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 2 
 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:02 
Northwest--  
 
Winona Weber  00:03 
He came up with-- This doctor came up and-- 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:06 
Because he had--re-- er knew, or found out somewhere that the Indians used to shape their heads 
any way they wanted to shape them, you know, I guess when they were young, they were easy to 
shape.  
 
Winona Weber  00:19 
Yeah. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:20 
And so he made this, uh, football helmet, and [inaudible, recorder clicked]. 
 
Winona Weber  00:27 
Did you--did they flatten the heads up here at Skok[omish], of-of the babies? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:34 
I don't think so. I don't remember of it. If they did, it was before my time, I don't know-- 
 
Winona Weber  00:39 
Did you know any older Indians who had flattened heads? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:43 
Gosh, no, I wasn't ever really stopping to look at their heads [laughs]. 
 
Winona Weber  00:47 
Uh-huh. You really didn't notice, huh? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:50 
Page 2 of 15 
 
Mm-mm [negative].  
 
Winona Weber  00:50 
Hm! Right, my-- 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:54 
I knew of it, but I didn't--I--  
 
Winona Weber  00:56 
You never really noticed any, huh? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  00:56 
I don't know how many families there were, I never did stay or stick around to-- No. I really 
didn't [inaudible] people around here.  
 
Winona Weber  00:58 
Oh, really? Another large community-- 
 
Doris Adams Miller  01:16 
It's so [?booming?] now, [inaudible]. Every once in a while, I sit down and try to analyze what it 
was [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  01:27 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  01:27 
And [inaudible]. Mm. [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  01:35 
I never-- Was your grandmother-- When-when your grandmother worked as a laundress at-at 
potlatch, you said, was that before you were born, or was she doing that when you were a little 
girl? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  01:52 
She [inaudible]-- Um. She probably was doing it before I was born. Cause she didn't-- I don't 
think she-- I don't think she worked every day. There was just a certain day that she had a 
potlatch, and then there was one up the valley that she, she washed for.  
 
Winona Weber  02:14 
Uh-huh. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  02:21 
That [inaudible]. --That she done such a beautiful wash by hand was the reason why, you know, 
why families hired her. She went to the [inaudible] at the [inaudible]. She almost died. 
 
Winona Weber  02:38 
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Oh! 
 
Doris Adams Miller  02:39 
Oh, gosh, I can't remember now what year it was. There was these liquid, these, uh, old washing 
machines were popular-- --back then, not the automatic, you know-- 
 
Winona Weber  02:54 
Mhm.  Yeah. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  02:57 
--that kind. And then she just absolutely threw a fit to think that anyone would [inaudible] a 
washing machine.  
 
Winona Weber  03:06 
Oh, really?  
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:06 
Yeah. She'd do it by herself. Do it by the old washboard.  
 
Winona Weber  03:11 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:14 
She boiled, some of the things she boiled. If she thought they were [?white?] enough, she'd boil 
them. Mmm. [Pause. Moving around.] 
 
Winona Weber  03:19 
Huh! Sounds like a very energetic person. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:32 
But she never taught my brother and I--she raised my brother and I--uh, she never taught us to 
talk Indian-- 
 
Winona Weber  03:40 
Oh, really? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:41 
And after we were--[?become?] a little bit too old, she figured then she was kind of sorry she 
hadn't started as soon as we came live with her.  
 
Winona Weber  03:41 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  03:41 
And, uh, taught us because we were too old to learn by the time she thought about it. Um.  
 
Page 4 of 15 
 
Winona Weber  04:06 
Oh. You spoke English, though, when you came to live with her. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  04:13 
Yeah. We, um, we had school down here. We went to school. It was mixed. It was white kids 
and the Indian kids, and we all talked [inaudible]. So we learned English at school.  
 
Winona Weber  04:23 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  04:23 
In grammar school, English. [Talking too quietly to hear.] 
 
Winona Weber  04:23 
Mhm.  Were--[clears throat]--were most of your friends here on the reservation, did most of 
them speak English at home? Do you think? Hm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  04:57 
Mhm.  Yes.  
 
Winona Weber  04:58 
By then they were pretty much not speaking the language at all.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:10 
No, um, unless they were taught in their homes, um-- I suppose there was kids that their parents 
talked Indian to them, and they could understand. Maybe they could even talk it, but at that time, 
I really wouldn't know. I spoke English myself-- 
 
Winona Weber  05:38 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:40 
They talked English, so it was something we didn't do. Didn't think about it at that time.  --and 
with all the other kids.  
 
Winona Weber  05:50 
Mhm.  When you're-when you're surrounded by something when you're growing up, you don't--
you don't really wonder, "Gee, I wonder why they do that." You just accept that, you know? And 
I understand that. Um. [Coughs.] [?Willa?] mentioned going with your-your grandmother to pick 
berries at, um--was it Jamestown? And she picked these small, purple type berries. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  05:56 
Yeah. Oh, we used to go, um, blackberry picking every year.  
 
Winona Weber  06:33 
Mhm. 
Page 5 of 15 
 
 
Doris Adams Miller  06:33 
And pick blackberries. And we picked salmonberries. And I think what [?Willa?] was referring 
to wasn't Jamestown, it was-- 
 
Winona Weber  06:51 
[Inaudible]? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  06:51 
[Inaudible] Port Townsend.  
 
Winona Weber  06:53 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  06:53 
They sell--I don't know what to call it, but they used to make Indian ice cream. 
 
Winona Weber  06:59 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:04 
She used to um, get Oregon grapes. Make jams with Oregon grapes. She used to pick these red 
berries and can them. She liked those.  
 
Winona Weber  07:21 
Did-- 
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:21 
I never could like them [laughs]. 
 
Winona Weber  07:23 
Oh, the [inaudible]? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:25 
No, these red elderberries.  
 
Winona Weber  07:27 
Oh, elderberries.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:28 
They, um-- I think they turned yellow when they were canned, and they used to mix them with 
their fruit.  Your grandmother probably used to--  
 
Winona Weber  07:40 
Mhm. I know what elderberries are. They had canned--[Cross talk.] 
 
Page 6 of 15 
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:43 
Well, see, they have the purple ones, but the purple ones are large, and then the red ones are 
small-- 
 
Winona Weber  07:48 
Just little ones. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:49 
--in clusters. 
 
Winona Weber  07:52 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  07:52 
And so, and that was the red ones that she... I wish she would make jelly with the purple ones, 
too, but the red ones she canned. And-- [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  08:08 
They were really [inaudible]? [Laughs.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  08:10 
I just got--I couldn't like that Indian ice cream, and I couldn't like that, um [inaudible]. She made 
it with, uh, wild huckleberries. And we went up to Mount Rainier and picked mountain berries. 
 
Winona Weber  08:38 
How long was the-- was the Mount Rainier trip just an all-day, all-day trip, or--or would you stay 
there? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  08:47 
No, we used to stay there. Camp there. The old Indian Henry Trail was the favorite camping 
grounds at that time.  
 
Winona Weber  08:50 
 Uh-huh.  I've never heard of that. What's the old Indian--Indian Henry? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  09:10 
Evidently it's an Indian name, but, um, I don't know who he was named--and who the trail was 
[inaudible]. I don't know, but that was what they called it, the Old Indian Henry Trail. And after 
that plane crashed up there with that, uh, was it an army-- 
 
Winona Weber  09:31 
Uh-huh. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  09:31 
--that crashed up there [inaudible]. And we used to go up I think, farther up, after that. But, uh, 
the berries at that point, I don't remember [inaudible]. 
Page 7 of 15 
 
 
Winona Weber  09:55 
When the--when that army plane crashed, they closed the area where you went berry picking? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  10:01 
Yeah, I think they closed, I don't know, closed the whole trail. Nobody-nobody was allowed 
there [inaudible] -- trail sealed [inaudible]. I haven't been up there for so many years, I don't even 
know [inaudible].  [Murmuring.] But I heard it that's a tough [Winona coughs, Doris's voice 
becomes inaudible]. I've always wanted to go up there. [Inaudible]. If it's warm, I can't stand the 
heat.  
 
Winona Weber  10:27 
I know. Oh, I see.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  10:28 
I would stay home if it's gonna be hot. My youngest boy plays softball, you know, and so I try to 
get around to his games, but if it's going to be hot, I stay home.  
 
Winona Weber  10:28 
Yeah.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  11:04 
Yeah.  
 
Winona Weber  11:04 
Um. Would a group-- Would a group from the tribe here go to Mount Rainier to do that berry 
picking, or was it just your-your family? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  11:27 
Um. I think most of the time, it was just family. I think other families would go sometimes, but I 
don't remember whether we went with [inaudible] or not.  
 
Winona Weber  11:42 
Mhm. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  11:48 
I remember distinctly that there used to be Indians from other tribes like Yakama there when we 
were there. They would pick berries and can them or sell them. 
 
Winona Weber  12:07 
Hm! Where would they sell them? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  12:11 
Just anybody there [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  12:13 
Page 8 of 15 
 
Oh. What would the people do from the--that bought them? What were they--? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  12:26 
I really don't know. I just--[Cross talk]  
 
Winona Weber  12:28 
Did they sell them to other Indians, or did they sell them to some tourists? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  12:31 
I think to the tourists.  
 
Winona Weber  12:33 
Oh, I see. [Clears throat.] Was your grandmother a basket-maker? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  12:47 
No, not that I know of. She never made any after we came to live with her.  
 
Winona Weber  12:52 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  12:53 
If she did before then, I don't know. 
 
Winona Weber  12:58 
Did she ever go to school? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:05 
[Murmurs.] I doubt it. I think my dad only went to the third grade. 
 
Winona Weber  13:14 
Mhm. [Long pause.]  
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:14 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Winona Weber  13:14 
Were there, um-- Did you go to that, um, Lower Skokomish School? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  13:16 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  13:57 
Was that a public school, or was it an Indian school? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:04 
Well, when I went to school, it was public, I guess.  
Page 9 of 15 
 
 
Winona Weber  14:13 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:13 
Because it was mixed. I mean, we weren't all, all Indian kids. So... [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  14:38 
Kind of sliding down here. How did you--how did you like school when you went? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:46 
I liked, uh, grade school real well. 
 
Winona Weber  14:51 
Uh-huh. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:53 
It was after I got out of grade school that things started getting a little harder. 
 
Winona Weber  14:58 
Oh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  14:58 
It wasn't too easy to get through. 
 
Winona Weber  15:08 
You went to the lower Skok un--till when? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  15:14 
Well I started at, uh, Lower Skokomish when I was five years old-- And then my folks moved to 
Hoodsport, and I went school there.  
 
Winona Weber  15:19 
Uh-huh. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  15:34 
About a year. And then my dad moved to Phoenix, [?part of the camp number one?], and I went 
to school there for a little while. And that was where my parents separated, so then I came to live 
with my grandmother.  
 
Winona Weber  15:40 
Huh.  Mm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  15:41 
My brother and I.  And started back to school down here. 
 
Page 10 of 15 
 
Winona Weber  15:58 
Mhm.  Yeah.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  16:09 
And, uh, went through the eighth grade. 
 
Winona Weber  16:14 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  16:16 
And I went to ninth grade in Shelton. And went to Chemawa in tenth grade, [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  16:25 
Mhm. Did your grandmother really encourage you to go to school? Did she--did she tell you 
could. Do you think she-she thought it was really important for you to go to school? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  16:43 
I think so. [Pause.] She didn't say anything after I quit.  
 
Winona Weber  16:53 
Uh-huh.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  16:53 
But I went regular, [inaudible], even though I had to walk. Sometimes the snow got up there real 
deep, but we didn't miss any school. 
 
Winona Weber  17:14 
Yeah. [Recorder clicks. Winona clears her throat.] Um. Did you--did you ever want to skip 
school when you were, um, going-going here? At, at either Lower Skok or-or Shelton? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  17:46 
Yes, I can remember one time, um, some of the girls and I skipped from down here, and the river 
isn't too far, and we went downriver and went swimming. But, um, I don't remember ever 
skipping in junior high.  
 
Winona Weber  18:17 
What did your grandmother-- Did your grandmother know that you skipped? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:21 
I don't think so. 
 
Winona Weber  18:22 
Oh, I see. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:23 
[Inaudible.] 
Page 11 of 15 
 
 
Winona Weber  18:32 
Why did you go to Chemawa instead of going to Shelton? Or was there high school at Shelton? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:39 
Uh, there was high school at Shelton, but, um there was other girls going from here at that time.  
 
Winona Weber  18:52 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  18:53 
I thought I would like it. But, uh, I got a little homesick, though.  
 
Winona Weber  18:59 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  19:05 
It was nice. School was nice. I just got homesick. [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  19:25 
Just, um, did you drop out, then, just because of the separation, partly? You know, having to be 
so far from the rest of your family down there? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  19:42 
Probably. 
 
Winona Weber  19:46 
Yeah.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  19:51 
My grandmother was alone, and the old man that lived here was dying, was dead.  
 
Winona Weber  20:02 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  20:02 
And he used to drive her around. So it was kind of like I dropped out to take care of her. Didn't 
like being away from home, and that would be back home. [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  20:18 
Uh, she didn't say anything to you when-when you dropped out. When you'd go back to Shelton? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  20:45 
No. [Inaudible] she thought I'd continue. Really back then, I guess another one of the reasons 
why I left Chemawa was, uh, I didn't have money. My grandmother didn't have money. And, um, 
some of the kids down there, especially from the other tribes, had money, and they used to get to 
Page 12 of 15 
 
go to town and go [inaudible], and uh--I hadn't gone [inaudible]. It wasn't easy, so I think that 
was probably the biggest reason why I dropped out. 
 
Winona Weber  21:47 
What did you do, um, after you came back here to-to live with your grandmother? Did you just 
stay and take care of her, or did you get a job, or anything like that? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  22:03 
I had a job with--for one of the teachers for a while. [Inaudible] while I worked. And, uh, my dad 
and his second wife separated, and, uh, they had two girls. And, I had noticed, I took care of 
them, what was going on. And-- Really back then, there wasn't that much to do. No place to go. 
My grandmother is quite strict.  
 
Winona Weber  22:08 
Mhm.  Oh, really? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  23:02 
The only, um, thing that I can remember that we ever had to do is baseball. They had baseball 
games down here every Sunday. And the boys practiced every evening. 
 
Winona Weber  23:21 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  23:22 
And I was crazy about baseball. If the girls didn't have a team, I played with the boys.  
 
Winona Weber  23:28 
Oh! 
 
Doris Adams Miller  23:28 
I played baseball in [inaudible]. Mm. I played marbles with my brother. They made a club 
[inaudible]. I was out there. I was a regular tomboy, I wasn't, uh, [inaudible] boys. And, uh, I 
used to have to, uh, [?plow in the--in the garden?]. I used to go out in the woods and help my dad 
when he went out to get wood. 
 
Winona Weber  24:19 
You said your grandmother was strict. How did she keep-keep discipline when you--when you 
were growing up? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  24:31 
All she had to do was talk, she--she didn't spank us. 
 
Winona Weber  24:36 
Mhm. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  24:36 
Page 13 of 15 
 
But, um, she was old fashioned. She was strict. Her parents were--her father especially--was very 
strict with her. And that's the way she was. 
 
Winona Weber  24:53 
Mm. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  24:53 
And that's the way I raised mine. 
 
Winona Weber  25:02 
Do you think that you were as strict with your--with your children as your grandmother was with 
you? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  25:11 
No, I don't think so. I, uh, tried not to be, but there was, there was more things for my children to 
do than what there was for me to do. 
 
Winona Weber  25:30 
You mean recreation-wise? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  25:32 
Yeah. Like I say, uh, the only recreation we had was baseball. 
 
Winona Weber  25:39 
Mhm. Was that going on even when you were a very small girl? Did you have the baseball 
games when-- even when you were very little, you know, grade school, at that age. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  25:58 
I remember playing in grade school, but I don't remember how young I was when I started. 
 
Winona Weber  26:04 
Mhm. [Pause.] Was that the main recreation, um, that they had here on the--on the rez? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  26:16 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  26:17 
Ever since you can remember, since you've been playing? [Pause. Recorder shifting around.] 
 
Doris Adams Miller  26:32 
Evidently, it was recreation for the boys for some time. I used to hear the elderly people say that 
when they got out of church, Sunday, all they had to do is just walk from church--the ball field 
was just a little ways from the church, and when they left church, they would just go to the ball 
field and wait for the ball game. 
 
Winona Weber  27:02 
Page 14 of 15 
 
Oh! That was handy! Was your--was your grandmother a regular churchgoer? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  27:11 
Um. She was a Shaker-- 
 
Winona Weber  27:20 
Uh-huh. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  27:20 
--as much as I can remember. I went with her to all of the Shaker meetings. 
 
Winona Weber  27:30 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  27:31 
Uh, here, and any place she was called, like, um, Taholah, Jamestown. 
 
Winona Weber  27:44 
Mhm. Why would they call her? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  27:48 
Mmm... Sometimes, it was her alone. Um... Or sometimes, it was all the, um, Shaker people on 
the reservation at the time. They would go.  
 
Winona Weber  28:11 
Mhm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  28:13 
She was a great Shaker. 
 
Winona Weber  28:23 
Would they, um-- Would they be called to-to shake over someone or, or just to a meeting? 
When--when she went in-- When they'd call her to-to go to Jamestown, or go to Taholah. She 
probably went to the various rezzes here in Washington. They all had Shaker Churches, you 
know. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  28:55 
Um... sometimes, it was to Shaker meetings. Sometimes-sometimes it was the individual's 
homes.  
 
 
Winona Weber  29:06 
Hmm.  
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:08 
So... 
Page 15 of 15 
 
 
Winona Weber  29:13 
Did you go to the meeting with her, or did you just go to the town with her? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:18 
I went to the meetings with her.  I remember something funny. One time, we were going to 
Taholah. And, um my mother's uncle was with us. He was driving the car. And it was terrible 
quality driving. Just all-- Pretty soon, he had us going up a railroad track. 
 
Winona Weber  29:19 
Oh, really?  Ah. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:26 
Yeah! 
 
Winona Weber  29:26 
[They laugh.] That's funny. 
 
Doris Adams Miller  29:53 
I don't remember now how we got out of that one. [Winona laughs.] 
 
Winona Weber  30:05 
Where were-- You went down a railroad-- What happened? Did he just go off the road? 
 
Doris Adams Miller  30:11 
He went off the road and started up the railroad track, and I don't even remember where the 
railroad track was! 
 
Winona Weber  30:24 
Uh-huh. [Recording ends.] 
 