In our hand an old old old thread
Oct. 5th, 2004 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twilight33School finally started for me tonight since my prof canceled the first night last week. I took a hint from multiple classes that ended up being about Native American issues, and am studying Pacific Northwest Indians this quarter.
We have the option of negotiating an individual project for class instead of a group, and I'm fairly certain I'm going that route. I have my family journal with stories about life in the Washington Territory when my great-great grandfather was born here 143 years ago, but I want to know the other side of the story. Who were the tribe(s) in the area where my ancestors had their homestead? How did they live and what were they like? Who are they today? All interactions in the 1860s between the natives and my ancestors appeared to be peaceful & respectful, not limited to reservations (although they were established by then, part of why I am so curious about this), and my 3x great-grandmother was supposedly rather fluent in Chinook jargon.
I've been researching a bit to figure out a solid base, but am thrilled by the prospect of being able to interconnect work for my class with expanding the cultural context of my family research. The latter has taken some unexpected dark & disturbing turns that I will only write about with other family researchers & my genealogy software notes. I keep getting a sense that I'm not the one directing my research path lately, that these old stories insist on telling themselves & I'm just the messenger.
We have the option of negotiating an individual project for class instead of a group, and I'm fairly certain I'm going that route. I have my family journal with stories about life in the Washington Territory when my great-great grandfather was born here 143 years ago, but I want to know the other side of the story. Who were the tribe(s) in the area where my ancestors had their homestead? How did they live and what were they like? Who are they today? All interactions in the 1860s between the natives and my ancestors appeared to be peaceful & respectful, not limited to reservations (although they were established by then, part of why I am so curious about this), and my 3x great-grandmother was supposedly rather fluent in Chinook jargon.
I've been researching a bit to figure out a solid base, but am thrilled by the prospect of being able to interconnect work for my class with expanding the cultural context of my family research. The latter has taken some unexpected dark & disturbing turns that I will only write about with other family researchers & my genealogy software notes. I keep getting a sense that I'm not the one directing my research path lately, that these old stories insist on telling themselves & I'm just the messenger.
