Tags
Becher Bay, Chimakum, Chinook, Hoh, Klallam, Nanaimo, Port Townsend, Puget Sound, Quilcene, Redwoods, Salish Sea, Twana, Vancouver, Victoria British Columbia
Bogdan asked if I had ever been to the west coast of the United States.
I told him no; but I am sure Gunther had been there – – – maybe even grew up there. Then I asked him why and he showed me these sketches of Victoria, British Columbia.
And the people that lived there.
And then Gunther came over to see what we were “wasting our time on.”
When we showed him he said “Oh no! Those sketches are all wrong. The Indians from my territory were quite handsome. These are just wrong.”
He told us about a painting he had seen as a child. It was a group of the Klallam People in one of their buildings. He said that he wished he could show it to us.
Gunther said that “If ever there was going to be a Mediterranean-like place on the west side of the United States then God would have located it here.” And he pointed to a map in Bogdan’s periodical magazine.
And then he went on to explain the people, their ways, how they only took what they needed and preserved the land and the sea.
Gunther also said that each group had their own name, language and territory but for some reason had no trouble communicating or helping each other.
“But now” said Gunther, “all that is disappearing due to lumbering and so many people who wish to live in that beautiful place.”
~
waldotomosky 