Rights Remembered - (American Indian Lives) by Pauline R Hillaire (Hardcover)

About the Book

"An autobiography of a contemporary Native American woman that combines her own life experiences, tribal oral traditions, and the written record of relationships between the United States and the native peoples of the Northwest Coast to provide a Native view of recent history"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Rights Remembered is a remarkable historical narrative and autobiography written by esteemed Lummi elder and culture bearer Pauline R. Hillaire, Scälla-Of the Killer Whale. A direct descendant of the immediate postcontact generation of Coast Salish in Washington State, Hillaire combines in her narrative her own life experiences, Lummi oral traditions preserved and passed on to her, and the written record of relationships between the United States and the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast. She tells of government officials, treaties, reservations, and the colonial relationship between the Coast Salish people and white settlers.

Hillaire's book, although written out of frustration with the status of Native peoples in the United States, is not an expression of anger. Rather it represents, in her own words, her hope "for greater justice for Indian people in America, and for reconciliation between Indian and non-Indian Americans, based on recognition of the truths of history." Addressed to Indigenous and non-Native peoples alike, Rights Remembered is a thoughtful call for understanding and mutual respect between cultures.

Review Quotes

"Rights Remembered is a book that has been needed for many years. Its combination of history, ethnography, and autobiography effortlessly coalesce to give the reader an honest and heartfelt approach to understanding Native American rights and the long history of treaties with the United States. . . . This book would be an excellent teaching tool in social sciences such as cultural anthropology, political science, and law, as well as topics within the humanities such as history and human geography." --Charles R. Rowland Jr., International Social Science Review

"[Hillaire's] study draws upon international standards of human rights, thereby and significantly placing Indigenous matters--history, governance, and politics--into an international forum. . . . This history volume by Lummi historian Pauline Hillaire . . . is a welcome addition to the growing number of histories written by Indigenous scholars. Rights Remembered reminds me of why I became a historian who is dedicated to advocacy for my Diné nation and people."--Jennifer Denetdale, Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education

"[Hillaire] offers readers the culmination of years of research undertaken out of respect for her culture and her extensive and well-known family. . . . Though her focus is the Pacific Northwest and especially her Salish people, her words will resonate with many outside the region. Hillaire is a historian, but one who tells her story through the testament of her ancestors and the wisdom of her long, considered personal experience."--L. De Danaan, Choice

"Hillaire's holistic approach is a tour de force of context as she skillfully manages to weave together scholarly and federal government sources, using her personal experiences and the history of the Lummi tribe as the backdrop of the narrative. Later, Hillaire surprises with chapters on oral histories and poetry. Hillaire is a culture bearer for her people, leading dances, songs, and ceremonies. Hillaire's book then is a rare product of a tribal culture leader and academic scholar melded in a single volume. . . . Native historians and anthropologists are very rare, yet Hillaire has been working on such studies since at least the 1950s and, as such, is in a class of scholars that includes Vine Deloria, Jr., Beatrice Medicine, and Gerald Vizenor."--David G. Lewis, Oregon Historical Quarterly

"Scälla-Of the Killer Whale, Pauline Hillaire, was the most prominent elder of this generation, herself leading the Setting Sun singer-dancers for seventeen years, earning state and national wards as an artist, storyteller, and public speaker (with power point) willing, when invited, to share 'village customs . . . legends, songs, history, genealogy, poetry, friendship, ideas for the enhancement of our dying earth--our dying rivers.' . . . Rights Remembered has three parts in [Pauline Hillaire's] own first-person commentary, and three appendices. . . . Pauline has returned to her ancestors; her voice joins theirs in continuing to offer invaluable books, articles, and CDs/DVD."--Jay Miller, Western Historical Quarterly

"Through meticulous research, [Hillaire] traces the history of her tribe, blending legal, social, and oral history into a work that provides new insights into the choices made by both Indians and non-Indians and the larger effects of these choices. . . . Rights Remembered successfully breaks the boundaries between legal and cultural history, resulting in a critical work that grounds the complicated history of the Lummi and of the Pacific Northwest in a wonderfully approachable way."--Amy E. Canfield, Ethnohistory

"As a culture bearer and revered elder of the Lummi Nation, Pauline Hillaire (Scälla-Of the Killer Whale) is a national treasure. In Rights Remembered she brings her distinctive voice to the issues of treaty rights, subsistence, and the revitalization of indigenous cultures. Comparable in scope to the work of Vine Deloria, this book provides a much-needed perspective on American history and the encounter between Native people and Euro-Americans in the Pacific Northwest. It is an invaluable contribution."--Suzanne Crawford O'Brien, author of Coming Full Circle: Spirituality and Wellness among Native Communities in the Pacific Northwest-- (9/15/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Pauline Hillaire has spent a lifetime documenting her tribe's rights. Together with Gregory Fields, she has created a monumental plea for the recognition of Lummi and other Northwest Coast Native American rights in a work grounded in the evidence and enlivened with her family's personal stories."--David R. M. Beck, author of Seeking Recognition: The Termination and Restoration of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, 1855-1984-- (9/15/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"This book should be read by anyone interested in the Native perspective on the history of the Pacific Northwest."--Daniel L. Boxberger, Pacific Northwest Quarterly

About the Author

Pauline R. Hillaire, Scälla-Of the Killer Whale (Lummi) (1929-2016), was a historian, genealogist, artist, teacher, and conservator of Coast and Straits Salish knowledge and culture. In 2013 she was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as a National Heritage Fellow, the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. She is the author, with editor Gregory P. Fields, of A Totem Pole History: The Work of Lummi Carver Joe Hillaire (Nebraska, 2013) and of A Century of Coast Salish History: Media Companion to the Book "Rights Remembered." Gregory P. Fields is Distinguished Research Professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He is the author of Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga, Ayurveda, and Tantra.