Semiahmoo branch of the Kaigani Haida tribe
Michael Yared
By Martha M. Boltz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washingtontimes.com/civilwar/
Maj. George E. Pickett of the U.S. Army was sent to the Northwest
Territory to protect American citizens from the Indians. No one seems to
remember that he fell in love with and married one of the Indians.
Historians writing about Pickett, the Confederate general of legend,
mention his first wife, Sally Harrison Minge, their brief marriage, which
ended with her death, and Sallie Ann "LaSalle" Corbell, his third wife, who
survived him both in life and in her numerous writings. Little is said about
the second wife he married during his years in what became the state of
Washington, or about their son.
The young Army officer and the Indian girl met when Pickett visited
Semiahmoo Bay, now the town of Blaine, Wash., on a survey trip. One writer
pictures the girl meeting Pickett while returning with a jug of water for
her father; another version has the meeting occurring during a treaty
discussion with her father, the tribal chief. There is no substantiation of
either meeting. Pickett was still mourning the loss of his first wife at the
time.
The Indian girl was a member of the Semiahmoo branch of the Kaigani
Haida tribe. Writings from the period and what slim documentary evidence
exists produce a remarkable picture of their relationship — and, most
important, of their son.
Two ceremonies
Her name was said to be Skis Tiigang, meaning "Mist Lying Down" in the
Haida language, or "Morning Mist." Research is difficult, but Pickett's
great-grandson Christiancy Pickett confirmed before his death in 1999 that
older relatives had acknowledged that as her name. Referred to as the
daughter of a chief, she was thus identified as a princess.
Pickett had been posted to Fort Bellingham near the border of Canada
with the 68 men of Company D, 9th Infantry. Since the days of Hudson Bay
trappers, relationships with Indian women had been common. Several writers
indicate that the men frequently entered into sham marriages for a night, a
week or a month and then left and never returned, unaware (and uncaring) of
the resulting children. By contrast, it appears that Pickett required his
men to go through a marriage ceremony indicating commitment.
Marriages between the soldiers and upper-class Indian women existed as
valid relationships. Confederate President Jefferson Davis' nephew Robert H.
Davis had married a Swinomish woman, producing a son, Sam Davis. The mores
of the American Indians of that era precluded the girls' even being alone
with these men unless their fathers and grandfathers saw a marriage ceremony
occurring. In 1879, Chief Justice Roger Greene of the Washington Territorial
Supreme Court declared "tribal custom marriages" to be as legal as any other
kind. His ruling negated the idea that Americans would recognize no
marriages in cultures around the world but their own. Though later writers
may discount Pickett's marriage to Morning Mist, his devotion to her remains
unquestioned.
They were married twice: once in a traditional Haida ceremony, with
the bride and groom each wearing one white glove, then joining their gloved
hands, symbolizing the union.
Afterward, they were married in the "Boston" manner in a more
traditional ceremony, which took place sometime in 1856 in the home of a
prominent individual in the community. The wedding site probably was the
home of Edward Eldridge, a local businessman, founder of the first school
and a trendsetter in the early years of the new town, and his wife, Theresa.
Difficult decision
Pickett had a small house built for his new bride at what is now 910
Bancroft St. in Bellingham, maintained as a tourist attraction by the
Whatcom County Daughters of the Pioneers. The modest frame house, the first
home in Bellingham, consisted of a main portion 25 feet long and 15 feet
wide and an upper level; it was heated by a stick-and-mud fireplace.
On Dec. 31, 1857, James Tilton Pickett was born and named in honor of
Pickett's good friend Maj. James Tilton. The young mother never fully
recovered from a difficult delivery. Pickett summoned his own physician, Lt.
George Suckley, for assistance, but the doctor did not arrive in time, and
she died within weeks. Pickett was inconsolable. He had loved her deeply,
and she had given him his first son. He also had put down roots in the
beautiful country of the vast Northwest, where he intended to remain.
Four years passed, during which he cared for young Jimmie. When Pickett
was assigned to duty elsewhere in the territory, the child apparently was
sent to stay with his Indian grandmother. Then came the fall of Fort Sumter,
and Pickett faced a dilemma. He could stay in Washington state with his son
and ignore the coming war or return to Virginia, joining his friends to
defend his state.
Though formal miscegenation laws had not yet been enacted, old-line
Virginians would not accept a child of mixed race; Jimmie could never hope
to grow up in Virginia society with his background. Pickett agonized over
the decision, but there was no escaping devotion to his original home.
Taking the only course he saw open to him, he instructed the
grandmother to take the boy to Catherine and William Collins, local friends
he had met earlier, whom he considered substantial citizens. The childless
couple agreed to take care of Jimmie under the supervision of Pickett's
friend Tilton.
His son's welfare assured, Pickett left for Virginia. He would never
see his little boy again, even though a visit with friends in Olympia on the
way back to Virginia put him within 20 miles of where the boy was living. He
did provide for his son financially, periodically forwarding sums of money
to Tilton for the next 10 years to be given to the Collins family, and he
also sent gifts.
Bible and trunk
He kept in contact with the Collins family and, vicariously, with his
son through Tilton. He left Jimmie his official commission in the U.S. Army
as well as a Bible containing a letter written about Morning Mist so that
the boy would not forget the mother he could never know.
The writing on the Bible's flyleaf states, "May the memory of your
mother always remain dear. Your father, George E. Pickettfl" strong evidence
that Pickett wanted to provide reassurance of his son's legitimacy. A lock
of the boy's hair was also in the Bible; with it were the two white gloves
worn at the Haida wedding ceremony.
These items were packed carefully in a leather-trimmed red trunk that
Morning Mist had brought with her from "Russian America." It was typical of
the Chinese tea chests brought to North Coast Indians by Russian trappers to
trade with the settlers.
Into it later would go the little red-and-white calico dress the
youngster wore when he was brought to the Collins family by his grandmother
and also some of the boy's artwork and poetry.
The trunk also would contain some 13 letters written to the boy by
LaSalle Pickett and at least 18 written to him by his devoted foster mother,
Catherine Collins. It seems the boy's entire family legacy was contained in
the red camphor-wood trunk studded with brass nails, which initially
disappeared.
Archie Binns, an author and former Scripps Howard newspaper writer in
the D.C. area, was one of the more tenacious researchers on this early
Pickett family and scoured the entire country in an unsuccessful effort to
find the missing trunk.
Painfully shy child
Jimmie Pickett was a painfully shy child who hid in his room when the
Collinses entertained. He had few friends. He buried himself in art, which
became a lonely little boy's main interest. Mrs. Collins (later Mrs.
Walters) said he "wanted to draw nearly all the time. In those days, there
were few pencils and very little paper. So the boy used chunks of charcoal
from the burned logs and drew on the side of the barn and on all the smooth
split cedar boards he could find. When he wished to color a picture, he used
the juices from berries and leaves; he had inherited this gift from both his
father and mother."
The family felt this talent should be developed and the Collinses saved
funds to send the boy to Union Academy in Olympia, Wash., in fall 1876 when
he was 19. He was a good student, though his diary reflected concern that
his grades were not high enough, despite documentation showing grades of 98
percent in physiology, 100 percent in grammar, 90 percent in English
literature, 100 percent in arithmetic and 99 percent in philosophy.
His artistic work indicated obvious talent, especially with nature
subjects: birds, mountains and seascapes. Recognizing this, his instructors
put him to work giving regular instruction in design to younger pupils at
the academy and teaching drawing and penmanship to primary-grade students.
During his three terms at Union Academy, he spent his spare time drawing
campus scenes; other students; and ships, steamers and landscapes around
Olympia. He once sat for hours sketching a particularly scenic area at
Tumwater Falls, unaware that the tide was rising gradually around the large
rock that was his vantage point. He had to wade through the chilly water to
get back to shore.
Virginia relatives
Jimmie later attended an art school in California, and during that
time, his half-brother, George E. Pickett Jr., came west to visit him.
Sallie Ann, by then known as LaSalle and a widow (Pickett had died in 1875),
had intended to accompany her son but was prevented by illness. No one knows
what transpired, but Jimmie took offense at some slight on the part of
George Jr. and never forgot it. There is no record of any further meeting
between the two young men or with his stepmother. Some writers have found
evidence that Jimmie was persuaded financially to stay out of the picture
when Pickett gatherings were held back in Virginia.
After finishing his studies, he became an artist with the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer and later with the Portland Oregonian as both artist and
occasional reporter. He also painted seafaring scenes, landscapes and
portraits. Indeed, he grew up to be quite an artist. His drawing of
Bellingham Bay and the town of Whatcom in 1888 is exceptional in its detail
and perspective.
One painting was displayed prominently in the old Portland Art Gallery
and used as cover art in a local arts magazine; several may be found today
in museums in Washington state. Some of his drawings appeared in advertising
copy.
In later years, LaSalle Pickett became impressed with his art and
offered to bring him east for additional formal training, which he declined.
When he became ill later, she again offered to bring him east or south for
medical treatment, and again he declined.
It is interesting that in a book written in 1908, she presented the
story that the child, Jimmie, had been a "gift" from a grateful Indian chief
to Pickett.
This may have been her way of dealing with the prospect of a mixed-race
stepson, or it may have been a story Pickett himself had told her. (Because
she wrote the book nine years after Jimmie Pickett died, he was not around
to challenge that version of his attachment.) The marriage to Morning Mist
and the resulting son seem to have been carefully omitted from biographies
and lineage charts of the Pickett family.
Final painting
Jimmie never married. All records of his life indicate that he had few
friends. He was said to feel keenly the stigma of his mixed parentage — his
Indian blood became more apparent as he matured. He became a brooding
artist, conscious of his past, cautious of his present and caustic about his
future. He considered his paintings his "children" and said that if he were
either a white man or an Indian, he would take a woman; as it was, he
opined, "These crosses [of races] don't belong. We won't have any more of
them."
When the general died, LaSalle Pickett notified Jimmie and sent him his
father's cavalry saber. This led to the only time he asserted his family
connection, asking for the property in Bellingham near the original home of
Pickett and Morning Mist. LaSalle opposed the request for several years but
ultimately agreed when the young man threatened a lawsuit.
Binns also searched extensively for a final nautical painting on which
"J.T. Pickett" was working at his death in 1889 from a combination of
typhoid and tuberculosis. In one of Binns' last speeches, he explained, "At
the time he died, Jimmy [authors spell his first name variously] had just
finished a painting that he said would be his masterpiece. He also said it
would be his last picture. Jimmy was living at a boarding house kept by a
Mrs. Jones. Anyway, to this boarding house came a number of sailors that had
been saved from a ship wrecked off the Alaskan coast. Most of the crew was
lost, and when the survivors were brought into Portland by a resource ship,
they went to the Jones boarding house to stay until they got other jobs.
These sailors told their stories to Jimmy. He was a real artist and, at one
time, his stepmother, whom he never saw, planned on having him come east to
study art. You must understand this boy was a legitimate son of the famous
Virginia soldier. These sailors would tell their stories to Jimmy as he
worked on the picture. They would cry as they told of the deaths of their
friends, and Jimmy would feel so badly he would have to quit painting.
"But just before he died, he completed the picture. He asked Mrs. Jones
to bring the picture to his bedside. He also had a sword left him by his
father when the soldier was called east. Jimmy asked that the sword also be
brought. The artist died [Aug. 28, 1889] looking at the picture of the
shipwreck and at the sword." He was 32.
The painting was sold for $600, a substantial sum for an oil painting
by an artist of whom no one had heard. It paid the remainder of his board
bill and his funeral expenses. At one time, it was owned by the Washington
State Capital Museum in Olympia, Wash.
Not forgotten
The famous little red trunk was left with his other personal goods to
the boardinghouse owner, according to his will. It disappeared during the
funeral but surfaced again in later years. Today, it is in the Washington
State Capital Museum along with the gloves, calico baby dress and other
memorabilia. The saber has never been found.
For a relative unknown in an area far removed from the accepted center
of the arts, James Tilton Pickett left his mark as an artist in the
Northwest. Several days after his death, the painter and poet was remembered
in a eulogy written by David Wexler of the Portland Oregonian. Wexler summed
up the feelings of many:
"His life seems as a picture of magnificent conception laid away half
finished, as a beautiful poem half written, or a sweet sad song whose melody
is shattered just as we begin to be enchanted by its music. James Pickett
will ever live in the memory of those who knew him best as one of the
truest, purest, manliest of men, as well as one of the rarest geniuses this
Northwest has ever produced."
Jimmie Pickett is buried in Riverview Cemetery in Portland, near a spot
he visited often to paint Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens and sunsets over the
Columbia and Willamette rivers. Though early writings indicate that his
mother was buried at SeHome (now near Bellingham), the final resting place
of Morning Mist remains as elusive as her name implies.
Falcon Hawking
>From: "Michael Yared" mya...@erols.com
>Date: 1/16/02 8:33 PM Pacific
Michael, thank you kindly for the story.I liked it very much.
Falcon....MN Chippewa
DR Ranch
DR Ranch
ggull
mystery novel in which the story of Pickett in the Northwest, including his
marriage and son, plays a substantial if secondary role (the protagonist, a
low level history prof at a small college in Bellingham, is being driven to
distraction by a pushy descendant of Pickett who is a potential big donor,
but only wants a glamorized, bowdlerized version of his life). "Steeped in
Murder" by Linda French, 1999.
--
Please remove NULL and SPAM to reply directly to me.
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