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(Photo courtesy of Washington State Library)
Here comes our third and final “State Library jewel” for March, a collection of manuscripts written by Helen W. Clark, a missionary who worked with the Spokane and Makah tribes in the 1890s. So far in this month’s State Library jewels blog series, we’ve featured the 1913-15 scrapbooks of former Congressman Albert Johnson and an 1888 map of the Northern Pacific’s new railroad route through Stampede Pass and the Cascades . Later this week, we’ll start our online poll to let you and others choose your favorite State Library jewel for March, so look for that. The Clark collection also contains about 10 black and white photos that were taken around 1908. The photo above shows Makah houses and salmon drying racks. The State Library has these notes on Clark:“Helen W. Clark was born about 1853. She was a Scottish Presbyterian woman who worked with the Women's National Indian Association. It is unclear whether the Association sent her to the Spokane Reservation or she went there and then became affiliated with the Association. She arrived at the Spokane Reservation on 18 December 1894 as a missionary-teacher for the Native Americans. School opened in January 1895. When she arrived, she was the only Non-Native American living at the Reservation. Her duties included teaching, keeping community peace, serving as a subagent and assimilation of the Native Americans. She was not only an instructor but also a protector. In 1899 the Association sent her to a mission at Neah Bay, WA because there were rumors that the school at Spokane Reservation was going to be disbanded. She was a missionary-teacher at Neah Bay, WA for 20 years or more. By 1937 she had moved to Huntingdon, Quebec where she passed away 14 Dec. 1937.”
