Hello readers. As some of you know, although I am not going away, I am stepping down as President at the end of my one-year term. I have enjoyed keeping you in mind as I write these columns. It has been a rewarding experience. I thank you for your interest and participation in the NVC Foundation affairs.
A few months ago, I went on a Pilgrimage to Arizona to learn about the Poston Incarceration Camp which was in the hot Sonoran Desert. There, approximately 18,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned on the Colorado River Indian Tribe reservation (CRIT) during World War II – against the wishes of the Colorado River Indian Tribe leaders.
On the first morning of the pilgrimage, I and other participants got off the bus at a venue, and I noticed that everything seemed darker, and colors were more muted. Was it just me or what? I didn’t realize that a partial solar eclipse was in progress and that it was setting the tone for a weekend of discovery.
Anyway, soon after deboarding the bus, three Mohave girls dressed in their regalia spoke to us in what was a foreign language to me. But it hit me that here were a people who had already lived in this space for hundreds and hundreds of years. Generation after generation of families proudly passing on their hallowed customs and heart-felt ways of life. It all became real to me. I felt sad, and I felt grief for something of utmost importance lost. But I also felt grateful and respectful for these girls who continued to speak and uphold their history.
The girls then did a traditional dance with other children from the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT): the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi. I was told that the children from the fourth CRIT tribe, Navajo, were not present since it is their custom to stay inside during an eclipse.
The rest of the Pilgrimage, with the collaboration of the CRIT Tribal Council, featured memories of Poston camp life, highlighting the significant links and relationships between the Japanese American incarcerees and members of the tribal community.
I met an elderly Hopi who remembers as a kid in the 1940’s, moving with his family into one end of a Poston camp barrack while incarcerated Japanese and Japanese American families were living in the other end of the same camp barrack.
[Side Note: While talking to me, he casually mentioned that his sister sitting across the table from us, had been in another living situation – as a little girl she had been put into a boarding school for Indian children.]
During the Pilgrimage, Marlene Shigekawa, Executive Director of the Poston Community Alliance, explained how the Colorado River Indian Tribes and Japanese American communities were working together to preserve the structures of the Poston incarceration camp on tribal land.
That trip to Arizona got me thinking about things closer to home. Cho Shimizu (Cho’s Story: From the Eyes of a Nisei Son, 2015), is a regular visitor to the Nisei Luncheon. His own family had leased farmland from the Puyallup Tribe, and he grew up going to school with Puyallup as friends, sometimes “playing Cowboys & Indians with them”. He remembers that “discrimination was never an issue as we kids were not into that as we all were ‘foreigners”…
Cho let me know that there were Nikkei who supported and some marched with tribal populations in securing fishing rights. And alternatively, some Puyallup tribal members had taken measures to help the Nikkei in holding onto their land.
Cho continued:
“Another thing was that the Puyallup provided fish for the farmers in return for veggies when the Japanese first returned to Fife and instituted a “Crop Time Policy” with the Japanese. They actually had a route where they would visit various farmers and provided fish. The meaning of crop time was that the farmers were given land and tools which would be paid back to the Indians when the crops were harvested so the farmers could get started in the farming of the land.”
Eileen Lamphere, President of JACL Puyallup Valley Chapter, wrote to me, saying that she is not an academic historian but rather a community recorder. She wrote:
“The Muckleshoot Tribe and the Japanese and Japanese American farms and dairies supported each other. Before the war, several J/JA farms were built along the southern Green River on land either sold to them or leased from them. One family in particular was the John Hamakami family. The farm was bought from the Muckleshoot (at that time, the alien land laws did not apply to the Native Americans and Japanese Americans) It was a vegetable and berry farm and employed many Muckleshoot youth during planting and harvesting times.”
“During the war, the Muckleshoot made sure that the … farms and others were taken care of and returned the lands after the war. The relationship remained close…”
Eileen also said a Muckleshoot named Gilbert King George “presented John Hamakami with a traditional button blanket, which is usually reserved for honored and cherished tribal elders.”
I called Gilbert King George’s son, Warren King George (Muckleshoot cultural resources oral historian) to ask about the traditional button blanket. A button blanket is given out of respect for someone who has contributed much to a community. The button blanket tells a story and exhibits sophisticated artistry.
Warren said that his father, the late Gilbert King George, had always respectfully looked up to John Hamakami for many years. It was John Hamakami who had instilled a work ethic in the young Gilbert King George. “Taught him how to shoot and hunt and work responsibly.”
Gilbert King George felt so grateful that many years later he searched for John Hamakami, not knowing where he might find him. The search was successful, finding John Hamakami and his daughters at a White River Buddhist Temple. When John saw Gilbert, he exclaimed, “Oh, Hoagie!” There were no dry eyes.
Warren King George forwarded to me an email from Tallis, Gilbert King George’s wife. It carried these exact words of Gilbert King George:
“There are many special Japanese Americans I was fortunate to know over the years, all treated me as a son. Some were willing to claim me for life, to live on their farms. As a young logger, I would be out of work each winter, when snow drove us from the woods.”
“With two wee children to feed, I could always rely on my Japanese friends for employment in those lean months. They gladly hired me back. I will be forever grateful for their kindness and friendship.”
“We as Muckleshoot share a dark history with our Japanese American friends in the Green River Valley. Both had their land taken illegally, some of our people never recovered. Both of Our People had our land and possessions taken unlawfully without compensation.”
“That was the cause of our first treaty war of 1855-56. Muckleshoot was not to receive ANY land under our two treaties. As a result of our efforts and those of our allied tribes, we secured a reservation where we live today. Later, much of our land was sold, often under legally questionable circumstances.”
“Though nearly all Muckleshoot families come from warriors, we had many relatives who were interned in concentration camps at Fox Island and Bainbridge Island during our first treaty war. I was witness to the incarceration of our Japanese friends, in our language syaʔya čəł. (Our Friends/Relatives)”
“Our People share many cultural values. My wife and I attend Bon Odori each year. Some of my friends’ ashes are now buried in the Auburn “Pioneer” cemetery and we lay flowers for them each year. They are:
– Katsuma Murakami, a good man — he calculated my pay on an abacus, speaking his language as he did it;
– Natsuhara owned a store on West Main, my Mom knew him and he treated our family well; and
– Koji Sagara, his son went to high school with my brother Henry, they were good friends.”
[Note: For Eileen Lamphere, recording community history is part of her life’s work. She has been zealously engaged in the creation of the Puyallup Assembly Center Remembrance Gallery – to be situated on the Puyallup Fairgrounds. The Remembrance Gallery, a special project of the Puyallup Valley Chapter of the JACL, will be using the latest techniques in immersive and interactive media design that will bring to life personal stories and in-depth content. Puyallup Valley JACL is accepting needed donations to get them (which means all of us) over the finish line. Please help!!! https://www.puyallupvalleyjacl.org/ ]
