Page 1 of 25 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Mildred Pickett 
1980  
Cassette 2, Side 1 
 
 
Winona Weber  00:00 
Okay. There we go. Put your name and your tribe. 
 
Mildred Pickett  00:09 
Right now? 
 
Winona Weber  00:10 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  00:10 
Okay. 
 
Winona Weber  00:10 
It's ready.  
 
Mildred Pickett  00:11 
Okay. My name is Mildred Pickett, and I belong to the Quinault Tribe.  
 
Winona Weber  00:15 
And where were you born?  
 
Mildred Pickett  00:19 
I was born in, uh, the mouth of the Columbia River. And [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  00:25 
Were you born on one of those barges at Peacock Spit? 
 
Mildred Pickett  00:28 
Yes.  
 
Winona Weber  00:32 
What was your mother doing when you were-- when you were born there? [Man coughing.] Why 
were you born there instead of Bay Center or Georgetown?  
Page 2 of 25 
 
 
Mildred Pickett  00:41 
My mother was working for my grandfather on, um, a sailing crew. 
 
Winona Weber  00:48 
Your grandfather's name is-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  00:50 
George Allen Charley. 
 
Winona Weber  00:53 
[Inaudible.] That's the wrong one. And, um, what time-- That was in the summer, right?  
 
Mildred Pickett  01:01 
Yes. 
 
Winona Weber  01:03 
I just want to write something down. What, um--[child speaking]? How long do you-- How long 
did you guys spend on that-- on the barges every summer?  
 
Mildred Pickett  01:17 
I'm not really sure. But I think we spent probably the late spring into August. Because I can 
remember the barges being towed back up to the mooring place after--after the fishing season 
was over. 
 
Winona Weber  01:39 
What's your earliest memory? Was that down on the Columbia? 
 
Mildred Pickett  01:43 
My earliest memory is being down on the Columbia River.  
 
Winona Weber  01:48 
Doing what?  
 
Mildred Pickett  01:50 
Taking care of my little brother. [They laugh.]  
 
Winona Weber  01:52 
Uncle Buzz?  
 
Mildred Pickett  01:53 
Yeah. 
 
Winona Weber  01:56 
What--what--? How old were you when--when they stopped going down on the Columbia? 
 
Page 3 of 25 
 
Mildred Pickett  02:03 
Oh, I can't-- I really don't remember. I--I can remember that I was around five years old. And the 
first year I went to school, I went to school in Tokeland. And I don't know if we went back after 
that. I'm not really sure. [Cross talk.] We probably did. [Cross talk with other people in the 
room.] 
 
Winona Weber  02:26 
Was Grandma Caroline-- 
 
Unknown speaker  02:29 
That must have been about the same time they-- They, um, took the fish traps out, too, I imagine. 
And they stopped that salmon. [Cross talk.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  02:41 
 Mhm. Mhm. It was. [Cross talk.] 
 
Winona Weber  02:44 
Oh, I see. Where was Grandpa Vernon? 
 
Mildred Pickett  02:51 
I don't remember my dad.  
 
Winona Weber  02:53 
Oh, I see. I didn't know how old, how old you were when, when he and Grandma Bum split.  
 
Mildred Pickett  03:00 
I think I would just an infant. 
 
Winona Weber  03:03 
Oh. Where did you guys live during the winter when you weren't down on the Columbia? 
 
Mildred Pickett  03:09 
In Georgetown. 
 
Winona Weber  03:11 
What did Grandma Bum do there? 
 
Mildred Pickett  03:14 
She was probably a clam digger and just--or stay at home with the kids. 
 
Winona Weber  03:22 
What did-- What was Grandma Bum's second husband's first name?  
 
Mildred Pickett  03:27 
Wallace Leonard. 
 
Page 4 of 25 
 
Winona Weber  03:29 
Okay. What--what did he do when you guys heard when you guys were at Shoalwater? 
 
Mildred Pickett  03:35 
He was a clam digger, and just stayed at home because that was-- Well, it was-- I think it was 
before the Great Depression, so there wasn't really that much work.  
 
Winona Weber  03:52 
That was the twenties, wasn't it? 
 
Mildred Pickett  03:54 
[Man talking quietly.] Yeah, that was in the twenties. 
 
Winona Weber  03:57 
Yeah, well I suppose the unemployment here was just starting to hit.  
 
Mildred Pickett  03:59 
It was just starting. I think it was.  
 
Winona Weber  04:02 
You grew up pretty much in the thirties, didn't you? 
 
Mildred Pickett  04:05 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  04:06 
Okay, just going to write this down.   
 
Mildred Pickett  04:07 
Yes. 
 
Winona Weber  04:10 
How old were you when you guys moved to Taholah? 
 
Mildred Pickett  04:14 
I was seven. 
 
Winona Weber  04:16 
Oh! Okay. What, um--Why did everybody move up there? 
 
Mildred Pickett  04:24 
I don't really know why everyone moved up there to begin with. Aunt Irene married Malcolm.  
 
Winona Weber  04:30 
Yeah.  
 
Page 5 of 25 
 
Mildred Pickett  04:30 
And that seemed to kind of set the trend, and then my dad, um, got a job on the road. They were 
building that road, and he went to work. And I think that everyone just kind of migrated that 
way.  
 
Winona Weber  04:48 
What--what road was that? The one between Moclips and Taholah? 
 
Mildred Pickett  04:50 
Ones-- The road at Bob Wayne Hill to--to Sweet Hill. Because see the-- 
 
Winona Weber  04:59 
Oh, the one running along the beach.   
 
Mildred Pickett  05:00 
Yeah, one running along the beach, because before that, that stretch of road was built, everyone 
went to the beach. [Winona laughs.] And they went according to the tide. [They laugh.] 
 
Winona Weber  05:11 
Yeah. How did you-- how did you get along the beach? 
 
Mildred Pickett  05:14 
Just-- we went down the hill at Bob Wayne Hill. And-- 
 
Winona Weber  05:20 
Don't Nikki-- 
 
Child (Nikki)  05:22 
[Inaudible] --just pop out. 
 
Mildred Pickett  05:24 
We went down Bob Wayne Hill, and then we went out on the road-- I mean on the beach. We 
had to pass Wreck? Creek and that was always a dangerous area. [Cross talk.] 
 
Winona Weber  05:35 
Yeah, you never knew whether you were gonna get across it-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  05:36 
You never know if you're gonna get across, and there wasn't that much traveling in the winter. 
But we went up the hill that Sweet Hill.  
 
Unknown speaker  05:46 
Now was it--in towards a cold there? 
 
Mildred Pickett  05:51 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. That's where the road was. [Cross talk.]  
Page 6 of 25 
 
 
Unknown speaker  05:54 
There used to be a road up there. It's still there, [inaudible]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  05:59 
You can see-- 
 
Winona Weber  06:00 
You can see where it was-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  06:02 
You can see-- 
 
Winona Weber  06:02 
--because there's a big stand of alders going up the hill. 
 
Mildred Pickett  06:04 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  06:05 
[Shuffling sound.] Nikki, don't. What did--what did Grandma Bum do when you guys were in 
Taholah? I know she-- you said she was a cannery worker-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  06:18 
When we first, uh, went there, I can't really remember-- I know that mom and dad used to dig 
clams on the beach, and there was a lot of clam digging. And mom just more or less took care of 
us, and later on, she and dad bought fish for Mohawk Packing Company.  
 
Winona Weber  06:40 
Was that [?Shorty Borden?]?  
 
Mildred Pickett  06:41 
Yeah, [?Shorty Borden?]. 
 
Winona Weber  06:42 
Oh, I see. [Coughs.] Nicole, don't, please. God. I see-- this is what I did on Myrtle's tape. 
Keeping Hannah away from the tape recorder! [Chuckles.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  06:57 
Yeah. Go out and watch the horses, Nikki. 
 
Child (Nikki)  07:02 
Unh-uh [negative].  
 
Unknown speaker  07:02 
Go out in front of the [inaudible] the horse.   
Page 7 of 25 
 
 
Winona Weber  07:04 
Oh, forgot what I was gonna say--I was gonna ask you something about Grandma Bum. What 
did Grandma Bum like to do? She--she tells stories about singing and-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  07:23 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  07:23 
--stuff like that, but--  
 
Mildred Pickett  07:23 
She always-- [Phone rings.] She sang, she really liked to sing and--  
 
Winona Weber  07:28 
Is that yours? 
 
Mildred Pickett  07:30 
Mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  07:30 
I'll get it.  
 
Mildred Pickett  07:31 
And she swam, she used to swim in the ocean and-- 
 
Winona Weber  07:35 
Hello? Who is this? Andrew, hello. I'm Nona. [She laughs.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  07:45 
She always-- She had a variety of things that she did-- okay, you want to-- [Recorder clicks.] 
Mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  07:49 
Where did you go strawberry picking? 
 
Mildred Pickett  07:51 
Strawberry-- I went strawberry picking with my family where the park is now at the Westport 
intersection. 
 
Winona Weber  07:59 
Twin Harbor. 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:00 
Twin Harbor. On the sand dunes there. There wasn't any building. 
 
Page 8 of 25 
 
Winona Weber  08:04 
Oh. Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  08:04 
And we used to pick strawberries there.  
 
Winona Weber  08:06 
Who did you go with? 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:08 
Went with Mom and Dad, and-- oh probably, I can't really remember. [Cross talk.] 
 
Unknown speaker  08:14 
What kind of strawberries? Wild strawberries? 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:16 
Little wild strawberries. 
 
Winona Weber  08:17 
I wonder if they're still out there.  
 
Unknown speaker  08:17 
[Inaudible response.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:17 
Mhm. I don't really know. [Nikki babbles.] 
 
Unknown speaker  08:22 
Remember that, uh? 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:23 
I don't know. 
 
Unknown speaker  08:24 
You know them roads out by 88 and [Spring School?] back? 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:29 
Mhm.  
 
Unknown speaker  08:29 
Right back there one time, and found all the strawberries on that hillside. 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:34 
Mhm. 
 
Unknown speaker  08:35 
Page 9 of 25 
 
Can't get back there anymore. 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:38 
I know it. 
 
Unknown speaker  08:38 
[Inaudible.]  
 
Winona Weber  08:38 
[Winona chuckles, Nikki cries out happily.]  
 
Mildred Pickett  08:43 
Want to stop this, Nona?  
 
Winona Weber  08:44 
--Oopsie! [Recorder clicks, restarting at a new time.] Oh, it's going good. Were-- was Grandma 
Bum and Dad-- Dad Bumgarner very strict? 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:55 
No. 
 
Winona Weber  08:56 
No? They, they'd like, know, you know, who told you what your responsibilities were? 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:03 
Oh, I think that-- 
 
Winona Weber  09:04 
Who was more likely to, Grandma Bum or--? 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:06 
Grandma Bum was the disciplinarian in our family. My dad--my stepdad--was, uh-- 
 
Winona Weber  09:12 
I've-- I've heard that he was real easygoing.  
 
Mildred Pickett  09:16 
Yeah, he was easy going and he didn't-- He didn't never ever, you know, punished us. He 
spanked my brother one time because my brother swore. [Winona chuckles.] 
 
Winona Weber  09:30 
Which brother was that? 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:31 
Buzz.  
 
Page 10 of 25 
 
Winona Weber  09:32 
Oh, Buzz? [They laugh.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:32 
But I think I told him-- I think I told on him and, uh [Winona laughs]. And he spanked Buzz, so I 
never told on Buzz if he'd swear or anything because I didn't like it when Dad spanked him. 
 
Winona Weber  09:49 
Mmm. 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:49 
Because he spanked him pretty hard. But Mom was the one that cornered us, and all she had to 
do was give us that-- 
 
Winona Weber  09:59 
Dirty look? 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:59 
--dirty look and that was it, and we knew what she meant business. 
 
Winona Weber  10:02 
You better knock it off.  
 
Mildred Pickett  10:03 
Yeah. 
 
Winona Weber  10:12 
Who did you spend more time with, talking and doing this with? Grandma Bum or, or Dad?  
 
Mildred Pickett  10:17 
I think, um. I think probably both of them about equal time because my mom was--you know, 
Mom was really an outdoors person.  
 
Winona Weber  10:38 
Yeah, I know.  
 
Mildred Pickett  10:39 
And she kind of did her own thing. And she had her-- She had her swimming, and her friends, 
and--And, um, I don't she didn't really talk to--that much to us. We spent a lot of time by 
ourselves. She was always there, you know-- 
 
Winona Weber  10:58 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  10:58 
Page 11 of 25 
 
--it wasn't like she neglected us. But we were always--we always knew that Mom was going to 
be home. And she was going to cook us some kind of a dinner and throw something together. 
[They chuckle.] But I-- One time we, um. The kids said, "Oh, there's someone swimmin' way out 
there." So we went out there, and here was Mom and Frenchie Charles and Freda, and they were 
way out swimming out in the ocean. And I felt kind of fearful, you know, because I thought 
maybe Mom--she'd get out there and she wouldn't be coming back or something.  
 
Winona Weber  11:00 
No.  Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  11:37 
But that's what they used to do. They'd go swim--they'd go right out the mouth the river and 
they'd swim on the ocean--that's what-- You know, she was a good swimmer. 
 
Winona Weber  11:44 
Out the mouth the Quinault. 
 
Mildred Pickett  11:45 
Out the mouth the Quinault. That's neat.  Mhm [affirmative].  
 
Winona Weber  11:49 
I gotta get down there and talk to Grandma-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  11:52 
And then Mom was, uh-- Mom would let Buzz and I pretty much have a free rein, you know, 
like we'd--we go on a--wouldn't think anything of getting in a skiff and going way up the river 
and spending like a whole afternoon, and she knew that--  
 
Winona Weber  12:11 
How old were you when you were [inaudible]? 
 
Mildred Pickett  12:12 
Probably nine. 
 
Winona Weber  12:15 
Like I imagine Nicole doing that! 
 
Mildred Pickett  12:17 
And I would really shudder to think-- You know, I just--where I just was the opposite with my 
kids. 
 
Winona Weber  12:23 
That's why you'd be [inaudible.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  12:23 
I would just be so right on them. [Cross talk.] 
Page 12 of 25 
 
 
Winona Weber  12:23 
Yeah.  
 
Unknown Speaker 2  12:24 
So, let's send the stuff through the washer. 
 
Winona Weber  12:30 
[Inaudible] wash it yourself. 
 
Mildred Pickett  12:33 
So, um, Mom was um-- She expected us home at a certain time [cross talk], and we knew we had 
to be in before dark. Uh-huh. We always had to be in before dark. 
 
Winona Weber  12:48 
Did Dad have any kind of things that he did like that? Like, you know, like Grandma Bum went 
swimming and, and stuff like that. 
 
Mildred Pickett  12:55 
Dad was a gardener. 
 
Winona Weber  12:58 
Oh, he liked to do-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  12:58 
He liked to garden. We'd have to turn over, you know, we had to--we had to turn over the ground 
with a spade. That's what Dad would say. "I've got to go and spade up for a while." 
 
Winona Weber  13:10 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  13:10 
And he liked--he had raspberries and he had a garden, and--and it wasn't a formal garden or 
anything. It was just kind of a little catch as catch can he had. We learned--that's where we 
learned a lot of our flowers from, like, Sweet Williams, old time poppies-- 
 
Winona Weber  13:26 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  13:26 
--and honeysuckle. And we had raspberry bushes. And we had peonies. We had flowering 
quince. We also had those greengage plum trees out in the front that he planted.  
 
Winona Weber  13:44 
I knew I saw--I knew those from someplace else. Someone else was just talking about them the 
other day. 
Page 13 of 25 
 
 
Mildred Pickett  13:50 
Then we were the first, um, one of the first families in Taholah to have a, have a faucet in our 
yard. [They laugh.] Because Dad had a little knowledge of plumbing-- 
 
Winona Weber  14:04 
Uh-huh. 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:04 
--and we had a water system. Well no, we--everyone had faucets in their yard. This was later on, 
when Taholah finally got a water system of sorts. 
 
Winona Weber  14:15 
Yeah. 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:15 
But dad plumbed the water right into the house. And we had cold water into a sink in our little 
pantry.  
 
Winona Weber  14:21 
Huh! 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:23 
We didn't have any hot water.  
 
Winona Weber  14:24 
Well, that was-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:26 
See before that we had to pack our water from the river. We drank the water right from the 
Quinault River. 
 
Winona Weber  14:32 
Oh, yeah. That's gotta be [inaudible]. Was that-- where was that house? Was that the one--? 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:37 
That was our little house that I later bought when you kids were little.  
 
Winona Weber  14:41 
That's right there next to the river. 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:43 
 Right--right next to the river. 
 
Winona Weber  14:44 
[Inaudible.] 
Page 14 of 25 
 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:45 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  14:50 
Who handled the money in the family? 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:53 
My dad. 
 
Winona Weber  14:57 
Mm. Did--did Grandma Bum do the shopping for groceries and stuff? Any shopping that you 
did? 
 
Mildred Pickett  15:04 
Any shopping that we did, I think Mom and Dad did together. 
 
Winona Weber  15:07 
Oh! 
 
Mildred Pickett  15:09 
I used to have to shop a lot when I was little just-- I'd have a note. Mom would give me a note. 
And I'd go to the store and--and buy what little thing she needed, which wasn't very much.  
 
Winona Weber  15:22 
Mm. [Inaudible] the garden, didn't seem like you'd need-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  15:25 
Well, we had a lot of potatoes, and we had carrots, and--we had mostly potatoes. [House 
sounds.] And in the early thirties, Mom and Dad belonged to the Democratic Club. They had a 
club in Taholah. 
 
Winona Weber  15:45 
The Democratic Club? 
 
Mildred Pickett  15:46 
Yeah, Democratic Club.  
 
Winona Weber  15:47 
I never heard of it! 
 
Mildred Pickett  15:48 
Oh, yeah, they had a Democratic Club, and they were real active. Mom and Dad were really 
active in politics.  
 
Winona Weber  15:57 
Page 15 of 25 
 
What did-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  15:57 
There was a lot of people that belonged to the Democratic Club.  
 
Winona Weber  16:02 
I never-- I've never heard of the Democratic Club. 
 
Mildred Pickett  16:04 
You ask-- Ask Mom about it. She'll tell you. There was, uh-- there was, um. Um. Ellen Baker 
and her husband belonged to it, too. He was a white man and she was an Indian lady. A lot of 
people belonged to the Democratic Club. And I can remember when my dad got his veteran's 
bonus. That was a pretty big heyday for a lot of the veterans of World War One. 
 
Winona Weber  16:34 
Oh, interesting. 
 
Mildred Pickett  16:35 
They fought long and hard for a veteran's bonus.  
 
Winona Weber  16:38 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  16:38 
And he-- I can remember when he received his vets--veteran's bonus, he bought a new car. 
 
Winona Weber  16:44 
What kind of a car did he buy?  
 
Mildred Pickett  16:45 
I think it was a Roosevelt. 
 
Winona Weber  16:46 
Gee, I never heard. I've been hearing that all these cars--a Hupmobile? 
 
Mildred Pickett  16:52 
Yeah, no, a Hupmobile. 
 
Winona Weber  16:54 
Hupmobile. 
 
Mildred Pickett  16:54 
Hup--H-U-P-- Hupmobile. But my dad bought--I'm sure that was the kind of a car it was. Seems 
to me it was Roosevelt. It was a great big car. 
 
Winona Weber  17:03 
Page 16 of 25 
 
Where would you've gotten-- Where would he have bought a Roosevelt? 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:07 
I don't know what company made the Roosevelt, but um.  
 
Winona Weber  17:11 
Was there a dealership or something in Aberdeen? 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:13 
Mhm. There had to be a dealership, and I don't really know what it was made by, but we should 
really research and find out.  
 
Winona Weber  17:22 
A Roosevelt. I've never heard of that one. I heard just, I think I've heard just about all the thing -- 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:27 
Uh, and at that same time, my mother lost two children. 
 
Winona Weber  17:34 
Oh [sympathetic]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:35 
She lost two sisters, two of my little sisters. 
 
Winona Weber  17:41 
[Nikki runs up.] Want a couple of blackberries, Mom? I picked 'em. What? 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:48 
No, thanks. I don't care for any.  
 
Winona Weber  17:50 
We're just talking right now. Can I have a couple? Was the--was the. Well, they were--they were 
small children, weren't they?  
 
Mildred Pickett  18:00 
Yeah, they were small. Jean was four. Four years old. 
 
Winona Weber  18:04 
Mm. 
 
Mildred Pickett  18:05 
And Shirley was less than a year, I think. Yeah. 
 
Winona Weber  18:10 
[Inaudible].  
 
Page 17 of 25 
 
Mildred Pickett  18:10 
Yeah. And then there was--We had a little brother that was--we had a little brother that was born 
stillborn. 
 
Winona Weber  18:11 
Just a baby.  Oh. I found--I found Jean Bumgarner and another baby gravestone-- 
 
Child (Nikki)  18:30 
Mama? [Whispering.]  
 
Winona Weber  18:33 
No, sorry about that. [Disappointed sounds from Nikki.] Didn't have either one of them.  
 
Mildred Pickett  18:39 
I--they're both buried in Georgetown, 
 
Winona Weber  18:41 
Well I found Jean's. 
 
Mildred Pickett  18:45 
Mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  18:46 
Jean Bumgarner. 
 
Mildred Pickett  18:46 
And the other one was Shirley. Shirley Bumgarner. 
 
Child (Nikki)  18:50 
Could you show me where the clothes are? 
 
Winona Weber  18:55 
Well, you've got a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt, you're okay. 
 
Child (Nikki)  19:05 
Okay. [Zipper sounds.] 
 
Winona Weber  19:05 
Boh--both Grandma Bum and Dad both worked in-- Did they work together, or did they-- --did 
they work separately? 
 
Mildred Pickett  19:13 
No, they-- No, Dad worked when-- When Dad worked in Taholah for Mohawk Packing, Mom--
just Dad worked.  
 
Winona Weber  19:21 
Page 18 of 25 
 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  19:22 
And Mom would go along, you know, and she'd ride along in the truck with him when he had to 
deliver fish and clams to Astoria or wherever the market was. And then she worked alongside 
him in Queets when they received fish at Queets. She stayed right--she worked with him-- 
 
Winona Weber  19:40 
That's it. 
 
Child (Nikki)  19:42 
Un-uh! [Negative.] 
 
Winona Weber  19:42 
Those are your shorts. 
 
Child (Nikki)  19:44 
No, that, won't go with that top.  
 
Winona Weber  19:46 
Oh, well, [inaudible] story. 
 
Child (Nikki)  19:49 
Oh, well. 
 
Winona Weber  19:49 
I think they look okay. How long a trip was it from--from, say, Taholah to Queets in those days? 
 
Child (Nikki)  19:50 
Okay. Hey! [Inaudible shriek, running away from the recorder.] 
 
Winona Weber  19:57 
[Inaudible.] I don't even know how you can get up there. [Padding sounds.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  20:02 
We, uh we went from Taholah to Moclips to Copalis Crossing and around through Queets. Just 
practically the same road as there is today, only there's a short--you know that Cook Creek Road 
now that goes through the reservation--that makes it a little shorter. 
 
Winona Weber  20:27 
Yeah, considerably.  [Pause.] Were you around very many white kids when you were little? 
There weren't very many in Taholah [inaudible]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  20:28 
Mhm.  No, but there was, uh-- I went to school with all white kids at Tokeland my first year. 
 
Page 19 of 25 
 
Winona Weber  20:57 
Yeah, when you were in first grade? 
 
Mildred Pickett  21:00 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Winona Weber  21:01 
Were there any other little Indian--well, who else was on the reservation at Tokeland when you 
were there? 
 
Mildred Pickett  21:06 
The James'--Dorothy James and Thelma. Babe. Geraldine. 
 
Winona Weber  21:15 
They weren't in school yet? Or-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  21:18 
They were--Geraldine wasn't. Gerry was--she's the youngest of-- See, there was--I was the oldest 
of the four. There's--I was the oldest and Dorothy was next and Thelma, Charlie was next, and 
Gerry was the youngest. And we were all the same age.  
 
Winona Weber  21:38 
[Nikki talking in the distance. Winona chuckles.] I can hear [inaudible]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  21:40 
And Sonny and [?Huda?] and--We all went to Tokeland School. 
 
Winona Weber  21:50 
How big a school was that, then? 
 
Mildred Pickett  21:52 
I don't really remember. [Cross talk.] It was all--it was about like Carlisle. Mrs. Weight? was 
my--I can remember my first grade teacher because she was really, I thought, real kind and good, 
and I really liked her. I can't remember any other teacher in that room, so she must have taught 
all in one room. [Cross talk.] 
 
Winona Weber  22:14 
So were all the kids in the same room? Just one teacher. Yeah. [Nikki speaking to her.] Okay! 
See you later. [Nikki runs off, then comes back.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  22:22 
Mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  22:23 
You got along with most of your teachers, didn't you? 
 
Page 20 of 25 
 
Child (Nikki)  22:23 
Oh! Gonna bring my sweater, just in case. [Runs off.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  22:28 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  22:28 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  22:30 
Oh yeah, I got along with all my teachers. 
 
Winona Weber  22:32 
Are there--[Inaudible.] Did you ever--did-- What--what did Grandma Bum and Dad think about 
going to school? Did they think that it was really--really worthwhile to make sure that all the 
kids went to school?  
 
Mildred Pickett  22:56 
Yes. Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  22:58 
Because a few of the parents didn't, [inaudible]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  23:02 
Well, Mom, uh--Mom didn't really, um. She didn't say, "Now, you know, this education is 
important and you have to do this." Because during the Great--the Great Depression, I think she 
was really more interested in keeping her family together, and-- --and there wasn't really any 
monies. And Mom even remarks today that she wished she raised her kids in a different era 
because we probably would have been pushed more into, um, a higher level of education. 
 
Winona Weber  23:26 
Yeah.  Mm. 
 
Mildred Pickett  23:41 
But she always had things for us to read. We had to read. 
 
Winona Weber  23:44 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  23:45 
And she was always active in, you know, like current events and so forth, and--and, uh. We 
picked up real good reading habits. I did. Buzz didn't so much, but Sonny did. 
 
Winona Weber  23:59 
Yeah, I know Sonny reads a lot.  
 
Page 21 of 25 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:00 
Yeah, mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  24:05 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:05 
I don't know. It's odd. [Winona chuckles.] 
 
Winona Weber  24:15 
Did you ever-- Did you ever miss school to go to work?  
 
Mildred Pickett  24:19 
No. 
 
Winona Weber  24:20 
I didn't think so. The only time you would have done that was when you were in high school. 
How long did you spend--How many years do you spend at Chemawa?  
 
Mildred Pickett  24:27 
Four. 
 
Winona Weber  24:34 
Did--did a lot of-- Did most of your cousins live up in Taholah when you were [inaudible]?  
 
Mildred Pickett  24:40 
No.  
 
Winona Weber  24:41 
I see. Because I know everybody mentions that they spent some time in Taholah. 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:47 
Yes. Not too much. Myrtle-- My Uncle Roland and his family were there for a short time in 
Taholah. 
 
Winona Weber  24:55 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  24:56 
And Uncle Hank lived in Taholah for--well, I think he lived there the longest of any of the 
people. I think Mom and Aunt Irene, Uncle Hank. And my Uncle Mitch, he lived there off and 
on, but not too much. He was mostly, you know, he lived at Georgetown. 
 
Winona Weber  25:19 
Yeah.  
 
Page 22 of 25 
 
Mildred Pickett  25:21 
And he spent some time with us in Seattle. When we lived in Seattle after, after I was married. 
He lived with us for, oh, like six months or so. 
 
Winona Weber  25:31 
What about Aunt Lizzie? 
 
Mildred Pickett  25:33 
Aunt Lizzie--she never lived in Taholah. She just stayed down at Georgetown. 
 
Winona Weber  25:38 
I see.  
 
Mildred Pickett  25:38 
Uh-huh. 
 
Winona Weber  25:38 
Well, Rachel told me that she spent some time in Taholah. 
 
Mildred Pickett  25:41 
Well, she may have. [Cross talk.] 
 
Winona Weber  25:43 
She didn't mention whether she did it after she was grown or when she was a kid. You know. 
 
Mildred Pickett  25:50 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  25:50 
She--she just said that she's--she lived in Taholah for a while. Probably did it when she got 
married. [Chuckles.] I like this question: "Did your brothers and sisters ever take care of you?" 
How much responsibility did you have for Uncle Buzz and Auntie Catherine? 
 
Mildred Pickett  26:10 
I had a lot of responsibility for Uncle Buzz. He was more like my son than my brother. 
 
Winona Weber  26:16 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  26:17 
And there's only three years' difference in our ages. But I always thought he was so much 
younger until I got to be older and I realized that he was only three years younger than--than I 
am. But I--I always made sure he had clean clothes for school. 
 
Winona Weber  26:36 
Yeah.  
Page 23 of 25 
 
 
Mildred Pickett  26:37 
And I'd take care of him and-- 
 
Winona Weber  26:41 
Did you--did you have responsibility pretty much for him from the time he was born, or? 
 
Mildred Pickett  26:45 
Mhm. I babysat for him when he was a real little guy. Not babysat. I just always took him 
wherever I went to--went. 
 
Winona Weber  26:53 
Yeah, wherever you went.  
 
Mildred Pickett  26:54 
He went with me. Wherever I went, he went. 
 
Winona Weber  26:58 
How old--How old would you say you guys were when you were allowed to go outside without 
having someone to stand there watching you all the time? 
 
Mildred Pickett  27:09 
I think we were pretty much on our own from-- I can remember of Buzz and I going up to my 
Grandpa Charley's car, where he had his car parked up at the jetty when we were fishing, you 
know. When Papa was fishing at Peacock Spit? 
 
Winona Weber  27:29 
Yeah? 
 
Mildred Pickett  27:30 
And I think I had to carry Buzz quite a bit at the time because he was--I wasn't a very big kid, 
you know, I was kind of a shrimper and Buzz was a big kid. [Winona chuckles.] And I'd pack 
him on my back, and then we'd walk for a while, and we'd walk for long ways, and you know, 
we really caused a stir at the camp because we came up missing for--they--maybe they finally 
missed us and wondered where we were here we walked way down to the jetty where Papa's car 
was parked. [Winona laughed.] And we really caught heck. [Laughs.] We didn't exactly run 
away but we just wandered, you know, quite a ways. 
 
Unknown Speaker 2  28:05 
Winona, what did you do with my short pants? 
 
Winona Weber  28:11 
Uh--Short pants... 
 
Mildred Pickett  28:13 
They're in, um, I think they're in that drawer.  
Page 24 of 25 
 
 
Unknown Speaker 2  28:18 
Which one?  
 
Mildred Pickett  28:19 
Unless they're still in the dirty clothes basket yet. [Winona chuckles]. 
 
Winona Weber  28:32 
Oh. Oh, gee, [inaudible cross talk]. Did you ever get in a fight with anybody when you were in 
grade school? Their age? 
 
Mildred Pickett  28:46 
No, I didn't get in a fight, but we sure had a tough time growing up in Taholah [chuckles].  
 
Winona Weber  29:03 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  29:06 
Because we were considered outsiders, and--and the Capoeman kids especially would throw 
rocks at us, we tried to get home. See, our house was way at the other end of the village, and the 
schoolhouse was way down by the ocean. So we had this obstacle course to run from the 
schoolhouse to our home. And in the middle of that obstacle course was the Capoeman kids that 
just stoned the heck out of us. Or tried-- they'd just wait there for us, and so Sonny and I were 
really fast, yeah. [They laugh. Inaudible.] 
 
Winona Weber  29:32 
You know, Aunt Irene said they had the same problem at Bay Center.  
 
Mildred Pickett  29:38 
She did? 
 
Winona Weber  29:40 
No, not Aunt Irene. Myrtle, when she was living at Goose Point. Did you--did you ever spent 
any time at Goose Point? 
 
Mildred Pickett  29:47 
I can just remember--just a faint recollection of Goose Point. We went down and what I can 
remember--and I must have been real small, because I talked to mom about it and asked her 
when we went down she said, "Dee-Dee, you can't remember that because you were too little." I 
said, "Mom, I can remember going down that boardwalk." 
 
Winona Weber  30:07 
Yeah, it was a big, long-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  30:08 
Page 25 of 25 
 
Big walk and then--and then my Uncle Roland's house was off, seemed like it was kind of a 
swampy area, because the houses were on stilts, you know, kind of. Yeah. And then it was 
connected to this big boardwalk and I can remember that. 
 
Winona Weber  30:24 
Yeah. Myrtle, Myrtle talks about being up on that boardwalk.  
 
Mildred Pickett  30:28 
Down at Goose Point. 
 
Winona Weber  30:29 
And she had these two, three girls, two sisters and a cousin that used to push her off if they 
caught her. Or they beat her up.  
 
Mildred Pickett  30:38 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  30:38 
She said she got to be really fast at running, too. [They laugh.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  30:45 
Oh, the kids would give us a bad time here, Sonny and I. 
 
Winona Weber  30:57 
Did you go out with any guys down in Taholah? Let's stop.  
 
Mildred Pickett  31:02 
No, uh. Did I have boyfriends?  
 
Winona Weber  31:04 
When you were at Taholah? How old were you when you went to Chemawa? 
 
Mildred Pickett  31:09 
I was 13. No, I didn't have any boyfriends. 
 