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Rights Rememberedis a remarkable historical narrative and autobiography written by esteemed Lummi elder and culture bearer Pauline R. Hillaire, Scälla-Of the Killer Whale. A direct descendant of the immediate postcontact generation of Coast Salish in Washington State, Hillaire combines in her narrative life experiences, Lummi oral traditions preserved and passed on to her, and the written record of relationships between the United States and the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast to tell the story of settlers, government officials, treaties, reservations, and the colonial relationship between Coast Salish and the white newcomers.Hillaire's autobiography, although written out of frustration with the status of Native peoples in America, is not an expression of anger but rather represents, in her own words, her hope \"for greater justice for Indian people in America, and for reconciliation between Indian and non-Indian Americans, based on recognition of the truths of history.\"Addressed to indigenous and non-Native peoples alike, this is a thoughtful call for understanding and mutual respect between cultures.

The situation's almost as bad for other tribes. In 1995, the tribes on the Colville Indian Reservation surveyed their people, and tallied up 281 fluent speakers. By last April, elder deaths had pared that to 51, and it's now 43. In northwest Washington, the Lummi have just one person left who grew up speaking their language. She's 85 years old. The Makah lost their last one in September. \"It's more than just the language or the culture it's a way of being in the world,\" said Martina Whelshula, a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes who lives in Spokane. Her people's language, Okanogan, is a swooshing, flowing language dotted with tiny pauses. To non-native speakers, it's hard to tell where one word ends and the next begins. She said there are words that convey feelings and nuances hard to translate into English, such as an Okanogan greeting that asks how people are in their heart and abdomen. There are ways of speaking that convey extra respect, or special relationships. Today, with only a handful of Indian-language classes in the state's public schools and community colleges, it's hard to get Indian children to learn their tribal languages, Whelshula said. After-school language classes, she said, must compete with sports, TV and pop culture. It's far better, she said, to include the language as part of the regular school day.

Miller reviews Rights Remembered: A Salish Grandmother Speaks on American Indian History and the Future by Pauline R. Hillaire and edited by Gregory P. Fields.

[Pauline R. Hillaire]'s book is ostensibly an analysis of relationships that held between the United States and Native Americans in Puget Sound, with a focus on the mid to late 19th century, when treaties were written and ultimately ratified, and reservations established. However, it is more than that. Scälla, an elder of the Lumrni Tribe, offers readers the culmination of years of research undertaken out of respect for her culture and her extensive and well-known family.

Totem poles-majestic pieces produced by skilled Native men living along the Pacific Coast-are fascinating. The many excellent books that deal with their symbolism, aesthetics, and social significance are now joined by an enlightening book that documents and analyzes the corpus of work by a single carver, Joseph Hillaire (1884-1967), a Lummi (Straits Salish) who is widely recognized as one of the region's most significant artist-scholars.