Thursday, December 27, 2007

The "Dark Ironies" At Carruthers Park/Tansy Point


Tansy Point, we all know the name.
Sits right next to Carruthers Park, between Warrenton and Hammond right?
Noted today for being a Log Storage yard, leased from the City of Warrenton by the "Nygaard Family Empire" right?
Not many, if one were to visit it now, associate Tansy Point with the fact that it, along with the property Carruthers Park sits on, was a part of the lands donated by the Carruthers Family to the citizens of Warrenton/Hammond for their benefit and pleasure.
It seems somewhat inappropriate that a "Log Yard" would be the current use for Tansy Point and add to that the prospect that it could, if manipulations go to someone's benefit, be sold?
Become another prospective site for another LNG Termunal?
Quite a dark future, in my view and below look at its bleak past. "Land Takings" all in the interest of greed and profit and displacement of people........
The Anson Dart Treaties
(From Chinook Nation WebSite)

"The first of the treaties were called the Anson Dart Treaties in 1851, and there was a whole series of them written with the different tribes. Each of the five groups that now make up the lower Chinook Indian nation, signed a treaty, and the United States Senate never acted on, or signed or ratified those treaties " (Gary Johnson interview: 2002).

Anson Dart negotiates 19 treaties in August of 1851, on treaty grounds at Tansy Point, on the south shore of the Columbia at the mouth of Lewis & Clark River (see map below). Treaties are drawn up with the Clatsop, Wau-ki-kum, Konnaacc, Kathlamet, Klatskania, Wheelappa, and Lower Chinook bands of the Chinook peoples, as well as the Tillamook and other bands. None of these is ratified by the Senate. (Beckham 1987:7)

Section of 1887 Army Corps ofEngineers map showing location ofTansy Point, 1851 treaty grounds.University of Washington Archives#UW128. -- University of Washington Library Archives Website, 2002

Adapted from portion of 1881 Symonsmap to show approximate boundary ofLower Chinook territory cession,as described in Anson Darttreaty at Tansey Point in 1851.
The geographical area described in the treaty for the cession of the Lower Band of the Chinook Tribe to the United States was as follows:

“Beginning at the mouth of a certain stream entering Gray’s Bay on the north side of the Columbia River which stream forms the western boundary of lands ceded to the United states by the Waukikum band of Chinooks, running thence northeroly on said western boundary to lands of the Wheelappa and of Indians thence westerly along said lands of the Wheelappa band to the Shoalwater Bay, thence southerly and easterly following the Coast of the Pacific Ocean band the northern shore of the Columbia to the place of beginning, the above description is intended to embrace all the lands owned or claimed by said Lower Band of Chinook Indians. [See Chinook Tribe and Bands of Indians v. United States, 6 Ind. Cl. Comm. 177, 184 (1958))]. (Bureau of Indian Affairs 1851: 32-35, Ex. 9). (Beckham 1987:8)