Tattered, Taped. Well-Loved

It delights me no end when someone tells me that they have “discovered” James Gilchrest Swan!  In case you are not among those lucky people, I encourage you to go directly to the library and check out his book, The Northwest Coast or Three Years’ Residence in Washington Territory.

A Biography

In it Swan describes his life here on Shoalwater (now Willapa) Bay from 1852 to 1855.  It is the most extensive description of the life of our very first settlers here and of the indigenous peoples whose way of life was then in the midst of serious transition. Swan was a keen observer and a faithful recorder – both in drawings and in words – of what he saw, heard, and learned. The book is a treasure.

Swan, himself, is a bit of an enigma.  In 1850 he left his wife and two children in Boston and, essentially never returned.  At that time he was 32 years old.  He lived fifty more years, mostly in the Port Townsend area.  The most we know of his life before and after his stay here on the bay, Swan Among the Indians, was written in 1972 by Lucile McDonald.  It’s one of those books that is well researched and full of interesting facts but, for me anyway, a bit difficult to read.

Not the first nor the last attempt at documentation.

Nevertheless, there are many illuminating tidbits among the chapters.  His distant relationship with his family – only a few short visits and very little correspondence in his half century of absence – or his two year membership in the Dashaway Club (the pioneer equivalent to today’s Alcoholics Anonymous) answer some of the questions about this man of many talents, most of which were underappreciated in his lifetime.

A Definitive Reference

According to McDonald, one of Swan’s aborted projects was a planned book on Chinook jargon.  In Northwest Coast, he refers to the jargon in a number of situations and devotes an entire chapter to “the language of the tribes north of the Columbia.”  I can’t help but wonder how much of that language had been lost before Edward Harper Thomas wrote Chinook: A History and Dictionary Of the Northwest Coast Trade Jargon in 1935.

Much more recently,in 1012, is the compendium by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, chinuk Wawa – kakwa nsayka ulman-tilixam laska munk-kemteks nasayka – As our elders teach us to speak it.  The book was edited by Tony Johnson, Chairman of the Chinook Indian Nation, who lives with his family in Bay Center, not all that far from Swan’s long-ago home on the Bone River. Although Thomas is cited in the index, Swan is not. Nor is Swan cited in Thomas’ book.  Since he was overlooked twice, it does not seem coincidental. Next time I see Tony, I hope I can remember to ask why.