"Our noblest men sleep in narrow graves with the best, the proudest of the race, dead around them."
Thompson, Lucy (Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah)
To the American Indian
Eureka: (Self-published), 1916.
A rare and important book describing the life of a Yurok woman and the culture of her tribe, which inhabits the northern part of Humboldt County. When the book was written, Thompson was one of the few remaining native Yurok speakers and the descendant of a clan of chiefs and priests.
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The surviving manuscript is in the hand of her husband, Milton, who emigrated to California from Alabama in the 1860s. He married Lucy about 1875, when she was 22. While there has been some speculation that Milton was, in fact, the author, the book's odd style and unusual use of language suggest that he either copied the manuscript or took down Lucy's dictation.
Peter Palmquist, who edited the modern reissue of the book, wrote in the foreword to the Heyday Books edition, "Lucy Thompson clearly intended to tell the truth about her culture, and all I had to do is listen. Listening meant being aware that Lucy was communicating to me in a language not her own and using cultural metaphors and symbols which were totally foreign to her origins."
In his introduction, the Karuk poet Julian Lang writes, Thompson's [writing style is enigmatic, being closer to the oral tradition of storytelling than it is to literary craft. Reading her book is like sitting with an elder and listing as she relates her tribal and personal history." Thompson believed she was the last person to know the secret rituals of the tribe and both mourned the passing of the old ways and regretted the moral failings of tribal members (particularly addition to whiskey) that lead to the collapse of her culture.
She described the destruction of her tribe: "Truly our tribes were not bloodthirsty, for the love of blood or the lust of glory, but instead were compelled to yield to a superior race; and our noblest men sleep in narrow graves with the best, the proudest of the race, dead around them: exterminated rather than educated, until the noblest of our race are gone." It is hard to tell whether or not Thompson believe that the elders should have suffered "education" to prevent extermination. Maybe she didn't know herself.
The book was printed by Cummins Print Shop in central Eureka, with the financial support of Amelia Carson, the daughter-in-law of William Carson, the lumber baron. The book appeared with very little editing and abysmal typesetting. Before Palmquist undertook a new edition, in 1991, "To the American Indian" had nearly drifted into oblivion, with only a handful of surviving copies. Yet, it is one of the only firsthand accounts of California Indian life and culture, and the first book ever published by a California Indian woman.
214 pages. Illustrated with eight photographs and one crudely drawn map. Very good, with creasing to the yapped (overhanging) edges of the paper covers. A previous owner has inked his name below the title and there is a previous owner's inscription inside. Even so, this is in much nicer condition than the book is usually found.
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Eureka Books
tel: (707) 444-9593
fax: (707) 443-9572
email: Please use the contact link to the right.
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