NOTICES
Native History, by Native Historians
Book about Shasta Nation Opens Doors for Similar Books at Publishing Company
by Richard Walker, Indian Country Today
SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. -
Betty Lou Hall and her daughter-in-law,
Monica Jae Hall, recently wrote a book
about their people, the Shasta Nation.
They did it under a tight deadline and
they didn't make a lot of money. But
the result was worth more than they
could have imagined.
Their book, an illustrative history
of the Shasta people, is being used in
schools and colleges. It gave the Halls
a medium through which to set the
record straight regarding historical
events. And it set an example for what
other tribal nations and Native
historians can do.
Shasta Nation was published as
part of Arcadia Publishing Co.’s Images
of America series of books. The books
are written primarily by local historians
or historical societies, culling from
local photo collections that often yield
previously unpublished historical
photographs.
There are more than 3,000 titles in
the series, mostly about American
communities and neighborhoods.
Shasta Nation is Arcadia's first book
about an American Indian nation and it
is one of few books about the Shastas.
“It needed to be done. There was
nothing else on the Shastas.” Betty
said. When their deadline was bumped
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indans
up, she and her daughter-in-law were
undaunted. “We said, ‘Let’s go with it.’’’
The Halls were prepared. Betty is
Shasta Nation’s historian and has
devoted her life to recording and
verifying Shasta oral history with
documents, interviews and photo
graphs. She has 16 file cabinets full of
Shasta histories. She and Monica are
partners in Shasta-Upper Klamath
Research, which collects and preserves
Shasta Nation history.
“I have been collecting infor
mation since I was 10 years old,'' Betty
said. “I’ve got their stories. I’ve been
gathering information for a long time."
Shasta Nation is the second Arcadia
book for Monica, who co-authored
Western Siskiyou, Gold and Dreams for
Arcadia's Making of America series.
If a book proposal is accepted by
Arcadia, authoring is relatively simple.
Each book is photo-intensive and
follows a set format: 128 pages, sepia-
toned cover, a dedication page, table
of contents, acknowledgements,
introduction, and 180 to 240 images
in up to six chapters. Text consists of
between 8,000 and 18,000 words. The
books sell, on average, for $19.99, and
authors receive a royalty of about $1
per book.
The Halls' book is a comprehensive
visual history of the Shasta people. As
Date: April 27-29,2007
2007 Spring SJ.Y.LE. Basketball Tournament
(Siletz Tribal Youth Living Empowered)
Age Brackets: 4-6 Grades
7-9 Grades
10-12 Grades
Teams:
4 Boys/4 Giris
(Itami cm have I bty ui I pH
MVP Awards and All Star Awards
Registration fee: $1 50.00
Locanon:
Siletz Valley School
24S James Frank Ave
Siletz OR 97380
Contact: Angela Martin
angclamactsi.nsn.us
(541)444-831 I
541) 444-8313 fax
Dead line for Registration: April 13,2007
Send Payments to: Angela Martin
Attn: 2007 BB Tour
PO Box S49
Siletz OR 97380
A.TO.D Free Athletic Event
Tobacco Free School Campus
14
•
Siletz News
Checks Made Out to: STYLE
•
April 2007
the book states, for thousands of years
before there was a California, the
Shasta-Upper Klamath people had a
successful society in an area stretching
from Crater Lake, near Medford, Ore.,
to north of Redding, Calif.
The book tells of first contact with
settlers and the ensuing years of death
and dispersion, and continues into the
resurgence of a people who have kept
their culture alive and are thriving in a
21s1 century world.
The Halls don't gloss over painful
events in history, even referring to the
post-treaty massacre of thousands of
Shastas as “genocide.”
On Nov. 4, 1851, after Shasta
leaders signed a treaty to establish a
reservation, U.S. government repre
sentatives presented a celebratory
feast. The food was poisoned, the book
states. Only two of the treaty signers
did not eat.
“They buried the dead along the
trail for weeks,” the book states.
“About 170 warriors fled to the
mountains. Vigilantes swept through
the Shasta Nation, burning every village
and slaughtering the people. They
threw the dead and dying on fires.”
Betty’s informants included her
grandfather, who cared for one Shasta
man who had survived the feast and
ensuing slaughter 50 years earlier.
Regarding later events, Betty received
information first-hand from informants
born as early as the 1870s.
The book contains photographs of
Shasta people born as early as 1820. One
photo, taken in the 1920s, shows Frank
Ruffy, wearing traditional headdress,
at an event. He lived to be 115 and re
membered the first white men to come
to the valley.
The book also depicts the continuity
of Shasta life, from the 1800s to present
day: People at work in the timber
industry, elders keeping the language
alive, latter-day plank houses built the
way the ancestors did, young people
learning to hunt and ride horses, military
heroes, family gatherings, weddings.
There's a picture of Nancy George
receiving a medal from then-Gov.
Ronald Reagan for designing a
teaching plan for Yreka High School,
a plan still in use today. George was a
student at the school at the time.
There’s a circa 1960 picture of Kathryn
Beatty, wearing her U.S. Women's
Army Corps uniform. She was trained
to be an Army secretary, but became an
expert with the M-l rifle and competed
in the national rifle championships. As
a civilian, she drove truck.
There are historical pictures of
ancestors wearing regalia; one taken in
the 1920s shows a traditional headdress
and band with flicker feathers. Regalia
were traditionally buried with the elders
and only a few photos remain, the Halls
write. Another photo shows a rare event,
the white deerskin dance.
While the Shastas are thriving
again, they still must be on guard, as
the book illustrates. There's a photo of
the Ruff and Beatty families in 2000.
The Ruffs had a land allotment with
rocky, poor soil, and they abandoned
it with a promise from the government
of better land in Scott Valley. The new
allotment was never assigned.
Arcadia’s Pacific Northwest editor
Julie Albright, who is based in Seattle,
said she would like to see more books
about American Indian and Alaska
Native communities, but insists that the
authors be from those communities.
“I believe that for any tribal history
- or any history, for that matter - to be
valid, it really needs to have the support
and input of the communities involved.”
said Albright, who is of Mohawk ancestry.
“Even in my own little corner of the
world, mainly settled by Scandinavian
immigrants, there are people who write
revisionist histories to reflect their own
prejudices and their own background,
completely ignoring the people who
settled here. For a tribal history, it is
even more important to make sure that
the tribe gets to tell their own story, in
their own words, of their own history.
Indeed, in Jefferson County, an
Arcadia book about the county on
Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the
first of seven chapters - In the
Beginning — is devoted to the First
Peoples of that region. But that chapter
contains only six photos. All told, the
book - authored by the Jefferson
County Historical Society - contains
only nine pictures depicting Native
people and Native life. That’s short
shrift considering the county is the
historical home of the Chimacum,
Hoh, S'Klallam, Snohomish. Quinault.
and Twana peoples.
Shasta Nation sold out its first
printing of 1.200, and is in its second
printing. Betty said she and her
daughter-in-law haven't made a lot of
money, but the result has been worth it
- Shasta Nation is used in schools and
the authors have spoken at local
colleges and before service clubs.
Professor E.A. Schwartz cited the book
in his book, The Rogue River Indian
War and its A ftermath, 1850-1980.
For information about submitting
a book proposal, contact Arcadia
Publishing Co. at 415-543-4405 (San
Francisco) or 843-853-2070 (Mount
Pleasant, S.C.). Or visit www.arcadia
publishing.com.
Richard Walker is a correspondent
reporting from San Juan Island, Wash.
Contact him at rmwalker@mckisland.com.