Chief Garry
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Spokane Garry (sometimes Spokan Garry) was a Native American leader who was born around 1811[1] at the Marian Indian village at the junction of the Spokane and the Little Spokane Rivers. He was the son of Ileeum Spokanee, of the Middle plains Spokane Indian Tribe. His father was the tribal chief of the Sma-hoo-men-a-ish; however, they were often mistakenly called the Middle Spokanes by traders and settlers and the name stuck.
In 1961, Dudley C. Carter created a carving of Garry on the site of St. Dunstan's Church of the Highlands Parish, Shoreline, Washington in honor of a biography of Garry written by the then-vicar of the congregation.
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[edit] Spokane Garry goes to school
In 1825, upon the arrival of white men, Garry was chosen to be taught at the Anglican Mission School in Winnipeg, Canada, by the Hudson's Bay Company[2] that was run by the Church Missionary Society of the Church of England. Upon arriving there, it was custom to receive a new name. He was named Spokane Garry, after an official of the Hudson's Bay Company,[3] and baptized on June 24, 1827, being the first non-white to be baptized Protestant west of the Rocky Mountains.[4]
The boy who accompanied him was known as Kootenais Pelly, who became Garry's closest friend at the mission school. The students learned English, and new ways to live off the land. Garry was very interested in these new words. However, the new life was different from his own. It has been said that once he broke a rule and was punished in the usual way of being held by one of the white upper classmen while the teacher whipped him with a willow twig.
It scared Garry so much that he bit down hard before it started, and only afterward realized he bit into the upper classmen's ear. He looked up at the student in fear of reprisal. The student told him to not worry, that he understood. This is the moment when Garry realized that these white people had a lot of good in them. He also realized that there probably was no use in fighting with them even though he knew there was going to be trouble if too many of them came to his camp.
In the winter of 1828, Garry's father, Ileeum Spokanee, died. The weather prevented him from making the trip home to his tribe, but in the following spring he made the travelled the 1,800 miles (2,897 km) back to the Spokane River, and his people. At this time he was eighteen years old.
[edit] His return to Spokane
In the fall of 1829, when Garry returned to Spokane,[5] the teachings he had learned at his school spread quickly among the peoples of the Columbia Plateau.[6]
During the spring of 1830, Garry and Pelly returned to the school, bringing with them five others to be taught. Pelly died in the spring of 1831, and a few months later, Garry again returned to Spokane.[7] Garry began to preach Christianity to his people, and oversaw the construction of a schoolhouse, where he also tried to teach his people methods of agriculture.[8] With his new standing role in his tribe, he became more interested in the needs of his people and creating peace between them and the new white settlers. At this time he also married the daughter of another tribal chief, and named her Lucy.
[edit] Later years
Chief Garry, turning 40 in 1851, was a wealthy man by tribal standards, and he began to receive much respect among both his own people and the white settlers in the area. Tension at this time, however, was very high after the Whitman Massacre in 1847, only making it more difficult to keep the peace between each other.
On October 17, 1853, Garry was summoned to a meeting with newly-appointed Governor of Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens, who was making his way east to Olympia, the new territorial capital. They had a lengthy conversation, and Stevens was surprised at the amount of English Garry could speak.
To keep peace in the territory of Washington, Stevens summoned the audience of the Walla Walla, Nez Perce, Cayuse and Yakama tribes to make a treaty. Everyone left happy and it would seem like there would be peace, however, upon returning home they learned that the Yakama had decided against allowing the whites to take their land and were going to war against the United States. They were eager to recruit other tribes into the war, and many of the younger Spokanes were willing to fight - rather than sit around and let them take their land. Chief Garry strongly opposed the war and persuaded his men to remain peaceful until they could discuss it with Stevens. However, several miners were killed on the Yakima River, followed by the killing of special agent to the Yakamas, A. J. Bolton, on September 23, 1855, and the war with the whites had begun.
Upon hearing of the outbreak of war while traveling back from Blackfoot country, arrived suddenly in the Spokane village on the evening of November 27, and surprised the Spokanes by demanding an instant decision for war or peace.[clarify]
Once the chiefs of the Spokane, Coeur d'Alenes, Colvilles and some French Canadians were assembled, Stevens opened the council with promises of friendship, however, he eventually came to the point...
I think it is best for you to sell a portion of your lands, and live on Reservations, as the Nez Perces and Yakimas agreed to do. I would advise you as a friend to do that... If you think my advice good, and we should agree, it is well. If you say, "We do not wish to sell," it is also good, because it is for you to say...
All of the other tribes agreed and signed over much of their land to the whites, however, Chief Garry decided against it and left without signing the treaty. For now, their land was free.
For the following years, he urged peace among his people and the settlers, and continued to try to make a treaty with the Governor. But from 1859 on he was ignored. The Governor instead strenuously tried to encourage the Spokanes to abandon their traditional land and take up individual ownership under the Indian homestead act. In 1887, Garry finally got his treaty, but not the reservation.
[edit] The forgotten Spokanite
Beside all of these hard times Garry still believed there was good in all men, and said that inside us humans there is the same colored blood, so we should treat each other equally under this God of ours. Garry continued teaching well into old age and advising his people, until it is said he gave into gambling and drinking. During his last years he spent much of his time living in his teepee on the Spokane River.
[edit] Foototes
- ^ Two sources disagree on the spelling of Garry's fathers name. [3] claims it is Illim.
- ^ Kootenais Pelly is only mentioned in one biography of Chief Garry; [4], however, there is much dispute on the time he spent at the missionary school and we have to leave it up to history.
- ^ Again, there is speculation on this concerning his property. [5] states it was stolen from his family and he was never compensated. I have only heard this on one site, but I wouldn't surprised if this is the truth as this often occurred in the west.
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Beck Kehoe, Alice (1981). North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account, Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0136236529.
- Drury, Clifford Merrill (1936). Henry Harmon Spalding, Caxton Printers, Ltd.
- Drury, Clifford Merrill; Walker, Elkanah (1976). Nine Years with the Spokane Indians: The Diary, 1838-1848, of Elkanah Walker, A. H. Clark Co., ISBN 0870621173.
- Drury, Clifford Merrill (2005). A Tepee in His Front Yard: A Biography of H. T. Cowley, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1417983809.
- Josephy, Alvin M.; Josephy, Alvin M. Jr. (1997). The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest, Houghton Mifflin Books, ISBN 0395850118.
