The day began today with the news that “Aunt Pearl” was being taken to Seattle Harbor View Hospital via helicopter. No news yet, but the preliminary outlook wasn’t good. As far as I’ve been able to determine today, there are four remaining native speakers of the Quileute language and Pearl is one of them. They are all well into their 80’s. Two of four are not currently living in La Push, although they are just down the road a piece. It seems that there are a few others who learned the language as adults and speak it relatively well, but I’m not clear yet on just how well they speak it or who they might practice it with.
I’m hoping to be able to get together later on today (which probably means tomorrow) with “Porky”, the last native speaker currently in town. Everyone here has a nickname, so it can be challenging figuring out who you’re talking to or about at times. Today has also been productive in that calls are being made to see if the other two native speakers can be brought up to La Push to chatter away in Quileute for me (I understand that they speak with one another in Quileute when they don’t want anyone around them to know what they’re saying). I’m also looking forward to recording the meeting of the drum group this evening, although I’ll need to be rather sensitive to the wishes of all of the members, as some of the “family” songs are considered to be sacred and secret and cannot be shared outside of the Quileute community.
Last of the “interesting” news today, is my discovery that the Shaker religion has been a deeply rooted part of the Quileute community, at least since the mid 1800’s. The Shaker services here are held only at night, a tradition which began when the religion was repressed for suspected “devil worship” and forced to go on in secret. Services will begin in the evening and go on until morning for several nights in a row. Of the greatest interest to me is the discovery that the shaker hymns at these services are sung in the Quileute language, using traditional bells and foot-stomping as the only means of accompaniment. I’m waiting to hear whether any services will take place this weekend, otherwise there will be a multi-community shaker gathering here just before I head back to New York, so I’ll definitely have an opportunity to witness and document some of this phenomenon.
Continued…
Thursday morning – rain today. Not a surprise. Yesterday the dense fog coming in off the water only threatened to invade, creeping up close enough to hide Ak-A-Lat and make the boats coming in seem like they were emerging from some alien spirit realm. It would lift for a time then try to sneak back in. Today it’s found it’s courage. The fog is zippered right up to the shore and the rain is coming down in big, heavy drops.
I’m still hurrying up and waiting for my opportunity to meet and record Porky. I’m expecting to meet with his daughter shortly to plan a time, although I’m finding that planning a time to do things can be a formality without consequences. Meanwhile I’ve taken a look at the Quileute school’s video and cassette collection and will be helping to devise a realistic plan for archiving those materials – hundreds of hours of cassettes and videos recorded over the past 40 years (!!), stored unceremoniously in cardboard boxes. I believe that these mostly consist of tribal elders teaching the children about the tribal traditions and culture. I’m very concerned that this work may be or have already been lost.
Keep checking back - I'll be adding some pictures soon.
Comments