Indigenous Rhetoric and Survival in the Nineteenth Century

A Yurok Woman Speaks Out

Elizabeth Schleber Lowry

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783030002589
• eBook ISBN: 9783030002596
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In 1916, Lucy Thompson, an indigenous woman from Northwestern California, published To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman. The first book to be published by a member of the California Yurok tribe, it offers an autobiographical view of the intricacies of life in the tribe at the dawn of the twentieth century, as well as a powerful critique of the colonial agenda. Elizabeth Schleber Lowry presents a rhetorical analysis of this iconic text, investigating how Thompson aimed to appeal to diverse audiences and constructed arguments that still resonate today. Placing Thompson's work in the context of nineteenth-century Native American rhetoric, Lowry argues that Thompson is a skillful rhetor who has much to teach us about our nation's violent past and how it continues to shape our culture and politics. In To the American Indian, Thompson challenges negative stereotypes about indigenous cultures and contrasts widespread Euroamerican abuse of natural resources with Yurok practices that once effectively maintained the region's ecological and social stability. As such, Thompson's text functions not only as a memoir, but also as a guide to sustainable living.

© The Author(s) 2019

Elizabeth Schleber LowryIndigenous Rhetoric and Survival in the Nineteenth Centuryhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00259-6_1

Begin Abstract

1. Reminiscences

Elizabeth Schleber Lowry¹

(1)

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Elizabeth Schleber Lowry

Abstract

Lucy Thompson’s 1916 To the American Indian is a significant historical artifact because it documents the first book published by a member of the California Yurok tribe. To the American Indian details not only an autobiographical view of the intricacies of life within the Yurok tribe at the dawn of the twentieth century, but also offers an powerful critique of the colonial agenda. Drawing on the scholarship of rhetoricians, such as Malea Powell and Patricia Bizzell , as well as work by ethnohistorian Thomas Buckley, this chapter provides background on To the American Indian, discussing why it was written; the problem of audience; and how the book is still relevant today.

Keywords

YurokIndigenousColonialismViolenceAutobiographyNative

End Abstract

Survivance

Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah, later named Lucy Thompson (1853–1932) was born into the Yurok tribe in Pecwan village on the Klamath River in Northwestern California. ¹ In 1916, when Lucy Thompson published her book, To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman, California’s economy was booming due to growth in oil, mining, agriculture, and shipping. But, as Euroamericans poured into California, indigenous populations , already struggling to cope with the aftermath of nineteenth century genocide and displacement, became increasingly disenfranchised. In To the American Indian, Thompson documents Yurok life and the dissolution of her community. Since 1916, Thompson’s book—the first to be published by an indigenous Californian—has been of special value to academics, particularly anthropologists. With this in mind, I offer a reading of To the American Indian from a rhetorical perspective. To the best of my knowledge, no one has yet considered Thompson’s work as a rhetor—how she attempted to appeal to diverse audiences, and what she hoped to accomplish by publishing her book.

In To the American Indian, Thompson admonishes Euroamericans for the damage they have caused to Northern California ecosystems , and contrasts Euroamerican attitudes toward natural resources with Yurok practices that once effectively maintained the region’s ecological and social stability. As such, Thompson’s text functions not only as a memoir, but also as a guide in sustainable living. In recent years, Thompson’s book has been referenced with respect to renewed attempts to revive the Yurok language and culture. ² Given these efforts, I argue that Thompson’s work is perhaps even more relevant today than it was in 1916—and that it can now be appreciated by a broader audience. To the American Indian matters not only because of Thompson’s commitment to the survival of Native cultures, but because, as a nation, we are finally beginning to appreciate Thompson’s warnings of a century ago—that our way of life is unsustainable.

In my monograph, Indigenous Rhetoric and Survival in the Nineteenth Century: A Yurok Woman Speaks Out, I hope to bring more attention to Thompson’s text, not only because To the American Indian continues to be of social and cultural relevance, but because Thompson was a skillful rhetor from whom much can be learned—a woman who, in many ways, exemplifies the notion of “survivance .” Simply put, “survivance”—a capacious term first coined by Gerald Vizenor —designates an opposition to “victimry.” ³ The term “survivance” applies to Thompson’s work in that she refused to be victimized or to turn a blind eye to the victimization of others. Of Lucy Thompson, ethnohistorian Thomas Buckley writes:

Thompson can be mistaken neither for a Native Everywoman, nor for a passive victim of oppression. She used her own considerable cultural expertise, intelligence, adaptability and toughness to interpret creatively and participate in a world newly dominated by white invaders…She is an extraordinary witness both to the ever-deeper past and to what some have called ‘the end of the world’. ⁴

When Buckley refers to the “end of the world,” he is adopting terminology used to describe the darkest of the post-contact years during which the Yurok witnessed the destruction of their land and communities. In referencing the “ever-deeper” past, Buckley suggests that as time goes on, we become increasingly likely to overlook the past’s most crucial lessons. If, as Buckley argues, the initial release of To the American Indian was “a vitally important contribution” to our shared history, it is even more so today. Now, in the early twenty-first century, we need to ensure that details of the past—especially those shared by its most marginalized voices—do not sink into obscurity.

To this point, details of Lucy Thompson’s personal history have been contested. The introduction to the 1991 edition of To the American Indian states that Lucy Thompson was married to Milton James “Jim” Thompson and had three children with him—pictures of whom are provided—but, according to his sources within the Yurok community, anthropologist Arnold Pilling claims that although Lucy and Jim were married, the children that appear in published photographs are not hers, but her sister’s (Pilling goes on to explain that prior to his relationship with Lucy, Jim was married to Lucy’s sister). Further, because of her marriage to Jim Thompson , Lucy Thompson may have felt compelled to temper her message for white audiences. Like many other nineteenth-century Native rhetors, she likely found that she was forced to mediate between Native and Euroamerican worlds. Although the Thompsons lived in Eureka, which at that time was a predominantly white community, Lucy Thompson identified strongly as Yurok, and saw herself as a preserver and defender of Yurok culture. However, being entrenched within the white community was not without its complications in that Thompson was treated with a measure of suspicion both by white and Native readers. For example, early reviewers of To the American Indian question the extent to which Thompson’s husband Jim was involved in the creation of the book, and accounts of its origins are conflicted. In some accounts, Lucy Thompson is said to have written the book entirely on her own, while other accounts suggest that Jim was her amanuensis. To complicate matters further, details of Lucy Thompson’s schooling and information about her literacy in English are unclear. According to some accounts, Thompson could barely read. ⁵ Conflicting accounts insist that Thompson was well-educated, and that she was perfectly literate in both English and Yurok. Of Lucy Thompson’s prose, Pilling asks: “What concepts were dictated by Lucy? What was added or rephrased by Jim? We probably shall never know.” ⁶

Although Thompson contended with criticism from both Native and white communities, such cultural tension evidently provided her with a rich site of rhetorical invention in considering how to resist Euroamerican exploitation. Hence, I argue that Thompson’s name should be added to a growing list of Native rhetors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose works are currently being discussed, studied, celebrated and (in some cases) restored to the historical record. Such rhetors include William Apess , Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa), Elias Boudinot , Francis LaFlesche , and Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins. It is unclear how familiar Thompson was with the work of the Native rhetors who came before her—she does not explicitly refer to them in her work—yet, evidently, she was influenced by nineteenth-century indigenous rhetorical styles. An examination of how Thompson, a Yurok woman, constructed her arguments and addressed disparate audiences, therefore, becomes a meaningful contribution both to the study of indigenous rhetorics and to nineteenth-century women’s rhetorics. Through Thompson’s voice, we can better understand our nation’s violent past and how that past has shaped our current cultural and political attitudes.

Lucy Thompson’s Book

The Re-release

Since the original 1916 version of To the American Indian was “self-published” (allegedly funded by Amelia Carson, a wealthy Euroamerican residing in Eureka), one may assume that the book’s initial print run must have been fairly small, and that the publication was intended primarily for local distribution and perhaps for inclusion within various university collections. ⁷ Indeed, early twentieth-century academics (particularly anthropologists) welcomed the book. In the 1920s—Alfred Louis Kroeber —the leading (albeit controversial) ⁸ anthropologist studying the Yurok people at that time, was mostly enthusiastic about the release of Thompson’s book, describing it as “a valuable contribution to the world’s knowledge of a specialized culture of which available descriptions are few.” ⁹ But following its initial publication, To the American Indian was quickly forgotten until historian Peter Palmquist rediscovered it in the 1970s in the U.C. Berkeley library. Recognizing the book’s educational value, Palmquist arranged for it to be republished in 1991, along with an introduction by Julian Lang —Karuk artist and scholar—to provide readers with cultural and geographic context (The 1991 edition of To the American Indian also included an index to enhance i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Reminiscences
• 2. The Sacred and the Profane
• 3. “Christianizing” and “Indigenizing”
• 4. Wilderness and Civilization
• 5. Regeneration
• Back Matter