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My Life, by Louis Kenoyer: Reminiscences of a Grand Ronde Reservation Childhood
Published in cooperation with The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Oregon.
My Life, by Louis Kenoyer was dictated in Tualatin Northern Kalapuya by Louis Kenoyer, the last known speaker of that language. A rare, first-person narrative by a Native American describing life on an Oregon reservation, Kenoyer’s account tells the story of his childhood on the late-nineteenth century Grand Ronde Reservation. It includes compelling descriptions of daily life in the reservation community, capturing the intermingling of new Euro-American ways with persisting indigenous beliefs and practices.
The first quarter of the narrative was dictated to Jaime de Angulo and L. S. Freeland in 1928, the remainder to Melville Jacobs in 1936. Louis Kenoyer died in 1937, before Jacobs could complete a translation with him. Jacobs subsequently prepared a transcript from the translated portions of the text, but the last quarter of the complete narrative remained untranslated until now. Henry Zenk and Jedd Schrock drew on the previously translated portions of the narrative, as well as on available supporting linguistic, ethnographic, and historical documentation, to complete the work for this volume. The result is a complete bilingual English-Tualatin text, accompanied by extensive notes and commentary providing historical and ethnographic context.
My Life, by Louis Kenoyer was dictated in Tualatin Northern Kalapuya by Louis Kenoyer, the last known speaker of that language. A rare, first-person narrative by a Native American describing life on an Oregon reservation, Kenoyer’s account tells the story of his childhood on the late-nineteenth century Grand Ronde Reservation. It includes compelling descriptions of daily life in the reservation community, capturing the intermingling of new Euro-American ways with persisting indigenous beliefs and practices.
The first quarter of the narrative was dictated to Jaime de Angulo and L. S. Freeland in 1928, the remainder to Melville Jacobs in 1936. Louis Kenoyer died in 1937, before Jacobs could complete a translation with him. Jacobs subsequently prepared a transcript from the translated portions of the text, but the last quarter of the complete narrative remained untranslated until now. Henry Zenk and Jedd Schrock drew on the previously translated portions of the narrative, as well as on available supporting linguistic, ethnographic, and historical documentation, to complete the work for this volume. The result is a complete bilingual English-Tualatin text, accompanied by extensive notes and commentary providing historical and ethnographic context.
320 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2017
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November 9, 2021
Baχawádas, or Louis Kenoyer and his much younger sister ( Louis was 14 when she was born.) were the only children (out of 9, including twins) who survived to later adulthood. His autobiographical narrative “stands as perhaps the most well-rounded reflection of real life on a late ninetieth-century Northwest reservation.” School was almost inescapable for most tribal people of Kenoyer’s generation. [From My Life]
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