Unsettled Ground: The Whitman Massacre and Its Shifting Legacy in the American West

Unsettled Ground: The Whitman Massacre and Its Shifting Legacy in the American West by Cassandra Tate

Marcus Whitman was once viewed as a bold leader who gave his life to help pave the way for the foundation of Oregon Territory and Washington State. In modern times, he is viewed as a cruel imperialist who tried to destroy an innocent Indian population by forcing his beliefs and practices on them. The truth is much more complicated. This book attempts to show the balanced view of the Whitmans as people of their time.

The Whitman's were devout east coast protestants. They viewed their brand of Christianity to be the only path towards salvation. They felt a need to convert the Indians so that they could also have the blessings and would not suffer eternal damnation. The existing native culture and religion were viewed as negative practices that needed to be stomped out. Even Catholicism was a danger that would impeded salvation. These people traveled across the continent to help save people.

Marcus Whitman was also a doctor. He used his skills to help both the Indians and the White missionaries. This would also lead to his death. In the native culture of the area, the doctors were viewed as people skilled in mysterious arts. They had skills of healing as well as of causing harm. If somebody died after being treated, it was a common practice to avenge the death by killing the doctor. Alas, there were many infectious diseases for which the Indians had little immunity. After many natives had died, there was justification in killing the doctor.

Relationships between "Bostonians" and "Indians" had also been having problems. The cultural norms of privacy and gift giving were very different. The Whites saw themselves as superior and were reluctant to adopt any local customs.  There was an unatoned for recent of Christian Indian by a White settler in a different areas.  The territory was also being overrun with White settlers from the east. The missionaries had been spending much of their time supporting these immigrants. They viewed these people as helping spread the higher culture. They also saw additional trade as supporting their mission by allowing them to financially independent. To Indians living there, these were more people encroaching on their land without payment.

With the current conditions, even the missionaries viewed the conditions less than ideal. They were ambushed by some Indians who killed many of them and held others as hostage. Retribution for this was significant. Five Indians were tried, convicted and executed. The tribe was confined to a reservation - that was reduced in size. The land became the Oregon territory and became overrun with huge numbers of settlers.

The book paints a picture of many flawed people that thought they were doing right. The Missionaries themselves had strong opinions of right and wrong. They did not get along well with each other or with the natives. The strong beliefs that drove them to missionary work also hurt the work itself. Had they better learned the culture and language of the locals, they would have likely had better experience in spreading their religion. Would this have changed the history of the Pacific Northwest?

Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood

Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood by John Soennichsen

Eastern Washington state has a bizarre landscape. There are "dry falls" and other large geological formations. J. Harlen Bretz believed these came from a large flooding event. Other geologists scoffed at this. (They were also reluctant to accept this because it could seem to give credence to the biblical flood.) Eventually, many of the old geologists died off and Bretz's view became accepted. Lake Missoula is seen as the source of this flood. 

Bretz was originally from the midwest. He taught high school in Seattle. He later returned east and taught at the University of Chicago and continued teaching and engaging in fieldwork. He lived into his late 90s as he finally saw his views accepted. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel

In a remote seaside location in Puget Sound, an old lady has a part time job of cleaning the local aquarium. She befriends an octopus that she finds stuck in a power cord. This animal has a habit of sneaking out of its tank to go exploring. (We also get to hear some thoughts from the Octopus's point of view.) She is currently living alone, and still has not got over the mysterious death of her son many years ago.

Meanwhile, in California, a young man that never knew his father (and barely knew his mother) stumbles across an old picture of his mom with another guy. She thinks this might be his father. He traces him to the small town in Washington state, and heads up there. The airline loses his luggage (it ends up traveling all over the world), and he ends up buying a camper from somebody he met and uses it to drive from Seattle up to the small town. In the small town, he befriends the old man that runs the grocery store, and is able to live in the camper on his lot.

Back in the town, the old lady sprains her ankle. The young man takes over her job cleaning the aquarium. The lady comes back in to see how the aquarium is doing (and see the octopus.) 

The characters in the book develop powerful relationships with each other. The octopus also has his personality and works to help the humans in their relationships - sometimes doing things that the humans are unable to do themselves. The octopus knows the answers that the humans are looking for before the humans do. They all are much better with each other than alone.

This Boy's Life

Driving out to North Cascades National Park, you pass through Concrete. It looked like a city with history. Wikipedia mentioned that This Boy's Life was set there, so it looked like a good book to read. In the book, the author and his mother travel from the east coast to Utah in search of mining riches. That doesn't pan out, so they settle in Salt Lake. After a breakup, they move to Seattle. After further issues, it is off to the mountains. He lives 30 minutes from Concrete and attends school there. He spends time in boy scouts and becomes Catholic. He also has to endure abusive step parents and engages in a life of mischief at all stops.  He eggs cars with a buddy, kills animals with his gun and commits all sorts of petty theft. He is not the top of guy you would want to meet up with. Somehow out of all this he becomes a writer.

Little Washington: A Nostalgic Look at the Evergreen State's Smallest Towns (Tiny Towns)

Little Washington looks at 100 different towns with populations of less than 3500. Some of these are smack dab in the middle of urban areas. However, many are well off the beaten bath. A common theme is fire. It seems most of the towns have been burned down at least once. I guess that is a risk when building with wood in the middle of forests. 

Many of the towns date from the late 1800s. For all that was known at the time, one of them could have become what Seattle is today. Alas, that did not happen. A number of towns did have boom periods that increased the population into the thousands before falling down to their present levels. Transportation played a key role. Some riverboat towns fell off as trains came. Rail interest then ceded to highways. Road travel has resulted in a loss of services in many small towns as residents can travel to other towns for schools or shopping. 

For each town there is an attempt at a narrative history. This often has a mixture of historical facts with interesting things presently in the town. (There are a few that come across as fairly negative.) Some of these towns look like they would be great to visit. I do wish there were better maps in the book.

The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche

The most deadly avalanche in the US occurred at Wellington, Washington in 1910. At that time rail travel was considered generally safe. The railroads had extensive snow clearing equipment, and people were comfortable taking the train even in heavy snow storms. 

Many passengers had boarded the train in Spokane, expecting an eventful trip to Seattle. However, the weather was not cooperating. The snow kept going down. There was so much snow that the snow removal machines were jammed. And the snow kept coming. It was decided to park the passenger train (and a mail train) on a siding at Wellington. Some people had had enough of this and decided to leave the train and hike away through the snow. That ended up being a wise decision. The snow on the hill over the train train track loosened and came down in a massive avalanche, pushing the trains over hundred feet down the hill. Some people survived, but most of the train occupants had died.

There were lawsuits. Some blame was placed on poor labor conditions as well as bad decisions on the positioning of the train. A past forest fire that had removed the tree cover was also a contributing factor. However, in the end, the primary cause was deemed to be an unpredictable act of nature. The train line suffered some small avalanches later. They renamed the town of Wellington to "Tye" to remove the bad association. Eventually, a longer tunnel was built to avoid some of the worst parts of the line.

The Weather of the Pacific Northwest

The Weather of the Pacific Northwest is a definitive introduction to all things related to regional weather of this part of the United States. Weather prediction on the west coast of the United States can be challenging. Weather systems typically come from the west. There is a large Pacific Ocean to the west, and limited visibility in to the details of the weather. There are also huge shifts in terrain over short distances. The multiple mountain ranges suck a great deal of precipitation from the sky, leaving the west sides exceptionally wet, while the east sides are dry. The ranges also help block air from the interior, leading to a rather temperate climate. Alas, there are gaps in the mountain ranges. This allows interior air systems to come through, bringing their more extreme conditions and high wind.

The book is beautifully illustrated and filled with pictures and graphs illustrating the topics discussed. I was somewhat disappointed by some of the graphs. While they are fairly typical for weather graphs, I do wish they could have improved them to better illustrate the topic of discussion. (For instance, there were a couple illustrations comparing different situations that had different scales.)

The book has extensive coverage of the detailed weather systems of different parts of the Northwest. Enumclaw is very prone to high winds, even when things are calm a short distance away. (It  Sequim is dry and sunny, while less than 75 miles away, Forks measures their rainfall in feet. Even the city of Seattle can have different weather within the city. Puget sound is a moderating influence, while hills can change the weather. A convergence zone tends to set over the city, leading to more overcast systems. Portland can often be colder in the winder as systems move through the Columbia River gap. Eastern Washington and Oregon are much colder in the winter and hotter in the summer - and get a lot less rain.

The book also covers some of the extreme weather events and attempts to provide explanation of how they occurred. (It is much easier for the newer ones.) The impacts of climate change are discussed, both in the context of human caused global warming as well as natural changes (such as the ending of the little ice age.)

The book is generally well written. However, parts do get a little repetitive. (I do get the point that a bicycle pump trends to warm air!) The update page for the book currently does not have any content. Maybe there will be corrections in the future?

Boys in the Boat

 The book chronicles the story of the University of Washington crew team that won a gold medal at the Berlin Olympic games. The book details their history. The group were primarily working class boys from rural Washington. Most worked manual labor jobs (such as building Grand Coulee dam) in order to pay for school. They were a far cry from the elite rowers that they regularly competed with. Even after qualifying for the olympics, an Ivy league school offered to take their place, since they would have to pay their way.

The book intertwines the history of the Washington Crew team with the events of the world, including the rise of Hitler in Germany and the great depression in the US. The reaction of the Hitler Youth stuck out. These impressionable youth felt it their duty to carry out Nazi message. They were similar to youth in Communist Russia that would glorify communism at the expense of their elders. Today, we may look at things, and say "oh, we are now enlightened progressives. We would never be like the evil fascists." However, the actual ideology is largely irrelevant. I doubt most of the youth even have a good understanding of what the ideology is. Instead, they see "others" as not toeing the party line and punishing them. Today it may be attacking somebody on social media because they have the "wrong" views. (This may even take place in the name of "inclusiveness") Is taking down a website really much different from burning a book?

It is also interesting that Germany had "cleaned things up" for the Olympics. They put on a great facade to hide away the internal warfare going on in the country. They also did things very manually, thus creating a huge number of jobs. They were able to create a great Olympics - they just couldn't win everything.

Another takeaway is how things have changed. The olympic athletes still had to work their way through school. However, they could earn enough money over the summer to pay for school. Rowing was one of the more popular events at the olympics and attracted huge crowds. During the depression people adapted to find ways to earn money and grow food. The government safety net was much smaller. But, government interference and regulation was also much smaller. 

The championship rowers had a mixture of natural abilities and a passion for the sport. Rowing is an interesting sport that requires brute strength, technique and teamwork. There is a great deal of strategy involved to manage the group and competitive psychology as well as individual experience. University of Washington's championship team had their struggles, but were able to overcome them to put on a momentous performance. 

Ancient Places: People and Landscape in the Emerging Northwest

Ancient places is a series of essays related to the Pacific Northwest. There are essays on giant meteors, the formation of landscapes, biscuit-root, ants and an amateur anthropologist. This is not a broad history, but an in-depth look at minor areas. At times the essays can be engaging, but most of the time I found myself trying skimming quickly to get to the point. (Alas, there usually wasn't one.) I enjoyed finding out a few more details of the inland Northwest, but would not spend a lot of time on the book.