Wanapum dispossession and persistence on the Mid-Columbia in the atomic age

Amy Louisa Johnson

This thesis examines the Wanapum peoples and their persistence in the light of dispossession. It argues that the Wanapum made a decisive break in the mid-twentieth century from the admonition of their nineteenth-century leader Smohalla, who had encouraged them to reject interactions with the outside white community. The Wanapum's later leaders, however, saw the need to form key, strategic relationships with outsiders during critical times when external forces threatened their rights, land, and culture. These decisions to make alliances were a main factor in enabling their persistence during the threats to their fishing rights, the removal from traditional lands due to the construction of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and the loss of important cultural sites with the building of the Priest Rapids and Wanapum Dams. The strategic alliances that they fostered when faced with these critical threats in the mid-century benefitted their community and aided in their cultural persistence. This thesis first examines the threat to the Wanapum's fishing rights in the late 1930s, when the Wanapum's leader, Puck Hyah Toot (Johnny Buck), joined Lucullus Virgil McWhorter to advocate to the public and the Senate of Washington for Wanapum fishing rights. This chapter also details the idea of the Wanapum as "authentic Indians," and argues this was a key reason why many whites were willing to help the Wanapum with their fishing rights at this time. Chapter Two shows how the relationship between Johnny Buck and Colonial Franklin T. Matthias in the early 1940s allowed the Wanapum unique access to traditional fishing sites during the creation of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and also details the importance of the land to the Wanapum. Chapter Three demonstrates how Johnny Buck's relationship with Click Relander in the 1950s, and subsequently the Grant County PUD, allowed the Wanapum to gain some concessions from the construction of the dams and the resulting loss of important cultural sites. With these strategic relationships, the Wanapum were able to maintain their tribal identity and secure their interests into the twenty-first century

Wanapum dispossession and persistence on the Mid-Columbia in the atomic age

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