Lucy Thompson
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Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah (1856-1932), commonly known by her English name Lucy Thompson, was a
Yurok The Yurok people are an Algic-speaking Indigenous people of California that has existed along the or "Health-kick-wer-roy" (now known as the Klamath River) and on the Pacific coast, from Trinidad south of the Klamath’s mouth almost to Cresc ...
author, best known for her book '' To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman.'' Written in 1916, the book is intended to preserve her people's stories. The book received the
American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...
decades later in 1992. Thompson was born in the
Klamath River The Klamath River (Karuk language, Karuk: ''Ishkêesh'', Klamath language, Klamath: ''Koke'', Yurok language, Yurok: ''Hehlkeek 'We-Roy'') is a long river in southern Oregon and northern California. Beginning near Klamath Falls, Oregon, Klama ...
village of Pecwan. Outside the book she is known to have come from "Yurok aristocracy" and to be married to a Euro-American man named Milton "Jim" Thompson. She intended to tell the stories of her people that were not being told by others, and to make others better understand her people and perspective, although she also criticized whites for practices like
overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...
. Thompson expressed that violence towards indigenous Californians were deliberate acts of genocide and she expressed concern for the continued stewardship of Klamath River salmon.


Life

Born October 29, 1856 in Pec-Wan Village, Lucy Thompson was a member of the Yurok Tribe, located in Northern California. Her Yurok name was Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah. Weitch-ah-wah's was trained as a Talth, or spiritual leader, by her father, who also served the tribe in this capacity. in 1875, she married Jim Thompson, a white timber cruiser who was also an important figure in the local
Masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
Lodge. Together they lived along the Klamath River and moved to Eureka in 1910. Lucy died in Eureka, California on February 23, 1932, only a year and two months after her husbands passing.


Awards

Thompson received the
American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...
for her book '' To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman.''


Works

Lucy Thompson's major work is her nonfiction, biographical book ''To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman,'' originally published in 1916''.'' The book explores Thompson's own life and upbringing, as well as other members of the Yurok tribe, in late nineteenth and early twentieth century California.


References


Bibliography

* Buckley, Thomas. (1993). Lucy Thompson: To the American Indian, Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman (Book Review). ''Ethnohistory,'' ''40''(3), 482. * Pilling, Arnold R. "Lucy Thompson: To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman" (Book review). ''Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology'', 14(2), 7 Jan. 1992. * McClure, Elizabeth. (2020). Light is the normal course of events, darkness is only a temporary interruption. ''Humboldt Journal of Social Relations,'' (42), 106-115.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Lucy Native American women writers Native American women memoirists Native American memoirists American women memoirists 19th-century American women writers American Book Award winners 19th-century Native American women 20th-century Native American women Yurok people 1856 births 1932 deaths