The Seattle Times
Monday, February 03, 2003
OAKVILLE, Grays Harbor County — Dozens of hand-woven baskets, given by local Indians to the white doctor who treated them for 40 years spanning two centuries, are being returned to the reservation by the doctor's descendants.
The 70 baskets and other artifacts were given by the Chehalis and Quinault to Dr. Jacob Outwater Van Winkle, who moved his practice here from New York in 1893. After his death in 1934, the baskets, moccasins and arrowheads were distributed to relatives in Seattle and back East.
When the entire collection came into the possession of his niece, Mary Stiltner — the last member of her generation — she decided to return them to the people who made them.
"These baskets and other artifacts represent years of admiration and affection bestowed upon a much loved and appreciated doctor," wrote Stiltner, who still lives in the area.
"They have brought joy to several generations of our family. And it seems right that they should now be displayed in a place of honor among the ancestors of those who lovingly crafted them more than 100 years ago."
The collection is being given to the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Indian Reservation, where it is to be displayed for a time.
The materials then will be stored at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma or the University of Washington's Burke Museum until the tribe has its own cultural center.
The gift is a priceless contribution to restoring the tribes' historical knowledge, said Mark Colson, who chairs the reservation's cultural committee.
"It's going to open so many doors, it's unbelievable," he said.
Many techniques used in weaving the baskets have been lost over the past 100 years, said tribal basket weaver Yvonne Peterson.
"It's reaching back in time. It's having a connection with the ancestors through their history books," Peterson said of Stiltner's gift. "It's a very spiritual moment to know that someone preserved them and cared enough to keep them together."
Van Winkle treated Indians, railroad employees and other area residents, receiving baskets from tribal members in trade for medical services or in appreciation for his contributions to healing the sick, Stiltner wrote.
Basket making, once a fundamental part of tribal life, faded during the 20th century but was kept alive by tribal elders including Hazel Pete, who died Jan. 2. Pete's daughters, weavers Peterson and Trudy Marcellay, said they hope the Van Winkle collection will help inspire a new generation.
Colson selected an arrow painted with red and black rings to explain the gift's impact.
"To touch something like this is overwhelming, to see the medicine and prayers that were put into this to feed the people," he said.
The arrow feather was from a red-tailed hawk, he said. The bow was made of yew, strung with a cord made from twisted deer sinew. Dots on the arrow represent spiritual power songs.
"There's a lot of teachings from these," Colson said. "There's a reason for everything."
Stories were the backbone of tribal culture, he said. "How you interpret that story was how you resolved that problem."
Van Winkle's daughter, Katherine Van Winkle Palmer, recorded the Chehalis creation stories in 1924, as she was finishing her doctorate.
Palmer went on to found the paleontology school at Cornell University in upstate New York.
The Chehalis Tribe has about 700 enrolled members, 300 to 400 of whom live on the reservation between Rochester and Oakville.