Tulalip, From My Heart: An Autobiographical Account of a Reservation Community - by Harriette Shelton Dover

Tulalip, From My Heart: An Autobiographical Account of a Reservation Community
by Harriette Shelton Dover
Published by University of Washington Press, Seattle
ISBN: 978-0-295-99541-0
Harriette Shelton Dover was an influential leader of the Tulalip Indians. The daughter of Chief William Shelton, a noted totem pole carver, she served on the Tulalip Tribal Council and later as a tribal chairperson. Over a period of ten years, she worked with anthropologist Darleen Fitzpatrick to record her memories of Tulalip tribal history, including the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, and her own life story, including a vivid description of her years the the Tulalip Indian Boarding School.
In Tulalip, From My Heart, Dover describes her life on the Tulalip Reservation and recounts the myriad problems tribes faced after resettlement. Born in 1904, Dover grew up hearing the elders of her tribe tell of the hardships involved in moving from their villages to the reservation on Tulalip Bay: inadequate supplies of food and water, harsh economic conditions, and religious persecution outlawing potlatch houses and other ceremonial practices. The first Indian woman to serve on the Tulalip board of directors, Dover describes her experiences in her own personal, often fierce style, revealing he tribe's powerful ties and enduring loyalty to land now occupied by others. She died in 1991 at the age of eighty-six.