August 22, 1974 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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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