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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
August 22, 1974     Shelton Mason County Journal
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PAGE 39     (39 of 44 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
August 22, 1974
 
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| • I- -- I 000 let Bonnie help you coordinate your interior decorating for the most attractive effect in your home. Choose from our large selection of carpeting, wall and floor coverings. We have sample books you may take home to match with your furniture in your home. 0 Page S-22 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, August 22, 1974 Changes have been many since the turn of the century, and perhaps the most obviously altered lifestyle is that of the Indian woman. Marie Simmons, a resident of the Skokomish Indian Reservation for the past 44 years, was born in 1899 near Dixon, Montana. She lived in a teepee and she fished with her grandmother. In order that the elderly lady might reach the choice fishing areas inaccessible fron] the rugged shores, the two of them rode double on a patient horse who traveled slowly down the middle of the shallow river. Shortly after Marie had passed her 14th birthday she was sent by her father from the Flathead Indian Reservation to the Cushman Indian School in Tacoma. Unaware that the facility existed exclusively for students of her race; she looked about in wonder upon her arrival and remarked: "There's sure a lot of Indians in this place!" Others also gazed in wonder, among them a handsome young man from Yakima who took one look at Marie and said: "That's gonna be my girl!" They were wed in 1917, and she was his girl until death parted them four years ago. Her husband, although his name was Walter, was known to all as "Ugh." The noncommittal syllable served him ever in good stead when he preferred not to understand the spoken word. Ugh was a commercial fisherman, and during his long absences from home his wife developed a successful chicken business and became famous for fresh and flavorful eggs. Approximately 250 hens were kept in cages. "I pampered them," she says. Mrs. Simmons and her husband reached out for the finest of the new while clinging proudly to the best-loved ways of the Indian. They lived near to nature, enjoying the woods and the waters after the fashion of their forefathers. When Mrs. Simmons was widowed she gave up her poultry in favor of a gift shop christened "The Teepee" in nostalgic reminiscence of her childhood dwellings. "The Teepee is not native to this area," she explains. "Here everything is wood, and the lndians lived in longhouses." She fashions baby-size moccasins and realistic garments for her Indian dolls. She makes belts and beaded bags. When Marie Simmons appears before interested groups to lell of Indian lore, she wears a beaded buckskin costume, and across her shoulders fall long, dark braids. She speaks of long-ago days when she roamed the Montana wilderness to learn the edible foods, the useful grasses. "My father taught me," she states, "that when one takes something from the earth, one must return something to it. Sometimes, if he had nothing else, he wauld bury a small paring of tobacco after we had picked berries or gathered roots." Today Marie Simmons is a little white-haired lady with snapping black eyes. She has traded her traditional campfire for a modern stove in the cozy kitchen of a small white house. The authentic teepee from which throughout the summer months she sells her wares is taken down when bad weather prevails, and her shop is then centered within her home. "'1 have only genuine Indian artifacts," she emphasizes with a quick smile. "No Japanese imports!" And so the sad-sweet sentient curve has resolved into a circle, and Marie Simmons knows a tender merging of the present with the past. Sharing her grandmother's home is Diane Fox: but there is no mid-stream fishing from the back of a docile mount. No teepee shelters the young woman, nor does she attend an Indian school. Diane Fox is an eleventh-grade student in Shelton High School, an active participant in curricular events and a flutist with the school's award-winning band. Yet there are times when Diane dons Indian raiment with her dark hair styled in-long, full braids. While her grandmother calls forth from ancient drums an old, old rhythm, her lovely granddaughter lures from her flute a plaintive melody of long ago - a heritage too lovely to be lost. MARIE AND WALTER SIMMONS were wed in 1917. Thursday, August 22, 1974 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page S-11