Author Tags: First Nations


Articles: 2 Articles for this author

---

Powell J.V.

1971
Quileute deixis--A study of grammatical markedness in Studies in Northwest Indian Languages, Publications of the Sacramento Anthropological Society 11, Pages 91-109. [linguistics; Chimakuan language family]

Powell, J.V.

1972
The predicate in Chimakum, University of Hawaii, Working Papers in Linguistics 4(3):83-112. [linguistics; Chimakuan language family]

Powell, J.V. et al.

1972
Placenames of the Quileute Indians, Pacific Northwest Quarterly 63:104-12. [linguistics; Chimakuan language family]

Powell, J.V.

1974
Proto-Chimakuan: Materials for a Reconstruction, Ph.D. Dissertation in Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu.

Powell, J.V.

1975
Proto-Chimakuan: Materials for a reconstruction, University of Hawaii, Working Papers in Linguistics 7(2). [linguistics; Chimakuan language family]

Powell, J.V.

1975
Quileute Language: Book I, La Push Washington: Quileute Tribe.

Powell, J.V.

1976
Quileute Language: Book 2, La Push, Washington: Quileute Tribe.

Powell, J.V.

1976
Chimakuan-Wakashan: Evidence of Genetic Relationship, Paper read at the Northwest Coast Studies Conference, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., 1976.

Powell, J.V.

1990
Chinook Jargon Vocabulary and the Lexicographers, International Journal of American Linguistics 56/1: 134-151.

Powell, James V.

1990
Quileute, pp. 431-437 in Handbook of North American Indians, volume 7, The Northwest Coast, edited by Wayne Suttles, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

Powell, J.V., and Vickie Jensen

1976
Quileute: An Introduction to the Indians of La Push, Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Powell, J.V. and F. Woodruff

1971
A note on the Quileute entries of Ethnobotany of Western Washington (by Erna Gunther) in Studies in Northwest Indian Languages, Publications of the Sacramento Anthropological Society 11, Pages 110-6. [linguistics; Chimakuan language family]

Powell, J.V. and Fred Woodruff

1973
Additions to the Quileute Entries, pp. 51-52 (App. l) in Ethnobotany of Western Washington: The Knowledge and Use of Indigenous Plants by Native Americans, by Erna Gunther, Revised edition Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Powell, J.V. and Fred Woodruff

1976
Quileute Dictionary, Northwest Anthropological Research Notes, Memoirs 3, Moscow, Idaho.

Powell, J.V., Vickie Jensen, Agnes Cranmer, and Margaret Cook

1981
Learning Kwak'wala Series, Books I to 12, Gloria Cranmer Webster, series editor, Alert Bay, B.C.: U'mista Cultural Society.

Powell, J.V., Vickie Jensen, Edith Gawa and Mary Johnson

1980
Gitksanimx For Kids, Book 6, Kispiox: Kispiox Band, 118 Pages.

Powell, J.V., Vickie Jensen, Edith Gawa and Mary Johnson

1980
Gitsanimx For Kids, Book 7, Kispiox: Kispiox Band, 113 Pages.

Powell, J.V., William Penn, et al.

1972
Place Names of the Quileute Indians, Pacific Northwest Quarterly 63(3):105-112.

Powell, J.V. and F. Woodruff

1976
Quileute Dictionary, Northwest Anthropological Research Notes, Memoir 3. [linguistics; Chimakuan language family]

---

Crows and seagulls are squabbling in the road. From her computer Vickie Jensen can just see the surf crashing on the shore, but the fog has totally obscured James Island at the mouth of the Quileute River.
She and her husband Jay Powell are once again in LaPush, a small native village on the northwest coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, helping the Quileute [pronounced Kwil-LAY-yute] revive their language and culture.
While Powell is off at the tribal school, cajoling a class of teenagers into trying words like kitaxt'ik'als (Go home) or Hista tasi (Gimme five!), Jensen recalls her first visit 36 years ago. In those days, 50 Quileute could speak their indigenous language; 600 could not. Very quickly the number of Quileute speakers on the reservation dwindled to a handful.
"Jay and I didn't know it at the time,"; she says, "but that was the beginning of our life together.";
After Fred 'Woody' Woodruff, one of the last remaining Quileute speakers, had the patience to teach his language to Powell, the young anthropologist began his lifelong career as one of the most essential linguists in the Pacific Northwest.
Since then Vickie Jensen has shot more than 50,000 photographs and the couple has helped produce more than 40 language and culture books for the Quileutes, the Kwakwaka'wakw, the Halkomelem, the Eastern and Western Gitksan, the Shushwap, and the Nuu-chah-nulth.
"A language is like a species of bird,"; Powell has said, "that has evolved across thousands of generations. How hard would we work to save such a bird from becoming extinct?";

Jay Powell first came to LaPush in 1968 to research his Ph.D dissertation as a University of Hawaii graduate student. When Jensen joined him in 1972, she was already teaching students who didn't fit into mainstream schools.
"We debated whether the languages of the coast were doomed and how to rekindle pride and cultural interest,"; she says. "We eventually decided to produce a couple of schoolbooks that the elders could use in teaching at the school.
"We felt it was particularly important that these materials look respectable, like 'real' schoolbooks rather than a handful of dog-eared mimeos. I insisted that they be illustrated with photographs of local kids and of village life on the rez.";
Flash photography was not permitted in potlatches or feast ceremonies, so Jensen learned to work with very slow shutter speeds. "I also developed the negs and printed the images myself,"; she says, "Because we were always on a meager budget, we were limited to b&w images and illustrations as part of our photo-ready copy.";
Long before computers were an option, theirs was a thriving desktop operation. They tape recorded the elders and used a typewriter with a special IBM Selectric ball in order to produce the necessary diacritic markings. They used Letraset to transfer titles, hired an illustrator, developed and printed photographs, planned the layout, stuck everything in place with tape or wax, and then found a printer who could print and bind within allowable budgets.
Powell and Jensen invariably lived on the rez, often with a family, and returned year after year. Publications were usually celebrated with a community feast. "This body of work sort of sneaked up on us,"; Jensen says. "We've been so busy writing and publishing 'in the margins' that we've never been a significant part of the mainstream publishing picture.
"But we have no regrets. Recently someone left a salmon hanging on our doorknob. It's the kind of anonymous thank you that really means something here.";

The books they produced are copyrighted for the native band. This approach proved problematic for Powell's teaching career at UBC.
"The anthropology department might have thought our work was interesting and even important,"; says Jensen, "but the books certainly didn't count for promotion or tenure since they hadn't been produced by a juried press. Academics were uncomfortable with language and culture books that seemed too much like pragmatic self-publishing, which in those days was categorized with vanity press works that nobody but the author would publish.
"Possibly some publisher might have been willing to help us get into print books that might only appeal to a tribe of 800 and a few archives and libraries, but the process of "real"; publishing often took two to three years to accept a manuscript, have it reviewed, seek subventions, edit and re-edit, proofread and print.
"So, instead we did it ourselves, sometimes producing a book in six weeks. The native communities wanted their language lessons, dictionaries, cultural readers and kids' picture books now!";
While Powell continued to teach at university and write "respectable"; academic papers, Jensen accepted an invitation from Alan Haig-Brown to try editing Westcoast Mariner Magazine. It turned into a four-year stint. She has also written books on native art and maritime life, eventually setting up her own company, Westcoast Words, for her narrow-niche books on underwater robots and a guide to local totem poles.


After they produced their first Quileute school books in 1975, the phone in Vancouver started ringing. "We were always on the road in those early days,"; Jensen recalls, "heading to one rez or another, as soon as Jay was done teaching spring term at UBC. In 1980-81, when we lived in Alert Bay, we wrote 13 books, helped with opening U'mista Cultural Centre, taught a photography class, and had a second baby. It was certainly one of the most memorable years of our lives.";
Their commitment to the work didn't change, but technology did, as did their methodology. "In the beginning, we thought good-looking, respectable school books would be enough. Then we realized that while the elders might be fluent in the language, none had any experience in classroom dynamics. So we added teacher's manuals to our repertoire.
"When that didn't prove as effective as we'd hoped, we set up a three-year Kwak'wala Teacher Training Project, where teachers would not only learn about NASL (Native as a Second Language) techniques but could share ideas, produce group materials, and get post secondary credit, first through North Island Community College and later SFU.
"Eventually we did our first immersion CD-ROM for young kids. Back in 1980 there were only old men 'at the log,' singing the ancient Kwak'wala songs at potlatches. Today, there's a whole generation of powerful young singers (and dancers) making their own CDs.";
Forty years. Forty books. 50,000 photos.
Plus thousands of hours on reservations and in classrooms.
It adds up to two of the most valuable authors of British Columbia.

-- Alan Twigg