Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Wet Olympic Peninsula ride

This memorial day weekend me and my wife went on ride around Olympic peninsula. It was supposed to be cloudy but no rain....

Well, that was the hope, Saturday started as planned - we boarded ferry early in the morning and it was light rain that subsided around noon when we have reached Port Angeles. From there we headed to Neah Bay ( Cape Flattery). Nice view, could of been much prettier if was not so cloudy. Then we rode to Forks. We never read that Twilight series our daughter is crazy about but heard of that craze, so decided to stop there for a night stay. There was no rooms available at all! By sheer luck we got last one available and went to the town for a dinner.

We were walking and checking out shops when we stumbled upon one where we were invited to listen to the Naive American women telling stories. After a moment of hesitation we said yes and entered back of the store where we found an elderly women from Quileute tribe and few folks around - the story time just began.

It turns out to be the best decision we made - it has started slowly with her introducing herself and what she is doing and then she told story of creation as it was told by her tribe. She explained that the she condensed the story that was told for 4 (FOUR) days in tribe's oral tradition to 4 pages. Then we realized that we are talking with one of the last people of rapidly vanishing culture. She can speak language of her tribe, but not fluently - they did not have writing and their language is too complex to be easily taught to kids, so it is gone. You could read that Quileute language is quite unique because of lack of nasal sounds (m, n), but that is not all. The lady told us that linguist who studied their language got it very incomplete because he was talking to men, but Quileute-s use different dialects: one for men talking to men ( that one was captured), another for men talking to women, and another for talking to kids, and another for men talking to young girls. Wow!

Quileute's "Creation" story is quite interesting - sort of 'string' theory for kids that explains that all the living things are the same (or rather were before 'time changed') - quite fascinating beliefs system that has deep impact on the way they live. They create no waste because they were sustainable for many thousand years - excellent example to follow.

Then we started asked questions and she started to talk about things which make not-so-distant past come alive: she is the first generation of Natives which was not forced to go to boarding schools to unlearn their language and culture. Then she was talking about whaling society and training to be members had to went through: swimming 10 miles in the ocean is just a beginning, then it need to be done with constraints.... Then she mentioned that Quileute are matriarchal society, and were thousands of years before whites at least recognized women as equal. By the time we fully recognized that we have rare opportunity to meet and interact with one of last representatives of ancient culture and nation that will likely to disappear during our lifetime.... She was talking about it too with attitude of acceptance that seemed to come from Quileute belief that everything changes. Central figure in their belief system is 'Changer' - the one who comes and changes things, although 'it' sometimes just seem to announce coming change, not necessarily causing it....

And she told about special relationships her nation has with cedar, how she would use even smallest pieces of cedar bark. Recalling all the clear cuts we were passing by I could not even imagine how sad she and her nation might think about it. I myself feel pain in my chest when I see those ugly scars on the face of mountains - next day on the way to Long Beach we passed A LOT of current and former clear-cuts - I think I will avoid that road in the future because I could not bear those sights and think that all those beautiful trees used to make throw-away staff or used to make paper for junk mail or single use cups...

The there was question about her and her tribe take on the issue of Makah tribe and whaling - her answer was 'no opinion' - they simply do not judge things which are not local to them. Interesting position.

She could of talk for hours but store owner who provided the spot came to remind that it is time to go - still we talked for a good deal more.

The next day we riding in the rain and when we passing all those cleat-cuts I was thinking about Natives, how they could feel about it....

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