Page 1 of 15 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Doris Adams Miller 
1981  
Cassette 1, Side 1 
 
 
Winona Weber  00:03 
When you went to Taholah, was it before the, um--before the road was put through, or did you--
or did you go all the way on from Moclips to Taholah on the--on the road? Or did you have to 
drive on the beach? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:20 
I believe the road was in by the time we--I don't remember ever driving on the beach. 
 
Winona Weber  00:30 
Uh-huh. Was your grandmother a-a Shaker from early in her life? Or was she converted to it 
later? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:50 
I really don't know for sure. I couldn't say. 
 
Winona Weber  01:06 
Um. [Clears throat.] Were there any old, um, Indian doctors here on the reserva--here in 
Skok[omish] when you were living--when you were small? That you know of? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  01:26 
Well, I don't know. It all depends on [moving around] what you call Indian doctors. I used to 
hear the rumors of somebody with a tamanawis. 
 
Winona Weber  01:36 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  01:38 
But, uh, whether they did or didn't, I don't know. 
 
Winona Weber  01:47 
Oh? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  01:54 
Page 2 of 15 
 
Like, um, Frank [?Allen?].  They used to say he was an--[clicking sound, voice fades]--Indian 
doctor, and he had tamanawis. 
 
Winona Weber  01:58 
Uh-huh.  Was that when you were a small girl? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  02:18 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  02:18 
Frank Allen? How was he regarded by the other Indians here on the reservation that knew him? 
Knew he had a tamanaw--tamanawis? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  02:24 
Tamanawis. Um. I really don't think it bothered anybody. 
 
Winona Weber  02:37 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  02:39 
I don't believe the Shakers were [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  02:54 
Not all of it was--was bad. Sometimes it was, you know, were--were good. Indian doctor could 
be a hero, too, just like the Shakers. Um. Were there any longhouses here when you were little? 
Mm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:14 
But, um. [Pause.]  Not when I was little. That came before my time. 
 
Winona Weber  03:19 
They were all gone? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:20 
They were. I believe that, uh, the potlatch that I was telling you and your grandmother about, and 
they said that they had a longhouse, but I don't know.  
 
Winona Weber  03:34 
Mhm. [Pause.] Do you remember anybody going to winter ceremonials when you were little? 
When you were growing up? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:49 
Hmm. Mm-mm [negative].  
 
Winona Weber  03:54 
You'd've been Christianized by then, I suppose. 
Page 3 of 15 
 
 
Doris Adams Miller  04:04 
I think so.  
 
Winona Weber  04:05 
[Coughs. Clears throat.] Coughing. [Pause.]  
 
Doris Adams Miller  04:05 
Mm. [Long pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  04:44 
How old were you when you remember, um-- Did you always go with your grandmother to the--
to the Shaker meetings? Um, how old were you when you started living with her? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:00 
I'm not too sure about that. I started [inaudible] when I was born.  
 
Winona Weber  05:08 
Uh-huh. [Shuffling around.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:13 
When my dad got married, he and my mother lived here. Started to move on-- [Pause.] I may 
have been eight, but I don't-- 
 
Winona Weber  05:13 
Mhm.  Mhm. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:38 
--don't remember for sure.  
 
Winona Weber  05:39 
I see. Was that when you started going to the Shaker meetings with your grandmother? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:44 
Yes. 
 
Winona Weber  05:47 
What did you-- What did you do when-when you'd go to the meetings with her? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:53 
Sit and watch. 
 
Winona Weber  05:55 
Yeah? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:58 
Page 4 of 15 
 
Sometimes be out there dancing around with the rest of them.  
 
Winona Weber  06:02 
Uh-huh. Was that encouraged? The younger people? To-to dance with them? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  06:13 
Um, most of the time. Uh. Once in a while, there was some elderly person that didn't want it, but 
a majority of them thought it was all right.  
 
Winona Weber  06:34 
Mhm.  You got out and danced when you were just a small child? Oh, I see. Yeah, I've heard of-- 
I've heard-- I talked to elders that didn't approve of, you know, the younger children. They 
weren't even too crazy about the children being in the meeting itself. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  06:46 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  06:59 
[Clearing throat. Recorder shuffling. People shifting around.] Um. You said your grandmother 
never spanked you. Um, was that the way it was when--when your mother and father were 
together? Did they pretty much keep the discipline just by talking to you, also?  
 
Doris Adams Miller  06:59 
Mm. No, I had spankings when I was with my parents. 
 
Winona Weber  07:41 
Uh-huh. [Pause.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:49 
I was the middle one, so I was the black sheep.  
 
Winona Weber  07:52 
Oh, really? [Pause. Clears throat. More silence.] Um--when you went with your grandmother, 
um, when you're berry picking and-and that type of thing--or like when she went blackberry 
picking-- what kind of-what kind of berry picking did she do up on Rain--about Rainier? Up in 
Rainier? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  08:51 
The mountain huckleberry. 
 
Winona Weber  08:53 
Oh, huckleberries. Well, what about when you went blackberry picking? Did you-- Would all the 
people here go together as a group or would-would you go by yourself? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  09:09 
No, just be, it'd be just us. 
Page 5 of 15 
 
 
Winona Weber  09:14 
Did she ever go fishing? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  09:15 
Mmm. Not that I can remember, not after I came there, [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  09:27 
Did you still eat quite a bit of fish? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  09:30 
Yes, we ate fish. 
 
Winona Weber  09:31 
Uh-huh. Where would she get it, then? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  09:35 
Mmm. The man that was living here was a fisherman. 
 
Winona Weber  09:54 
Mhm. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  09:55 
Joe [inaudible last name]. And, [inaudible], we'd get fish from them.  
 
Winona Weber  10:06 
So you got--fish-fish from them? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  10:09 
Mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  10:09 
That's where you got your fish. [Door opens.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  10:17 
She was a great [inaudible] small salmon. [Recorder shifting around.] 
 
Winona Weber  10:25 
Uh-huh. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  10:25 
Working with salmon. 
 
Winona Weber  10:26 
Um, timer? [Inaudible. Recorder shifting and clicking.] 
 
Page 6 of 15 
 
Doris Adams Miller  10:52 
Um--I wouldn't see him often.  
 
Winona Weber  10:53 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  10:55 
We had venison. 
 
Winona Weber  11:01 
Did you eat beef? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  11:03 
Um, yes. At one time, my grandmother had cows, but, her oldest son started in the beef business, 
and her cows ended up with his. 
 
Winona Weber  11:21 
Oh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  11:22 
So she got milk from them. Mhm. And butter. She had chickens. We had eggs. She had geese. 
She had fruit trees.  
 
Winona Weber  11:42 
Did you have a certain time of year when-when you'd have more fish than-than other times a 
year? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  11:52 
Yeah, I would say, um, probably in the fall and winter, during dog salmon--time is when she 
smoked so much, because they were so plentiful. I can remember one time she had relatives 
down Hadlock, and she had a smokehouse full of them. And she had a lot of Indian baskets. And 
when we came home, her Indian baskets were all gone, and the smoked salmon was all gone.  
 
Winona Weber  12:01 
Mhm. Gee! 
 
Doris Adams Miller  12:36 
Never did [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  12:50 
[Chuckles.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  12:50 
And she, um... [Coughing in the background.] Went clam digging.  
 
Winona Weber  13:00 
Page 7 of 15 
 
What kind of clams would she dig? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:02 
Butter clams.  
 
Winona Weber  13:03 
Oh, I see. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:04 
Cockles. She used to dry them. Used to be hard as a rock, I don't know if [?I?] ever ate any.  
 
Winona Weber  13:12 
Oh, really? [Chuckles.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:12 
Yeah. And horse clams. 
 
Winona Weber  13:18 
How would she dry the clams? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:20 
Um... I think she just put them in the oven.  
 
Winona Weber  13:32 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:32 
And, uh sometimes she would put them on a cedar, a strip of cedar.  
 
Winona Weber  13:38 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:38 
And hang them up, [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  13:47 
When would you eat them? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:48 
Oh... during the winter time, or just anytime we felt like it, I guess.  
 
Winona Weber  13:57 
Mhm. Would you make a meal of them, or were they just a snack? Or lunch, or something. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:08 
Page 8 of 15 
 
[Crosstalk.] I think it was more like a snack. I don't remember of us ever having a meal of them.  
Then she done the same with bear meat. I can't stand bear meat. [They laugh.] I ate it when I was 
young. Can't stand it now.  
 
Winona Weber  14:17 
Mhm.  Um. Ate a lot of stuff. What would you have, um, with [inaudible]. Would she fix your 
breakfast when you--when you'd get up in the morning? What would you have in a typical 
breakfast? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:48 
Uh... Oatmeal mush or cornmeal mush. She loved cornmeal.  
 
Winona Weber  14:57 
Oh, yeah? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:58 
Cocoa and toast. [Pause.] Or [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  15:12 
Lots of people that eat fish three meals a day. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  15:16 
Mm.  
 
Winona Weber  15:16 
It's all they ever ate.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  15:17 
I sure wouldn't be able to do that. I get tired of a food, um, easily. I-I get hungry for it, and then I 
eat it, and I don't want it again for a while. 
 
Winona Weber  16:06 
Mhm. [Long pause. Recorder shifting around.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  16:06 
Clams.  
 
Winona Weber  16:08 
Yeah, butter clams? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  16:09 
Uh, when we used to go down to Hadlock to my grandmother's relatives down there. They lived 
close to the water-- 
 
Winona Weber  16:20 
Mhm. 
Page 9 of 15 
 
 
Doris Adams Miller  16:20 
--and they had crabs and all the clams they wanted. And we used to bring some home. And there 
was a white couple, owned a--it was a little store and service station down [?Mowop?]. And um, 
I don't remember exactly how many years this couple had been married, and they didn't have any 
children. And, uh, every time we went to Hadlock, my grandmother would have to stop and give 
this couple some clams. So it wasn't very long, and the woman got pregnant. 
 
Winona Weber  17:11 
Hm! 
 
Doris Adams Miller  17:13 
And, um, they used to say it was from the clams.  
 
Winona Weber  17:19 
Oh, really? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  17:20 
All those Hadlock clams. [They laugh.] I believe she had twins, now, I-- --I'm not too sure. I 
know they had-- I'm sure they had two children, but I don't remember if they were twins or not. 
They used to love those clams, every time we went to Hadlock, we had to stop and give them 
some clams. [Winona laughs.] And they lived--the beach was right in front of their place down 
there, but I guess they didn't go dig our butter clams around here, or, [inaudible]. [They laugh.] 
 
Winona Weber  17:26 
Oh, gee! Clams. Did they keep on buying the clams after she had the babies? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:06 
Yeah! They--they stayed, they were great. I don't know what it was, they were the same as our 
butter clams, but they just wanted our butter clams. But they started to get pregnant, [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  18:20 
[Laughs.] Do you dig, uh, the butter clams commercially up here? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:30 
No, we don't. We don't-- The tribe doesn't have a beach. 
 
Winona Weber  18:38 
Oh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:38 
The state won the beach in court, and so we always had to go dig at the public beach. 
 
Winona Weber  18:49 
Hmm! 
 
Page 10 of 15 
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:49 
And of course we have to go by the state's law. 
 
Winona Weber  18:53 
Yeah. [Inaudible.] Would your grandmother go down? How hard is it to gather butter clams? I've 
never even-- I've eaten them, but I've never tried to go out and get them.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  19:11 
It's quite a draw of, compared to your razor clams, you know. The razor clams, you have nothing 
but sand, but uh, the butter clams are in the rocks.  
 
Winona Weber  19:25 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  19:25 
So the beach was quite rocky. So that's kind of-- 
 
Winona Weber  19:32 
What do you use to get to them? We used a shovel.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  19:37 
Um-- Shovel. my grandmother used to like a--mmm, fork. 
 
Winona Weber  19:45 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  19:47 
But I never had good luck using the fork. The clams used to come up stuck-stuck on the forks. 
[They laugh.] I always used a shovel. Mmm. 
 
Winona Weber  20:05 
Your grandmother went down and gathered her own clams? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  20:08 
Mhm. Back then, we weren't bothered by the state, you know, like we are now. 
 
Winona Weber  20:14 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  20:15 
So it wasn't hard getting there, and, got to-- After all these years, they've been dug up, so, but, 
uh-- I rarely go out digging anymore, maybe one of the boys will go and bring me some. 
[Winona sneezes.] But I rarely go myself because they're so hard to find. Go and dig up the 
whole--miles and miles of beach. Sometimes, you can't even find anything [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  20:51 
Page 11 of 15 
 
Hmm! 
 
Doris Adams Miller  20:55 
Depends on the tide, too. [Inaudible.] 
 
Winona Weber  21:00 
Do you have to go at low tide? Uh, mine-- Are real low tide for those? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  21:05 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  21:08 
All I know is butter clams are something you steam, and then sit around, open them, dip them in 
butter and eat them. [Chuckles.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  21:15 
That's the steamers. Now, the butter clams-- 
 
Winona Weber  21:17 
I mean, uh, the-the different kinds of clams, you know. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  21:21 
Yeah. The, uh, the little steamers, now they steam open, and you eat with butter. But the butter 
clams, uh, I fry-- 
 
Winona Weber  21:32 
Oh, yeah.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  21:33 
--or grind them up for chowder. I'm quite particular. I don't like frozen foods, or seafoods. I don't 
like my clams frozen, don't like my fish frozen.  
 
Winona Weber  21:35 
Mhm. [Pause.] Mhm. I think of something, and then it just flies out of my mind. [Inaudible 
murmuring.] Oh! [Sniffs.] Do you ever eat the shrimp from up here? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  22:21 
Yes. There was years when the canal was closed, because there wasn't any. But the last few 
years, the canal has been open because they come back.  
 
Winona Weber  22:40 
Oh! 
 
Doris Adams Miller  22:41 
But, if we want any, we have to buy them.  
 
Page 12 of 15 
 
Winona Weber  22:46 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  22:48 
So... 
 
Winona Weber  22:51 
Did your grandmother ever go after the shrimp when you were little? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  22:54 
Not that I remember of. [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  23:04 
You guys. My husband and daughter have a [inaudible] that comes back after this. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  23:12 
Yeah.  
 
Winona Weber  23:18 
[Inaudible cross talk. Other voices speaking? Winona laughs. Recorder stops.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  23:34 
We did sewing-- 
 
Winona Weber  23:42 
Yeah.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  23:43 
--cooking, childcare, and we worked in the laundry in Chemawa.  
 
Winona Weber  23:53 
Was that, um-- You had to-- You've-- You went to school for half a day and, then you had to do 
the-the vocation half a day? Was that what you did at Chemawa?  
 
Doris Adams Miller  24:05 
Yeah, I was--was a t-- A half a day of, uh, academic. 
 
Winona Weber  24:15 
Yeah.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  24:15 
And when I started out, I started taking up shorthand and um, typing. The typing, I didn't have 
trouble with, the shorthand, I did. 
 
Winona Weber  24:36 
Oh, I see.  
Page 13 of 15 
 
 
Doris Adams Miller  24:37 
So I dropped out of that and went to the vocation for half the day.  
 
Winona Weber  24:42 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  24:42 
So. 
 
Winona Weber  24:49 
How would you compare the two schools? Shelton with Chemawa? Do you think that the--that 
their class-- You got as much out of Chemawa as you would have, say, if you had continued on 
at Shelton? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  25:09 
No, because I would have had to take more subjects at Shelton.  Um, the only one other than--
well, in the ninth grade, I don't know whether they would have had it.  And then tenth, eleventh, 
and twelfth, everything was subjects other than the cooking class.  
 
Winona Weber  25:14 
Uh-huh.  The Home Ec? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  25:35 
Yeah, Home Ec.  
 
Winona Weber  25:40 
Hmm! 
 
Doris Adams Miller  25:40 
Where in Chemawa-- See, what time did we go to school? Nine till-- eleven?  And that's the only 
subjects we had.  It was English, and I had algebra in the ninth grade, and we had it again in 
Chemawa, so I zoomed through the algebra in Chemawa.  
 
Winona Weber  25:56 
Mhm.  Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  26:04 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Winona Weber  26:11 
How did you like your teachers in Chemawa? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  26:16 
I liked them. 
 
Page 14 of 15 
 
Winona Weber  26:21 
Did they seem to understand the Indian children that they were-they were teaching? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  26:35 
Gosh, I don't know. Um... I would say they did. 
 
Winona Weber  26:49 
They seemed to get along well with most of the students? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  26:52 
As far as I know, yeah. Um... [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  27:07 
When were you there? Thirty- '35, '36? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  27:11 
Thirty-five. 
 
Winona Weber  27:13 
That was when the BIA had their big push to-to have special training for teachers that were 
going to be in BIA schools. did you get along better with your teachers down at Chemawa than 
you did here at Shelton, do you think? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  27:41 
I think it was probably about the same. I don't remember having too many problems-- 
 
Winona Weber  27:52 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  27:52 
--um, in Shelton. [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  28:04 
Do you think it helped in Chemawa that you--that your first language was English, though? Did 
you meet many kids down there that-that had trouble with English? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  28:21 
I don't think so. I think most all the kids down there all talked English. 
 
Winona Weber  28:25 
Yeah? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  28:25 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  28:25 
Page 15 of 15 
 
We'll come back up here. Um, you say that the-that Skok here has-has grown up a lot since-since 
you-- you know, you've lived here. Do you think that the people have changed any more when 
you've been growing-- as you've grown up? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:02 
Yes, um. Each generation is different. 
 
Winona Weber  29:23 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:23 
Mmm.  
 
Winona Weber  29:23 
How are they different, do you think? [Winona coughs.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:28 
Well, um, everything is modern now. 
 
Winona Weber  29:33 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:35 
When I was growing up, we didn't have anything modern.  
 
Winona Weber  29:38 
Mhm. Do you think that you were closer to the way the older Indians live-- the old Indians lived 
before-before the reservation started, that type? You know, the old ways? Just that-that 
everything is easier to get to now. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  30:01 
Well, um, when I was growing up, we got our water outside. 
 
Winona Weber  30:09 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  30:10 
From a pump. Toilet was outside. We didn't have no electricity. We used kerosene lamps.  
 
Winona Weber  30:23 
How old were you--[Recording stops.] 
 