Customer Reviews

Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)

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With regard to the beginnings of the city of Seattle, the local Native Americans were not part of what was called the "Vanishing Race" of Native Americans from the westward growth of America. Native Americans played a large, vital, and conspicuous role in the founding and early growth of Seattle. Thrush, an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia, makes the point that the role of Native Americans regarding other cities is worth looking into as well. In Seattle, Native American men and women provided the large majority of the manual labor in such work as sawmills and fishing; and many started small businesses. By intermarriage, some Native Americans, particularly women, assumed prominent and influential positions in the community. The other side of the Native Americans' experience with Seattle is their being supplanted as more and more whites came to Seattle in the latter years of the 19th century. Subject to discrimination, racism, oppression, and demonization, the Native Americans lost their position in the city's economy and social structure. They were, for instance, labeled as "hostile," and said to be unable to adjust to urban life; the women were considered prostitutes. In recent years, the fundamental role of local Native Americans in Seattle's origins and the impression this had on the character of the city are being given their due. Numbers of Native Americans, showing an entrepreneurial spirit and media savvy equal to any big-city dweller, are finding places in today's Seattle. Thrush writes the full story of the changing social relationship of Native Americans to Seattle. Central to his perspective--noted in the "Foreword"--is the false, unsubstantiated dichotomy between "civilized" and "uncivilized" peoples. Following the text is an "Atlas of Indigenous Seattle" containing maps and Native American terms evidencing the prevalence of the Native Americans through the Puget Sound area, how much they had developed this area already through use of its resources, and the place of the Native American culture in the origins and development of Seattle.

This book covers the history of Indians in Seattle from just before historic times to the present -- sort of.
It's well-written and organized. I learned several interesting things, like what happened to the villages of Herring House and Basketry Hat. There's a very good "atlas" compilation of native places in Seattle at the end, although I wish the author had given the names with the Lushootseed spellings used by other works (like Dawn Bates' dictionary).
The main disappointment is that this is more a history of rhetoric about Indians in Seattle than it is an actual history of Indians in Seattle. An example to explain what I mean: The book notes that when the Duwamish Tribe was campaigning for federal recognition, the tribe had to compile a continuous history of the tribe's political organization from the time of the treaties to the time of the petition (early 1990s). But the book doesn't even give a hint as to what that history was! The actual events of the tribe's history are apparently not of interest, only the political use to which they were put. Oddly, Thrush ends the book with the question "What happened here?" -- I wish he had devoted more time to that question in the book.
I guess I have to get used to this kind of thing. Some academic historians now view actual events and trends as less interesting than the spin put on them by contemporaries. I'd personally rather read something that tries to cut through all the noise and speechifying and brings the reader as close to actual events as possible.

With great respect for indigenous peoples and sometimes contemptuous humor aimed squarely at Whites who took the land (in order to refashion it according to "God's plan"), Thrush weaves an intricate blend of stories into a history often invoked but seldom understood. The book does not follow a traditional Euro "beginning-to-end" narrative which may pose problems for more linear-minded folks. Instead, the stories follow a basic timeline of the region's ecological and industrial development, complementing each other. Thrush does a good job of revealing how the perspectives of those in power shape the history we learn in school -- and that's almost never the whole story. I would love to see a book like this covering the colonial disruption of each displaced group of indigenous people on the planet.

This is a great book. I met Dr. Thrush once when he was a tour leader for one of the Museum of History and Industry's tours of the Ballard Locks. His insights really come through in this book.

Essentially another book about Puget Indians written by a college professor with no understanding or respect for tribal culture. The first thing that struck me was the lack of Native sources. Thrush mentions that he had a hard time finding Natives to interview for this book, esp Duwamish Tribal members. Perhaps then he should have held off writing the book until he developed relationships with his subjects?

The writing was also terrible. His thesis is mentioned literally almost very other paragraph; take this out and there is probably only 3 or 4 pages of "history".

I also found that using the translated version of Indian place names, sometimes without explaining the Native name or etymology, was extremely disrespectful to Native-Americans.

In the foreword Thrush compared the problems he's faced because of his sexual orientation with the plight of Puget Indians. With statements like that, I can understand why few natives would work with him for this book.

The only redeeming part of the book is the Section on the update of Waterman's native place names in Seattle, which wasn't written by Thrush.


To summarize, poorly written, no information or history, and extremely condescending and disrespectful to Puget Indians...