A Long Time Ago, When the Earth Was Young: A History of the Chehalis Tribe

• In Event: The Power and Possibilities for the Indigenous Good: Honoring the Knowledge of Our Ancestors

Abstract

This research examines the history of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation from pre-contact (with non-Indian people) to the present. Previous accounts of our Tribal history, have been told by outside researchers and these accounts have distorted our history. This thesis notes the known historical accounts and in recognizing the politics of history (Smith, 2012) revisits those accounts with a Chehalis voice that values ourselves as the guardians of our Tribal history and language, including our ways of knowing. In following traditional ‘ways of knowing and doing’, this research draws on the oral traditions and knowledge of our Ancestors to reposition ourselves within our own history, taking us from the margins to the centers.

Author

• Mary Dupuis, The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation