Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: American Indian history and the future -- A short autobiography -- Prologue: The abundance that was the great Northwest -- Part 1. The nineteenth century and before -- Forgotten genocide -- The building of America -- Centuries of injustice -- Reservation creation -- After the treaty -- Part 2. The twentieth century and after -- Legal and land rights -- A shrinking land base, persecution, and racism -- Aboriginal fishermen -- Break through ahistory -- Part 3. Oral history and cultural teachings -- Scälla of the Killer Whale : a song of hope -- Earth, our first teacher -- Poems by Joseph R. Hillaire and Pauline R. Hillaire -- History in the time of the Treaty of Point Elliott : an oration by Joseph R. Hillaire -- Afterword: And to my father -- Appendix 1: Treaty of Point Elliott, 1855 -- Appendix 2: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007 -- Appendix 3: Events in U.S. Indian history and policy, emphasizing the Point Elliott Treaty tribes.

"An autobiography of a contemporary Native American woman that combines her own life experiences, tribal oral traditions, and the written record of relationships between the United States and the native peoples of the Northwest Coast to provide a Native view of recent history"--Provided by publisher.

Description based on print version record.