomish, Nisqually, and Upper Chehalis horse race and disk game (FA). 8. How the Skokomish killed a whale (FA) -- II. Classes and Class Functions. 9. About slaves (HA). 10. Skokomish potlatch at Enatai (FA). 11. Kwakiutl guests show awful power at Cowichan potlatch (FA). 12. Klallam deride Cowichan at Songish potlatch (FA). 13. Secret society spirit reveals itself at Skokomish (FA). 14. Whaling and secret society initiation at Klallam Bay (FA). 15. General information on secret society (FA). 16. Songish raid Hoodsport Twana camp; give secret society initiation at Victoria (FA). 17. Secret society initiation at Port Gamble (FA). 18. Quilcene Twana secret society initiation (FA) -- III. Society and the Individual. 19. Bad feeling at Skokomish-Skykomish wedding (FA). 20. Skokomish arrange Dosewallips-Quinault marriage during the tall elk hunt (FA). 21. Dungeness Klallam marries captured Skagit girl (FA). 22. Port Angeles Klallam chief displays ceremonial swing to his daughter's Skokomish in-laws (FA). 23. Frank Allen's father marries daughter of Dungeness Klallam chief (FA). 24. Frank Allen marries his son to Charley Wilbur's daughter (FA). 25. How names are used (HA). 26. Frank Allen takes a name (FA). 27. How to treat a girl at puberty (FA). 28. Burial of Skokomish girl killed by grizzly (FA). 29. Reburial of Sam Adams's son (FA) -- IV. War, Feud, and Murder. 30. Duckabush Twana warrior defeats Skagit raiders (FA). 31. Raids on the Skokomish (HA). 32. Skokomish chief is angered by Hoodsport people; gets Dungeness warriors to kill them (FA). 33. Klallam-Cowichan war at Port Townsend (FA). 34. Skokomish warriors help Klallam raid Cowichan (FA). 35. Discovery of a Klallam war power (FA). 36. Suquamish wipe out Chemakum village (FA). 37. Kitsap's great battle with the Kwakiutl (FA). 38. Leschi's war against the whites (FA). 39. Skokomish shaman destroys Skagit in revenge for his slain sons (FA). 40. Skokomish hate-magic avenges murder (HA) -- V. Spirit Power. 41. Bodily possession by spirit power (FA). 42. Sore-Eye Bill's wealth-power vision (HA). 43. Chehalis boy encounters underwater wealth power (FA). 44. Chehalis chief brings whale and sea otter by wealth power (FA). 45. Lazy Sahewamish man gets a wonderful wealth power (FA). 46. Slave blood prevents Tyee Charley from getting full wealth power (FA). 47. Skokomish boy gets wealth power from Mt. Elinor; his brother acquires underwater wealth power (FA). 48. Twana man gets wealth power and is murdered by Dosewallips chief (HA). 49. Skokomish man has power encounter while possessed by secret society spirit; his power animals bring smelt (FA). 50. Frank Allen gets loon power for gambling (FA). 51. Big Bill displays his war power (FA). 52. Doctor Charley's power brings food (FA). 53. Jane Henry's power performance (FA). 54. Skokomish man shows hollow stump power (FA). 55. Duhlelap headman's power frightens geese from Skokomish flats (HA). 56. How power is inherited (HA). 57. How [actual symbol not reproducible] power was inherited in a Skokomish family (FA) -- VI. Shamans. 58. Nature of shaman powers (FA). 59. Tahuya man encounters ayahos shaman power; it brings him wealth, wives, fish (FA). 60. Skokomish man encounters ayahos and its weapons, acquires wives and wealth, and is feared (FA). 61. Skokomish boy gets [actual symbol not reproducible] shaman power; cures Klallam man (FA). 62. Tenas Charley gets shaman powers; cures Squaxon girl (FA). 63. Skokomish chief as young man encounters [actual symbol not reproducible] power, cures Klallam woman (FA). 64. Duke Williams gets shaman power from ayahos and cougar; cures Klallam man of power illness (FA). 65. Tyee Charley gets mountain-marmot shaman power; cures Klallam man of soul loss (FA). 66. Doctor Charley gets shaman power from otter; cures Nisqually man of power theft (FA). 67. Malignant shaman powers (FA). 68. Spirit intrusion, its cause and treatment (HA) -- VII. Souls, Magic, and Ritual. 69. Soul-loss cases (HA). 70. Skokomish soul-recovery specialist (FA). 71. Power-shooting and soul-theft by shaman at Skokomish (FA). 72. Soul recovery; Skokomish doctors go to ghost land (FA). 73. The soul-recovery ceremony (HA). 74. Klallam [actual symbol not reproducible] ceremony recovers lost power; owner displays the power and brings seafood (FA). 75. Chehalis doctors try to find lost money with earth dwarf images (FA). 76. Harmful magic and love magic (FA). 77. Hate magic and the [actual symbol not reproducible] (HA). 78. Using compulsive magic (HA). 79. The first salmon ceremony (HA). 80. The first salmon ceremony instituted at Skokomish; Chinook steal a Skokomish bride (FA). Indexes of Place Names, Ethnic Groups, and Persons.