Cowlitz Leadership: Then and Now

The Cowlitz have experienced many changes throughout their journey of leadership and government. Originally, the divided tribe was ran by multiple Chiefs. Each small village within the tribe had their own leader who made decisions for their group. They were masters of persuasion and that is the way that they chose to lead their people. They did not exercise authority by command; instead they used the art of persuasion. The chief status was obtained by their special merit, meaning they usually were believed to have powers and infinite wisdom, benevolence, and courage. These men, who were chosen as chiefs, were more than just leaders, they were all-knowing spiritual beings. Throughout the good and bad times, the Cowlitz people followed and believed in their chiefs.

As time went on and the epidemic of the Cowlitz people occurred, the whole foundation of  leadership and government within the tribe was gone. In order to simply survive, the only thing to do was conform to the settler’s ways of life. In doing so, the Cowlitz lived similarly as the European settlers, having no government, or even a tribe for that matter, to form a leadership.

In the process to rebuild the Cowlitz tribe and the recent granting of federal recognition by the U.S. Government, the Cowlitz, after many years, is finally establishing a new way to lead their people. Although the Cowlitz have been working to do everything they can to revitalize the way of life their ancestors once knew, due to the changing of times, some traditions must change as well. The leadership and way to govern is one of those traditions. The Cowlitz has now somewhat adopted the idea of a democracy from the U.S. Government and has formed a board and committee within the tribe. This committee works together to continue to build up the Cowlitz and make a community that will make it’s tribe proud.

 

Sources:

http://www.hometowndebate.com/the-spirit-of-the-cowlitz-society-and-politics-part-1-cms-164

https://www.cowlitz.org/index.php/7-welcome-tocowlitz-country

 

 

Crimilization of the Cowlitz

In the year 1855, a large war broke out between the whites and the Indians, while the Cowlitz continued to stay clear of all battles and wrath of the European settlers. That was, however, until the settlers came to Cowlitz chief Atwin Stockam, asking for a deal. Since many tribes surrounding the Cowlitz, like the Yakimas and Klikitats, began to grow a militia to fight against the Europeans, the settlers began to worry that these tribes would gain more of an army by including the Cowlitz in their battle. The settlers promised the tribe more land to add to their reservation if they agreed to remain peaceful during this time of militant warfare. Chief Atwin agreed to this deal. Therefore, for the remainder of the Puget Sound War, many Cowlitz members were sent to detention camps where they were to be held under a watchful eye until the war was over.

In these “local reservations” along the Chehalis River, where hundreds of Cowlitz members were held for almost two years, living conditions were very poor. The Cowlitz, as well as a mix of other coastal tribes, were crowded together in very tight quarters and were not given adequate food or water. While held captive in these detention camps, tribe members were stripped of their personal property and left with virtually nothing. As the war went on, however, the Cowlitz stood behind Chief Atwin and trusted that this treatment was only temporary and they would be rewarded for their peaceful actions by receiving an extension of reservation land as soon as the war came to an end.

After the war was over, the Cowlitz began to return home. Upon reaching their reservation, they had a startling discovery; all of their possessions at home had been destroyed by the settlers. The story goes that at the war’s end, most settlers had assumed that all rights were taken away from all natives as a result of the war. The Cowlitz were left with nothing and were treated the same as the tribes who had fought in the war, even though they kept their promise to remain peaceful throughout.

As time went on, The Cowlitz did the best they could to continue life as they knew it before the war had begun. Not being satisfied with the seemingly undamaged tribe, Europeans began to encroach upon the Cowlitz ways of life. They pressured the Cowlitz people to change tribe rituals such as flattening their heads, relying on medicine men, to forego speaking their own variation of  the Sahalish language, and many more. This did not seem to phase the Cowlitz, and they continued to not be bothered by the settlers presence. The Cowlitz, at this time in history, were known for sticking to their original way of life as best they could and managing to avoid the settler’s encroachment as long as possible. However, this success later did more damage than good to the tribe. The United States government later used this very success as the reason why they would not be compensated for land that was to be taken away from them, as well as denying the tribe recognition.

The criminalization of the Cowlitz had nothing to do with the tribe’s actions. They were never a forceful group toward the European settlers. The very loyalty and peacefulness of the tribe is exactly what was used against them by the settlers to criminalize them and take away their land and rights.

 

Sources:

http://www.cowlitz.org/index.php/38-history

http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/996

Language Revitalization

The Cowlitz, being a fairly small tribe surrounded by larger tribes such as the Quinalt and Chehalis, shared many qualities with their neighboring tribes. Originally, all of these tribes and more were a part of the large group, or family, of Salishan languages, meaning each tribe usually spoke their own unique variation of the same language. In the early 1800’s, the Cowlitz were known as two distinct and separate – although connected – tribes; The Upper Cowlitz, or Taidnapam and the Lower Cowlitz.

The Upper Cowlitz were closer to the east and gradually became closer to the tribes plateau tribes east of the Cascade Mountains. One of the larger tribes most associated with the Taidnapam, or Upper Cowlitz, are the Yakima. Eventually, through intermarriage with the Yakima and other plateau tribes, the Taidnapam adopted the Sahaptan language from them. They developed their own variety of this language and spoke it exclusively from that point in history on, until the desolation of a large majority of the entire Cowlitz, leaving the language to be very rare and almost desolate.

The Lower Cowlitz, being so closely related to that of their nearby neighbors, the Chehalis, continued to speak Salishan just as their neighboring tribes did. However, just like the Upper Cowlitz, as time went on and the Northwest areas were overtaken by Europeans through fur and trade companies, the Cowlitz variation of this language slowly began to disappear. When three fourths of the Cowlitz nation was wiped out by Gray Fever, brought to them by European settlers, the remaining Cowlitz were forced to conform to the European’s ways in order to continue on in life. Being able to preserve what little was left of their original tribe was nearly impossible.

Today, the Cowlitz are continuing to fight and build up what was once torn down by sickness and defeat. Since the majority of Cowlitz members still live in the Northwest, they have been working on banding together and bringing back what has been lost in history for so many years. Part of this restoration is the process of language revitalization. In the last couple of years, since gaining government recognition as a tribe and starting the construction of a community on their original reservation, the Cowlitz have been continuing to build upon the original tribal foundation and create togetherness and peace within the tribe once more. Both the Taidnapam and Lower Cowlitz languages are beginning to be retaught in the community. Many tribal elders are even promoting language lessons and spreading the original language to younger generations within the tribe.

 

 

Sources:

http://www.native-languages.org/cowlitz.htm

http://www.native-languages.org/taitnapam.htm

http://www.cowlitz.org/index.php/38-history

Remaining Cowlitz Strong

The Cowlitz tribe, as a whole, have experienced many troubling events throughout time. The first major disaster occurred in 1829-1830 when over 75% of the tribe was wiped out from catching what was known as “Gray Fever”, a disease related to smallpox, from a new European ship anchoring at their shores. This event was a complete devastation to the tribe and caused the remaining 500 tribe members to part ways in search of survival and a way to bring the tribe back to life. Throughout history and the recovering of the tribe on their original soil, many major natural disasters caused damage to the Cowlitz land. Most of these natural disasters were floods, which occurred and did major damage a total of four times within a span of eighty years. The last major natural disaster to cause destruction to the Cowlitz land was the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. This caused mud and debris to flow into the Toutle River Valley, sending it straight to the Cowlitz area.

Throughout history, the Cowlitz experienced many hardships with keeping their land. In the early 1900’s, more than seventy years after the epidemic of Gray Fever, the tribe began to grow in numbers and banded together to fight the U.S Government for the right to gain a designated territory where they could live off the land, as their late tribe members had in the past. This was a long and harrowing battle that resulted in an unsigned and treaty not once, but twice. Not only were the Cowlitz promised treaties and were denied, but much of the land that they thought they had in their possession was taken away from them. the Cowlitz continued to fight this long fight with the U.S Government and did not officially gain a rightful, federally recognized reservation until the year 2015.

My purpose of telling you all of the damage, destruction and hardships that have occurred within the Cowlitz tribe was to make it apparent that one thing was never destroyed; their spirituality. Through all of the hard times this tribe faced, they managed to keep their spiritual freedom and not let the hard times have a negative effect on what they believed in. With all of the battles against Mother Nature and the U. S Government, one thing that was never forcefully taken from them was their freedom of religion. The government did not actively attempt to push European religious traditions onto the Cowlitz. Therefore, throughout time, they continued to practice their beliefs.

The Cowlitz tribe were and continue to be a very spiritual people. Before the contact and influence of the Europeans, the Cowlitz were known to practice many different religious rituals, including their most common one, the traditional sun dance celebration of the land, usually lasting up to several days. This tradition, along with many other religious and spiritual beliefs can still be seen in the Cowlitz tribe today. After finally receiving a reservation and feeling more together as a tribe than before the original contact with the Europeans, the Cowlitz refuse to let their ancestors religious beliefs, which were carried on through so much hardship, be forgotten. In today’s day and age, there are about 1,400 Cowlitz members. Many of which continue to practice the rituals and religious beliefs of the ones before them. While it is no question that the Cowlitz have been through their fair share of destruction, spiritual genocide was fortunately not something they were forced to face as a tribe.

 

Sources

http://www.cowlitz.org/index.php/38-history

http://www.historylink.org/File/7482

http://native-american-indian-facts.com/Northwest-Coast-American-Indian-Facts/Cowlitz-Indian-Tribe-Facts.shtml

 

A Shift in the Winds

The Cowlitz had a very stable life in the lands of what is now the state of Washington. Living just a mile above the Colombian River, they had access to many different types of terrain and the benefits they could supply for them. They used the river to fish and were known as expert fishermen. They moved tot he prairies in the spring to dig for Indian potatoes, which provided starch for their diet. They took advantage of the mountains and often camped and trekked to the Cascades to hunt for animals and collect berries. As very spiritual and religious beings, the Cowlitz seemed to have been living the perfect Native life. That was, until major changes took place around them, leaving them no choice but to follow suit.

The first encounter the Cowlitz had with Europeans was in the early 1800’s, when the Lewis and Clark expedition stumbled into their territory. The Cowlitz people were very wary of these strangers and were not at first very willing to welcome these new people into their lives and culture. Meriwether Lewis described the Cowlitz people as being “poor, dirty, proud, haughty, inhospitable, parsimonious and faithless in every respect” and described that he knew they were not happy to see them by saying ” nothing but our numbers I believe prevents their attempting to murder us at this moment”.

After Lewis and Clark came and went, the Cowlitz continued to live life as they had before they ever encountered the Europeans. They went on with their normal way of life until the year 1811, when Astorians of the Pacific Fur Company passed through the Colombian River in search to further their business and grow into more uncharted territory. In 1813, the North West Company, who had bought out the Pacific Fur Company, sent hunters and trappers, as well as some Iriquois tribe members, up the Colombian River to continue to grow the business. By the year 1818, problems began to occur when the Iriquois pushed themselves into Cowlitz territory and even abused some of their women. This caused a major shift to occur, which greatly affected the Cowlitz tribe, as well as temporarily halting the trading of fur in this area. As time went on, the tensions between tribes began to simmer and the fur trade industry once again flourished, causing the Cowlitz life to settle down more and, while not being completely back to the way things were before the Europeans, somewhat went back to the lives they wanted.

Just as it seemed that the Cowlitz were able to continue and grow as a successful Indian tribe, tragedy struck. In the period of 1829 to 1830, the terrible epidemic of “Gray Fever”, also known as Asian Flu or smallpox, almost completely wiped out the Cowlitz tribe. They were introduced to this disease when the European ship Owyhee entered into the area. The disease killed over 75% of the tribe, leaving only about 500 members left. These survivors were forced to leave the dead behind and abandon their homes and everything they new in order to continue on. The remaining members of the Cowlitz headed toward the Coast and grew to be more friendly toward the Europeans, despite their nature to come off as war-like.

Even though the Cowlitz experienced centuries of suffer and loss, the tribe began to slowly regain numbers and now have a population close to the number of original Cowlitz members. A majority of Cowlitz now live within a two hour drive from their original land. After a long battle with the U.S. Government, they have been legally able to regain their original land and build a community within their reservation. Within the last year, they have been able to build their first and only casino and are working hard to build up the tribe and support and celebrate their culture and legacy.

 

 

Works Cited

United States History. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1553.html

The Dispossessed – Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://www.cowlitz.org/index.php/38-history

Cowlitz Tribe. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/cowlitz-tribe.htm

 

The Cowlitz Tribe

I have chosen to base this assignment off of the Cowlitz tribe. The Cowlitz were located at the lower west side of what is now Washington state, along the Columbia River. They were often referred to as “Flatheads” due to the fact that they re-shaped their heads according to the customs of their people. They were also unique because they frequently decorated their skin with tattoos. Since they were located so close to the river, they were known as very talented fishermen.

A big origin story within the tribe had to due with fish. Being great fishermen, they believed the “salmon were a gift from the wolf-spirit Talapus”. They believed the wolf-spirit Talapus created the salmon specifically for their people, to save them from extinction after disaster struck around them. Along with Talapus, the Cowlitz were very spiritual people and believed that many other spirits were looking after them. These beliefs led to spiritual dances, which the Cowlitz did often. These dances were called sun dances and sometimes lasted up to three days.

 

https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/cowlitz-tribe.htm

http://native-american-indian-facts.com/Northwest-Coast-American-Indian-Facts/Cowlitz-Indian-Tribe-Facts.shtml

About Me

Hello Everyone,

My name is Kylie Empens and I am currently going on my second year at South Puget Sound Community College. I am a very fun-loving, hard working person whose main focus is family. I am on a path to self discovery and building myself into the best person I can be. I am very excited to take this course and learn more about Native American history and culture.