James G. Swan is a legendary scholar of Native people of the Northwest coast. He is an early federal employee in the Oregon territory and lives in the territory from 1852-1855. He originally hired on as a surveyor and worked on both the east and west coasts surveying lands. He later worked as a customs inspector at Shoalwater Bay. He was a artist and a good observer of Native peoples drawing what would become some of the most iconic images of the Native culture in the Oregon Territory. Swan’s book The Northwest Coast, Or, Three Years’ Residence in Washington Territory is a classic of ethnography and all about his travels in the territory and experiences with the tribes. Swan also collected ethnographic information about the tribes and submitted notes to the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of American Ethnology. Those manuscripts and his letters are invaluable to scholars. The following letter appears to be somewhat unknown in scholarly studies. The letter is found
read more James Swan: Fishing Culture of Coastal Washington Tribes
