THE DESCENDANTS OF CHIEF TUMULTH & SUSAN TOMOLCHA BELONG AT - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

THE DESCENDANTS OF CHIEF TUMULTH & SUSAN TOMOLCHA BELONG AT GRAND RONDE

Closing Presentation for Disenrollment Hearings Before the Grand Ronde Tribal Council May 1, 2014

Included in administrative record for all 66 Grand Ronde descendants of Chief Tumulth & Susan Tomolcha

OUR FAMILY SHOULD NOT BE DISENROLLED

Non-Disputed Facts:

• The 66 of us, Grand Ronde Members, proposed for

disenrollment each descend from Chief Tumulth, signatory to the Treaty with the Kalapuya of 1855, one of the founding documents of the Tribe.

• The 66 of us also descend from Susan, the mother of Mary

Will-Wy-Ity.

• Susan Tomolcha appears on an 1872 Grand Ronde Roll,

created by the US Department of the Interior.

• The 1872 Grand Ronde Indian Census is considered a

“roll…of Grand Ronde members prepared by the Department

• f the Interior.”

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OUR FAMILY SHOULD NOT BE DISENROLLED

The Enrollment Staff and Committee appear to be disputing the following:

• That the 1855 Treaty with the Kalapuya etc., is a record of

Grand Ronde Members satisfying the lineal descent requirement of the Grand Ronde Constitution.

• That Susan Tomolcha is the mother of Mary Willwyity.

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OUR FAMILY SHOULD NOT BE DISENROLLED

But, if the Tribal Council finds that: Susan Tomolcha is the mother of Mary Will-Wy-Ity Or The Treaty with the Kalapuya, etc. is a record of Grand Ronde Members The recommendation to disenroll must be rejected here.

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SUSAN TOMOLCHA APPEARS ON A GRAND RONDE ROLL OR RECORD

• 1872 Grand Ronde Indian Census is a roll or record

(Lewis testimony; Deloe record)

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SUSAN TOMOLCHA APPEARS ON A GRAND RONDE ROLL OR RECORD

• 1872 GRIC is a roll or record (Lewis, Deloe testimony)

6

SUSAN TOMOLCHA WAS MARY’S MOTHER

• Official Cascade Cemetery Records prove it.

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SUSAN TOMOLCHA WAS MARY’S MOTHER

• “Susan” was Tumulth/Tomalch’s first wife.
• Mary’s family, including Joseph and Isabel, all had last name

“Tomalch”.

• In official records, Tomalch = Tumulth.
• In Chinuk Wawa, Tomalch/Tumulth = Tomolcha.
• There is zero contrary evidence.
• There is no other Tomalch/Tumulth/Tomolcha family besides
• urs.

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Official Cascade Cemetery Record - Ramsay

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Official Cascade Cemetery Record - Ramsay

This proves Tomalch had a wife named Susan.

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Official Cascade Cemetery Record - Ramsay

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Official Cascade Cemetery Record - Ramsay

This proves (1) the family used “Tomalch” as a last name and (2) Mary was the daughter of Susan, Tomalch’s wife. 12

Official Cascade Cemetery Record - Ramsay

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Official Cascade Cemetery Record - Ramsay

This proves that the names Tumalth, Tomalch and Tomolcha are interchangeable. 14

SUSAN TOMOLCHA WAS MARY’S MOTHER

In other records, and in Chinuk Wawa, Tomalch, Tumulth, Tomalcha, are interchangeable.

• Henry Zenk – “Would not consider a slight spelling variation

significant”

• Tony Johnson – “No significant difference between

Tomalch,Tomolch and Tomolcha”

• Virginia Miller’s obituary states that her father was “Chief

Tomolch, who with a number of other Chiefs and Indians from the Cascades and the Yakamas were hanged for instituting the massacre on the whites in 1856”; Chief Tumulth was hanged in

• 1856. Chief Tomolch = Chief Tumulth

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SUSAN TOMOLCHA WAS MARY’S MOTHER

• There is no other Tomolcha/Tumulth family associated with

Grand Ronde (Thorsgard/Lewis testimony).

• Zero evidence to the contrary (Deloe testimony).
• No other records exist
• Non-Catholic Indian Women did not have birth or death

records during applicable time period (Thorsgard/Lewis testimony).

• Family Oral history proves Susan is Mary’s mother
• Oral history is more reliable than written history (Lewis

testimony)

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CHIEF TUMULTH

• In addition to Susan, my family also traces its lineage to another

person whose name appears on a Department of Interior-created “record of Grand Ronde Members”:

• Chief Tumulth, who signed the 1855 Treaty with the Kalapuya

etc., as Chief of the Watlala (or Cascade) Band of Chinook Indians

• The 1855 Treaty with the Kalapuya etc., is a Department of the

Interior Record because:

• The Department of the Interior was created in 1849
• The Treaty with the Kalapuya was countersigned by Joel

Palmer, Superintendent of Indian Affairs under the Department of the Interior

• The Treaty with the Kalapuya etc., is a record of Grand Ronde
• members. It is a BIA document listing people by name and tribal

affiliation as leaders of their respective tribes and Bands.

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CHIEF TUMULTH TREATY/RECORD

• The Treaty with the Kalapuya is a record of Grand Ronde Members

because:

• President James Buchanan’s1857 Executive Order says the Grand Ronde

Reservation was created for “parties to Treaty of January, 1855”

• Joel Palmer’s Diaries show that the Watlalla Band of Chinooks, or

Cascade Indians, had been removed to the Grand Ronde Reservation — Susan Tomolcha’s appearance on the Grand Ronde roll supports this fact

• The Grand Ronde Restoration Act restored the Treaty with the Kalapuya

and President Buchanan’s1857 Executive Order, reaffirming that the Kalapuya Treaty is a record of Grand Ronde members

• Numerous anthropological records support the historic fact that Grand

Ronde has always included the Cascade Indians

• The Grand Ronde Tribal Government and its officials have always

acknowledged the Grand Ronde Tribes’ ties to the Cascade Indians and their indigenous lands – chiefly Tumulth’s lands in the Gorge

• Therefore, in addition to Susan Tomolcha, we descend from a

Grand Ronde ancestor named on a “record . . . prepared by the Department of the Interior” – Chief Tumulth

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CHIEF TUMULTH TREATY/RECORD

The presence of Department of Interior official countersigners on the Treaty does not undermine the fact that it is a “record of Grand Ronde members.”

• Nothing in the Constitution or elsewhere states that the

record of Grand Ronde members for lineal descent purposes cannot be signed by Interior officials.

• The presence of Interior officials on the Treaty does not make

the federal officials’ descendants eligible for enrollment. Eirik Thorsgaard made clear: this only entitles descendants of a signer, here Tumulth, for membership.

• Clearly, the Treaty with the Kalapuya is a record of Grand

Ronde members. NO WHERE in the Grand Ronde Constitution does it say otherwise.

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THE DISENROLLMENT OF THIS FAMILY SHOULD END TODAY

CONCLUSION:

• Susan Tomolcha, the 1st wife of Chief Tumulth, appears on the Grand

Ronde Indian Census Roll dated 1872 by the Grand Ronde Tribe

• Chief Tumulth, appears on a Department of the Interior Record: the

1855 Treaty with the Kalapuya etc., one of the founding documents that created the Grand Ronde Reservation

• The record of Mary Will-Wy-Ity’s grave states: “WILL-WY-I-TY, Mary

. . . Youngest dau. of Chief Tomalgh of the Cascades Indian Tribe & his wife, Susan”

• The 66 members of my family and our dead descend from Chief

Tumulth and Susan Tomolcha, the parents of our Grandma Mary Will-Wy-Ity

• The “best evidence” available, circa 150 years ago, establishes that

the 66 of us are, and always have been, properly enrolled as Grand

• Ronde. The Elders of our tribe did NOT GO AGAINST THE

CONSTITUTION when they voted 66+ times a unanimous YES to enroll us.

• Do not vote for disenrollment.

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HERE OUR ANCESTORS SLEEP

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ANKUTTY TILLIKUM MUSEM