Change courthouse sign

To The Eagle,

As a sociologist and research scholar at Washington State University in Vancouver, I’ve lived in Cathlamet for five years, serving on the Wahkiakum Network Coalition Board, volunteering in the community garden, and raising my two children who attend Wahkiakum schools.

During a research project at Lower Columbia College, I studied the Kathlamet and Wahkiakum tribes, whose villages were displaced when Captain James Birnie established Birnie’s Retreat, later renamed Cathlamet. These tribes became part of the Chinook Indian Nation, yet the landmark outside the Wahkiakum County Courthouse ambiguously claims they “lived here and passed on,” omitting the violence and dispossession that led to their displacement.

Census data contradicts this claim. As of 2020, 31 Wahkiakum residents identified as American Indian, and the 2023 American Community Survey lists 15 Indigenous individuals, showing decline but ongoing presence. These members of our community are very much alive, and the current sign erases their existence while falsely portraying colonialism as a closed chapter rather than an ongoing reality.

This omission harms everyone and it gaslights Indigenous residents while encouraging settlers to sustain a false narrative of innocence. Historical accuracy is not only a matter of record; it is an act of integrity and reconciliation.

My research, published in “Autism in America: One Woman’s Search for Healing”, recommends that the town of Cathlamet correct the courthouse landmark to acknowledge the continuing existence of Chinook descendants and the injustices they have endured. A factual, reparative statement would be a small but meaningful gesture toward truth and healing.

I will be donating half of my book’s proceeds to the Chinook Indian Nation and my own ancestral Lenape Nation to support tribal restoration and decolonial efforts. A copy of the book will soon be available at the Cathlamet Library.

Isha Sarah Snow,

Cathlamet