Historic Hood River
Native Week
Notes
We have a real treat queued up for this week. While we know Hood River still had a significant native population around 1900, most of the images we have labelled “Indian” or “Native American” look like stock tourist photos, and could be from any part of the country. You may remember I published this image a while back which turned out to be from Alaska. So when Matt told me he had found a small set of Native American images in the Samuel Blythe collection I expected more of the same. But as you can see this image is clearly at the ferry landing in Hood River. You can see the Mt. Hood Hotel in the background. It has its west wing, but no cupola, so I would date it to a few years either side of 1900.
I’ll share some more images from this collection through this week.
charlott
Probably one of the most fantastic photos we have seen. You don’t see too many of them. Wish the other women were turned around. Look at her cane, bet it was whittled out by someone in the tribe or even herself, as they were talented.
Just wish we knew who they were, where they had been and where they were going. They went back and forth across the Columbia all the time. Many of them had family on both sides of the river. Looks like they had a lot of their possession, maybe all they had with them.
You can just see by the woman’s face that her life had been anything but easy.
l.e.
They appear to be on "the move".
The middle figure seems tall for a Native American lady.
I wonder how old the lady facing the camera is and if she was well known in the area.
In the early days, many Native Americans did not like their picture taken. They believed it took a part of their soul away from them and they would cover their face. By the look of this woman’s eyes, I’m not sure she had a choice.
It will be interesting to see if the future photos this week have good facial views.
Notice her hand. Their hands fascinate me with their long, slender and nimble fingers.
Charlott
That is true about them not being excited about having their photos taken. That may explain her expression.
Food for thought. That could be a man in the middle, with a long coat. If it was in the spring it could have been chilly, thus the scarf type thing over his head. It wasn’t uncommon for men to use a shawl.
James Holloway
Yeah great picture of the Indian women. To place where this was taken, notice the ‘barn like’ building in the background, left side. That sure looks like the structure that sat behind the ‘Next Door’ house on May Dr. If so, these women would be close to where our current ‘Jackson Park’ is. Just my supposition on trying to tell ‘where’ this picture was taken.
Buzz
I see understandable "leave me alone hate" on this face.
Arthur
We have a good picture of the Mt. Hood Hotel from this era so you can verify the location: https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=140
Here’s the same spot about 20 years later, after the hotel has been remodeled: https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=256
Charlott
Possibly either getting off the ferry or getting ready to go across Wa-oo-nah. It could have been huckleberry picking time at Pa-toe. We shall never know……..
Charlott
Yes it appears that the Kloochman is saying, " Copa si-ah-ca."
Ginger
Looks like these ladies are either going to, or coming from digging roots. The "cane" somebody mentioned is actually a digging tool, or in the Wasco language a "ga-bin."