Alexandra Harmon

Alexandra Harmon in her book, Indians in the Making, investigates Native American ethnicity and identity in the Puget Sound area in the northwestern corner of the state of Washington. As a legal representative for many of the Native Americans in the region, and during her graduate studeis at the University of Washington, Harmon analyzes the history and evolution of the relationship between indigenous people and individuals of European decent. Beginning her study during the fur trade era of the eighteenth century, Harmon addresses contact between native people and employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company. As the United States expanded its territory further west and gained control of the Oregon Country (including the area of the present day state of Washington) Harmon draws interesting and meaningful distinctions relative to the relationships maintained between Indians and whites. In the first half of her book Harmon tackles the affects American immigration had on the natives, as well as the social, political and religious elements the developed in this area as a result. Harmon’s work is not strictly a historical overview of the settling and development of Puget Sound. She illustrates the significance of the blending and coexistence of two very different cultures in a relatively small geographical area, and exhibits the different issues and understandings the can, and have, developed out of this type of circumstance.
Harmon explains that during the time directly following first contact with Europeans (specifically French and British fur traders, King George men) Native American life maintained consistently. She argues that the presence of King George men did not, at least initially; significantly alter the identity and understandings of indigenous life. “[I]t is unlikely that trade with Hudson’s Bay Company substantially changed the ways indigenous people conceived of themselves in relation to others, although it probably made many of them more conscious of their distinguishing characteristics.” This is a prime example of Harmon’s interest in the identity of the native people and how it evolved as their connection and relationship with Europeans continued. The element of identity gives Harmon’s book a fresh objective. While many scholars write about the relationships that developed between native people and members of a colonial state, these studies typically focus on aspects of relationships that are economic or socio-religious in nature. Harmon presents the Indians of the Puget Sound area as independent individuals with customs and practices of their own – stable in their way of life. Daniel Richter, when analyzing Native Americans living on the eastern coast of the continent, argues that as a result of contact with Europeans, indigenous people were subject to their presence and influences, and thus were changed and began to live differently. “[C]hanges forced upon [Native Americans] were just as profound as if they had resettled on unknown shores.”
Harmon is intent on illustrating the relationships between the natives and the King George men, and later the Bostons (Americans) when they came to settle the area as citizens of the United States. Interestingly, what Harmon does in her first several chapters, gives the reader a sense of the native’s self-awareness and self-reflection. Harmon makes the case that it was through this interaction with whites that enable the Indians to recognize their differences and perhaps even maintain their individual and cultural identities. Harmon describes these social, economic and religious interactions by borrowing Richard White’s terminology “middle ground”. Yet, Harmon builds on White’s notion and issues a term specific to the region and people she is studying – a bridge between cultures. A bridge is constructed to connect two areas that without it could not be reached. Harmon gives specific examples of this bridge throughout her work. Through the use of the Chinook jargon Indians and whites learned how to communicate. Though the jargon had only 200 words, fairly complex ideas such as religious beliefs and economic transactions could be communicated.
Much of Harmon’s work contains familiar themes. Relationships between Native Americans and whites were established through trade. Agricultural practices were shared among the cultures as whites introduced the indigenous people to cotton clothing, wool blankets and metal tools. Indians assisted some of the King George men with translation and navigation as a type of foreign policy between neighboring groups. In addition to this seemingly traditional approach to Native American study and research, Harmon gives her readers something else to consider. In a similar fashion to ethnohistories written by scholars like the aforementioned Richter, Harmon attempts to give the reader an in-depth account of the Native American experience. Within each of her extended chapters, Harmon dedicates a section in which she addresses Indian identity. She discusses aspects of King George men’s actions and lifestyles that Indians would find curious – their language, clothing, food, hygiene and lack of women. She also gives accounts, from a traditional perspective, of how the whites were disgusted by the lack of clothing, the strange paints and beads that were wore by the Indians, etc. By giving the Indian perspective in addition to the white perspective Harmon seizes the opportunity to discuss the distinctions and differences that, she argues, are recognized by the Native American people. This may seem mundane or even simplistic to the average reader, but through her considerations of identity Harmon grants independence to the Native American. She recognized these people as individuals within their smaller communities, as well as within the greater context of the many groups that inhabited the areas around Puget Sound. By maintaining this position, Harmon is able to illustrate more clearly and definitively the paternalism, racism and general prejudices faced by Native American people. While Harmon’s ultimate intention is to illustrate the struggles native people of the region face in terms of identity and recognition during the twentieth century, her early chapters establish a foundation for understanding Native American’s consciousness as individuals and members of larger communities.
As population of Bostons increased in the Puget Sound area during the nineteenth century, tension between indigenous people and whites began to elevate. In the chapters that focus on treaties and reform, Harmon describes the frictions that arise out of the fundamental differences in mentality between the Indians and Americans. As more and more people immigrated into the area with promises of land and opportunity by the U.S. government, natives and whites reacted in different manners, further illustrating differences in understanding and identity. During the period of the 1850s whites were attempting to acquire Indian lands through the development of treaties, but were not opposed to using force when they struggled to achieve their goals peacefully. “[W]hites and Indians remained so different that they even thought about…war in dissimilar ways. Unlike Americans, indigenous peoples did not conceive of war as an institutional tool of political domination.”
Ultimately, whites would succeed in achieving their cultural, social, political and religious domination of not only the Puget Sound area, but of the entire continent. As the American population grew so did its desire to gain territory and resources. Transportation became easier as the United States build steam ships that could travel up river, constructed railroads that traversed the continent from east to west and north to south, and “discovered” resources in the mountains and rivers that at one time were home to tens of thousands of native peoples. Indians in the Making is not a book focused on the classic stories of Indian military resistance or fleeting triumph. Harmon’s book investigates the identity and self-understanding of Native American people who lived, and for a time flourished, along the coasts of Puget Sound. Her work is a fascinating insight into the mindset and thought processes of Native Americans confronted with strange people with peculiar customs and behaviors, and how these strangers affected the manner in which they saw themselves.… (mais)