Standing Tall: The Lifeway of Kathryn Jones Harrison, Chair of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community by Kristine Olson

Abstract

_REVIEWS STANDINGTALL: THE LIFEWAY OF KATHRYN JONES HARRISON, CHAIR OF THECONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE GRAND RONDECOMMUNITY by KristineOlson Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2005. Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 272 pages. $23.95 paper. In 1970,Kathryn JonesHarrison hit bottom, beaten down by a lifetimeof punishing blows. For her, the crucibles of pain and sorrow had never been far in the background. She was born intopoverty and lostboth ofher parents sixdays apart ina fluepidemic, a scourge that reappeared a decade later and claimed her twenty-three-year-old older sister. She suffered sexual abuse at thehands of her fosterfather, tookher education inan off-reservationIndian boarding school, and was married too young toan abusive, alcoholic classmate.An itinerant worker andmother of ten children, she spent twentyyears hanging on by the thinnest of threads, an experience so excruciating shehas repressedmost memories of it.Surpassing the magnitude of thosemiseries was the most ago nizing hurt of all, thedeaths of twoofher sons. Harrison s realization that she would have to sever ties with her husband of over thirty years demarcated the end of thefirst major stage of her lifeand her ascendancy into the second. Weary of livingon the margins and drowning in a relationship of booze and dependency, Harrison decided to strikeout on her own in search of a futurethatofferedat least thehint of something better. Harrison may have reached low ebb,but in the wisdom ofErnestHemingway in A Farewell to Arms, shehad been made "strong at thebro ken places," her trialshaving uniquely prepared her forthechallenges that layahead. At theage of forty-eight,she embarked on a journey that began as a personal quest to provide forher children and ended with her achieving public status as one of themost prominent and ef fective Indian leaders inOregon, the Pacific Northwest, and the country. Harrison's personal life corresponded to theperiod ofAmerican Indian history known as "Self-Determination." A 1942 graduate of Chemawa Indian School, she enrolled inLane Community College inEugene, Oregon, and earned a degree innursing. But her truecalling was not healthcare. Drawing on the influence ofher father, a descendant of the Molalla Chief Yel-kus who had been selected by theGrand Rondes to testifybefore congressional lead ers on the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, and the resourcefulness ofMolalla Kate, her namesake and great-great-aunt who had been employed as a nanny for Dr. John McLoughlin as a teenager, Harrison assisted theSiletzTribe ofwestern Oregon in its successful campaign for tribal restoration. She ran for and won a seat on the Siletz Tribal Council, holding the position of secretary. Not feelingtotallyaccepted in thatcommu nity ? her father'sfamily was fromSiletz,but he had been enrolled atGrand Ronde? Har risonmoved north in 1981and emerged again as a tireless and formidable leader, laboring literallynight and day forGrand Ronde tribal recognition, which was granted in1983.Eventu allyoccupying theofficesofvice chairman and chairman on thetribalcouncil,Harrison served for nearly two decades. She shepherded the Grand Rondes through the critical process of acquiring a landbase and oversaw construction of the tribe'seconomic lifeblood,Spirit Moun tainCasino, one of the most successfulgaming operations on thePacific Coast today. Standing Tall joins an expanding anthology of contemporary biographies that document Reviews 461 the inestimable contributions ofAmerican In dianwomen inthetwentiethcentury. Although the lifehistory of each of these trailblazers is unique and relevant to their own experiences, they are bound by the capacity to confront and conquer the crudest of adversities. Kris tine Olson swrenchingly poignant retelling of thebitterdisappointments Harrison knew, contrastedwith her fearlessdetermination and perseverance, reminds readers of the coura geous response of another Chemawa graduate, the late Hazel Pete, a renowned Chehalis basket maker and cultural leader.Harrison spolitical acumen and prodigious powers of persua sion were not unlike those of the longtime Stillaguamish council chairwoman, Esther Ross, whose adult life was devoted to achiev ing federal recognition of her tribe.Harrison, Haida elder Florence Davidson, and Makah elder Helma Swan all negotiated the domi nant culturewhile never forsaking theirown tribal cultures. Perhaps more than any other, Harrison s lifeclosely paralleled thatof Wilma Mankiller, theprincipal chiefof theCherokee Nation ofOklahoma from 1985 to 1995.Each rebounded from shattered personal circum stances ?hardscrabble beginnings, failed mar riages, singlemotherhood, limited educations...