LEGL 4500/6500 - Employment Law

Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander, Esq.

Terry College of Business

"I am a member of the Quinault Nation, a conglomerate of seven affiliated tribes: the Quinault, Chehalis, Chinook, Cowlitz, Hoh, Queets and the Quileute. Our most commonly used language was called ‘Chinook jargon.’ It was recorded because we used it with European traders, along the Columbia River. The river was the main source of transportation, about 150 miles inland.

"In transition, spelling was acclimated to sound. The meaning and correct spellings were sometimes unknown.

"While trade with Europeans brought us new technology, it also delivered new diseases our people lacked immunity to fight. The price we paid? Lives. Over 70 percent of northwestern tribes perished after initial contact with European explorers. Death of many people came, to our astonishment, without war. Taking with them our stories, our spirits and mythology. The tribal language slipped through my fingers like lives of ancestors I never met face to face. I never knew the nature of these words. I never fluently spoke my thoughts through them.

"From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, our diminishing tribe was subjected to government schools. My grandmother, Catherine Hawks Lorton, was sent to one of these schools. She was shamed and punished for speaking her language or attempting to pass on tribal traditions. Today, when I ask her questions about our culture, she is quiet, reluctant to teach me. Speaking our language embarrasses her. She did not teach it to her children or grandchildren. I am left to find out about my ancestors and traditions from books and tribal documents.

"In a spiritual sense, I believe my spirit guides lead me. Gaining strength and power within the tribe involves this practice I share with my children, Lillian and Josiah. Vision quests are meditative methods of acquiring spirit guardians, or Tomanawos [pronounced "toe-MAN-o-wuhs"]. As children mature to adolescence, they take solitary vision quest into the forest to seek their Towanawos. These spirits may come in animal or human form. The more Towanawos you acquire, the stronger you are spiritually.

"A glimpse of a cougar makes that animal a source of spiritual power. When the cougar is your Tomanawo, your strength is feline-like, silent and respected. An encounter with the eagle gives you sharp eyesight, exactness, the ability to soar outward and broaden your perspective. The black bear is shy and quiet but owns sheer strength which humbles those he encounters. Whether a tribal member finds his guidance and identity in the cougar, bear, eagle or elsewhere is a matter of great privacy. the events or accomplishments of our vision quests are rarely discussed.

"The Klolwalle ["cloke-wall"] is a spirit that only allows those in impending danger to glimpse him. He appears from the forest or perhaps in a canoe from the ocean. He wears a large, black, bearskin robe and slips away in the darkness of twilight. That is a Quinault’s sign that danger may be ahead. However, in passing successfully through that danger, one can accomplish great things. You may say a sighting of the Klokwalle is a bit of a mixed blessing.

"Since I have not found the answer to many of my questions about my family’s history, I rely on other tools to teach my children. I stress oneness with nature as an important method to develop a strong sense of spirituality. My children are too young now to venture alone into the forest on vision quests. When I am with them on the river or in the forest, I talk with them a great deal about the animals, their spirit and their nature. When Lillian and Josiah are older, perhaps teenagers, I hope they will seek these values on their own. They will have a stronger connection to their heritage. Something my generation lacked.

"Pop American culture bleeds into my children, manipulating their behavior in ways I’ve come to expect. The most obvious being their unnatural desire for more material goods than they could ever possibly need or use. Everywhere they look, the false need for material wealth is forced upon their impressionable minds. They get it at school and, of course, from television. I’m sad to say, because of my upbringing, they also get some of this desire from me.

"The most alarming and potentially harmful effect that effect that society has upon my children has to do with the stigmas that are often attached to Native Americans. The ‘savage’ description of European explores rides along unchallenged in school history books. My 4-year-old daughter gave an example of this when I recently took her to a powwow.

"As we arrived at the event, Lillian saw a man wearing a traditional headdress, a buckskin shirt, pants and moccasins. She told me that she wanted to go over and see ‘that Indian.’ I wen to the man and told him that my daughter would like to meet him. As I presented Lillian to the kind, elderly man, Lillian pulled away and showed aversion. With my assurance that it was safe to approach and talk to the man, Lillian finally shook his hand. After a short conversion, we took our seats at the Powwow. I started to talk to the children about native dances when suddenly Lillian blurted out, ‘I don’t want to be a mean old Indian, because they shoot people.’

"I realized that this is an idea that will subside as my daughter grows older and becomes more knowledgeable. I know that scars will remain that other more subtle and harmful stigmas exist. I am concerned about how these stereotypes and misconceptions will effect my children’s self-esteem both in the immediate and distant future.

"Regardless of how far we travel, how extreme the cultural agenda, people remain the same. We have values, hope and strive for a better future for our children. Within my native culture, I will always fell a sense of loss, knowing so much culture is missing. In the world of the Hoquat [Quinault for "white man"], I feel an emptiness, like I’ve lost a part of my soul. I imagine it is that very emptiness that causes our people to seek numbness from drugs or alcohol.

"Many people wonder why Native Americans today have social difficulties like alcohol and drug abuse. I think it comes from a loss of identity, a loss of spirit. This is a symptom seen in any culture. Its remedy is found in how we connect and instill values in our children. So I strive to give my children a strong sense of their identity-in hopes they will not seek addiction or self-destructive behaviors.

"In tribal tradition, the father chooses Indian names for his children. I allowed my children to choose their own names. The names they chose both came from my great-great-great-grandmother, Cha’isht ["cha-eesht"]. Josiah, named for a Biblical king, chose Wassequah ["wah-see-quah]. It’s a bit unconventional to allow them to choose their own names. But I see children are guided more with their heart in these matters. I am guided more by my head. I am learning to make more decisions with my heart. That’s why I let my children choose for themselves.

"The meaning of Cha’isht Wassequah was lost. Even the spelling and pronunciation are questionable. Since the names were recorded by the Hoquants, we may never know the correct pronunciation or spelling in English. For example, Chief Seattle has an entire named after him. His name was really Sealtth. This name was very difficult for white me to pronounce. It’s ‘seal’ with a ‘th’ sound from the beginning of the word ‘the.’ This may give people give people an idea of how scarce the correct historical information may be concerning Native Americans. When I comes to exploring the history of my culture, I am very limited.

"For example, I cannot choose native medicine the Hoquat’s ‘modern’ medicine for my children. The native medicines are lost. I cannot choose trade and barter over the use of money. Money is the only way to provide my children with food, clothes, warmth and education. It is now a fact of my life. I must learn the Hoquart’s way.

"I grew up off the reservation; this may be why I see the importance of understanding the Hoquat’s world. I know my livelihood depends upon this world. The very survival of my culture depends on the growing understanding bewteen my people and the Hoquats. Quinaults who grew up on the reservation my not see the importance of these things. They call people like me an ‘apple Indian.’ That means that I’m red on the outside and white on the inside. That could be true. But I see growth, knowledge and wealth in the future.

"In past Quinault culture, wealth was something to be flaunted. In a material sense, wealth was measured by how much you could give away at a potlatch. It is a gathering or feast given by a person who has acquired material wealth, so that he may give the wealth away. It may seem strange to you, showing your wealth by giving it away. Imagine this in America. Ha! Not today.

"Wealth is also having a skill, like canoe carving or fishing, to supply the family with food and housing. It is knowledge and understanding, as well as honor and bravery. These are the things we have come so close to losing. They are also the values which hold us together as a tribe and a nation. They are our hope for the future. You see, we are not living in a dirt-floor tepee. We have running water, cable television and computers. We also have something else. We have our heritage.

"Even though much is lost, the Quinault Nation has a strong sense of heritage. I do not reject the modern world. Yet I do not stand idle as my heritage slips unseen into the twilight forest like the Klolwalle. I strive to face the trials that come. It is my hope to venture beyond oyhut, the end of the trail, towards great accomplishments."

Sky Magazine, August 1998