Page 1 of 20 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Mildred Pickett 
1980  
Cassette 2, Side 2 
 
 
Mildred Pickett  00:07 
River--Oh, where was I?  
 
Winona Weber  00:10 
Talking about fighting. 
 
Mildred Pickett  00:13 
Oh, about fighting? 
 
Winona Weber  00:17 
Yeah. 
 
Mildred Pickett  00:18 
I told you about us running when we had to run the obstacle course, and another thing about 
fighting was there was a kid in grade school whose name was Lefty [?Haugh?].  
 
Winona Weber  00:18 
Mhm.  
 
Mildred Pickett  00:19 
And he used to always pick on--on Sonny. And I didn't like that because Lefty [?Haugh?] was 
kind of a big bully, and Sonny was-- Sonny and I were about the same age [?size?], you know, 
until we got into puberty, and then he shot up and I-- you know, he got to be much bigger. But all 
through the years we went to grade school, we were the same size. And this big bully would 
catch him. We had just those outhouses, you know, in the school. 
 
Winona Weber  01:00 
Oh, my. 
 
Mildred Pickett  01:01 
And he would get him in that toilet, you know, and work him over, and I'd go right in there and 
I'd go after him with tooth and nail. [Winona laughs.] And that's about the only extent of our 
fighting. It was usually just, you know, sticking up for one another. 
Page 2 of 20 
 
 
Winona Weber  01:18 
Oh. Did you have some really good-- Did you have any real close friends in high school?  
 
Mildred Pickett  01:31 
Yes. [Pause.] 
 
Winona Weber  01:39 
While you were staying in Taholah or someplace, how much time would you spend with them 
compared to time you'd spend with, you know, Grandma Bum, and Uncle Buzz, and... 
 
Mildred Pickett  01:53 
With my friends on--in school? 
 
Winona Weber  01:55 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  01:57 
Well, I spent a lot of--a lot of time with Buzz, all the years of our growing up. We were just 
constantly together, Buzz and I. 
 
Winona Weber  02:07 
Mhm.  
 
Mildred Pickett  02:09 
And when I went to high school, I had a real dear friend. Her name was Erma Chamberlain. She 
was a Gros Ventre Indian.  
 
Winona Weber  02:15 
Hmm! 
 
Mildred Pickett  02:17 
And we were close, real good friends. She was a Catholic, and that's when I was first introduced 
to the Catholic religion. 
 
Winona Weber  02:27 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  02:29 
So I went to Catholic Church with her a lot of times, and I-I really enjoyed it, I thought--I 
thought the Catholic priest was--was a real all-right guy. I had a lot of friends. I had another real 
good friend was a Flathead Indian. Her name was [?Vivian McLeod?], and we called her Shorty 
because she was about four-foot eleven. But she was a real pretty girl [Winona laughs], and, uh, 
and a real good friend.  And another--another girl that was a good friend of mine was Wilma 
Adams from Skokomish. She was a Skokomish Indian. And she was, um-- she and I graduated 
together. 
Page 3 of 20 
 
 
Winona Weber  03:09 
Mhm.  From Chemawa? 
 
Mildred Pickett  03:22 
From Chemawa. 
 
Winona Weber  03:25 
What was your ranking in your class? 
 
Mildred Pickett  03:28 
I don't really know! No, I never did ever find that out. But I, um-- I think I ranked pretty high 
because I was on the honor roll off and on. 
 
Winona Weber  03:42 
Or on and off or off and on? 
 
Mildred Pickett  03:44 
Off and on. [They laugh.] And I, um-- I liked, um, my classes in Chemawa. For one thing, we--
we had a chance to be school reporters. We had a newspaper called "The Chemawa American," 
and every now and then, if we were on the honor roll, we were selected to write an editorial for 
the school paper, and I wrote a few editorials. My feelings about what was right and wrong about 
the school. But of course, a lot of it was censored at that time. [Winona laughs.] We were still 
very obedient. 
 
Winona Weber  04:38 
You talked about rowing up the river. What kind of toys did you have when you were a little 
girl? 
 
Mildred Pickett  04:46 
We didn't have any toys. 
 
Winona Weber  04:47 
Mm. 
 
Mildred Pickett  04:49 
We had, um... I can remember one Christmas. The only real Christmas I can remember. Probably 
because I received a great big doll. 
 
Winona Weber  05:00 
Oh, my. 
 
Mildred Pickett  05:02 
But that's-- we were just too poor, I think, to have any--we didn't-- We didn't really get into, you 
know, all the material things, I think probably because we couldn't afford them. You know, Mom 
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was pretty-- Mom was, um... I won't say she was a real religious person, but she was always 
associated with the church. So we, you know, we celebrated, like Christmas, and-- 
 
Winona Weber  05:34 
Oh yeah, for sure.  
 
Mildred Pickett  05:35 
--we'd go to church and things like that. We didn't receive a lot of stuff because in first place 
Mom and Dad couldn't afford it. 
 
Winona Weber  05:44 
Yeah. 
 
Mildred Pickett  05:45 
If we received any toys at all, it was always from Aunt Irene. 
 
Winona Weber  05:51 
How much time you spent with Aunt Irene when you were little?  
 
Mildred Pickett  05:53 
Spent a lot of time with her. Not as much as, um, as Sonny did. My older brother. Because he 
practically lived with her. And where Buzz and I, we'd go with her, like maybe for the summer, 
or if Mom didn't have any room at home, well, then we'd have to go and stay with Aunt Irene, 
and--  
 
Winona Weber  06:21 
Why wouldn't they have any room?  
 
Mildred Pickett  06:24 
Well, they just lived in a one-room house. 
 
Winona Weber  06:26 
Mhm. Did you get sent to stay with Aunt Irene because someone came to visit or something? 
 
Mildred Pickett  06:34 
No one ever came to visit us, but just-- I think maybe if Aunt Irene needed us for something, 
then we'd have to go and stay with her. Because after Alice was born, I stayed with her a lot just 
to babysit. 
 
Winona Weber  06:46 
How about that! 
 
Mildred Pickett  06:50 
And what a rascal I had to babysit! [Winona laughs.] 
 
Winona Weber  06:55 
Page 5 of 20 
 
I know. [Inaudible.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  06:59 
But we just really thought that Alice was the living end, you know, because she was the first 
little baby we had. For a long time, I think people just kind of doted on her. And we did, too. 
 
Winona Weber  07:14 
And all that. Did Alice spend most of her time with Aunt Irene, or did she-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  07:21 
She spent a lot of time with her grandmother. With Alice Jackson. She spent a lot of time with 
her mother, too, and her, her mother and dad.  
 
Winona Weber  07:37 
Mhm.  
 
Mildred Pickett  07:37 
But she spent time with us after she was a teenager, and in Seattle after your dad and I were 
married. 
 
Winona Weber  07:50 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  07:50 
Course, that was during the war years, when things were pretty much in a turmoil. So 
everybody's lives were pretty well mixed up. 
 
Winona Weber  08:01 
How old was she during World War Two? 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:04 
During World War Two, she was just she--she was a teenager. Because she's, um-- Alice is fifty. 
 
Winona Weber  08:15 
Yeah. 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:17 
She and I--there was about nine years' difference in our age. 
 
Winona Weber  08:21 
Yes, she would have been a teenager, because she was born in the 1930s. 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:24 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  08:32 
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[Inaudible.] Do you think that kids today have it a lot easier than you did when you were 
growing up? 
 
Mildred Pickett  08:38 
I think they do. 
 
Winona Weber  08:41 
During the Depression.  
 
Mildred Pickett  08:43 
I grew up in the-- in the Depression years and-- 
 
Winona Weber  08:48 
Well, the Depression must have been really hard on the reservation.  
 
Mildred Pickett  08:51 
It was. It was. I think it was doubly hard on the reservation because at that time, the Indians were 
pretty much under the rule of the BIA. And people were still obedient, and there was just no-- 
How can I say? Um, the Indian people just didn't have a preference to--for jobs. 
 
Winona Weber  09:26 
Oh. 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:27 
If there was any jobs-- 
 
Winona Weber  09:29 
They were the last ones-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:30 
--they were the last ones to-- 
 
Winona Weber  09:32 
Be hired. 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:32 
--to be hired. Right. And there-there was just, um. Aunt Irene was kind of the mainstay of the 
family, I think, because she had money in the agency. So seems to me she was the one that we 
always had to go to for money. 
 
Winona Weber  09:52 
How did she get the money? 
 
Mildred Pickett  09:53 
She had money from her timber at that time. See, she paid cash for that fishing ground and that 
house in Taholah.  
Page 7 of 20 
 
 
Winona Weber  10:01 
Which house is that? 
 
Mildred Pickett  10:02 
That's the house that still--it's still standing. That house where Uncle Sonny lived. That was her 
house. That was-- 
 
Winona Weber  10:11 
The one that was next to Grandma Bum's house. 
 
Mildred Pickett  10:13 
The one next to Grandma Bum's old house. That was, um, owned by Sophie--Sophie Yerkes, and 
she bought that from Sophie Yerkes, and she bought the fishing ground at the same time. 
 
Winona Weber  10:13 
Hm! 
 
Mildred Pickett  10:21 
Then she tore the old house down and built a new house. 
 
Winona Weber  10:31 
I wasn't in that house. 
 
Mildred Pickett  10:32 
No, you weren't in that house. 
 
Winona Weber  10:34 
No. 
 
Mildred Pickett  10:35 
Because that house was torn down. You were probably in that old house next to--next to Uncle 
Sonny's that was called the [?Sitcumb?] Cottage, and that was Sophie's brother--Sophie's sisters'. 
That was Ellen Baker's house. She was another Bay Center Indian. 
 
Winona Weber  10:50 
Oh! It was a big house. It seemed like-- It seemed big, but maybe it wasn't.  
 
Mildred Pickett  10:55 
No, it wasn't really that big.  
 
Winona Weber  10:56 
I think I wasn't in it until I was older. But it had a pantry or something.  
 
Mildred Pickett  11:03 
Uh-huh. Pantry on the back. That's what it was.  
Page 8 of 20 
 
 
Winona Weber  11:06 
That's all I remember of it.  
 
Mildred Pickett  11:07 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  11:07 
Was it had a yellow wall with a bunch of windows and a pantry. 
 
Mildred Pickett  11:10 
Yeah, that's--that was it. [Winona chuckles.] 
 
Winona Weber  11:11 
That's all I remember. Do you think there are any things that you let your--you would let your 
kids do when they were little that your-- that Grandma Bum wouldn't--wouldn't have approved 
of? Grandma Bum wouldn't have let you do? 
 
Mildred Pickett  11:30 
Things that I let my kids do, I'm trying to think. Because we pretty much, uh-- When we were 
kids, we-- I think the only difference in the way Mom raised us and the way I raised you kids 
was I was really more vigilant of where--where you were. I worried. I didn't like for you kids to 
go past the corner at Freda's corner. 
 
Winona Weber  11:57 
That's funny because--you're stricter. You were stricter with us than Grandma Bum was with you 
guys, and I think that I keep a closer look on Nicole than you did with us. Of course, I don't have 
ten kids to watch! [They laugh.] It's a lot easier, [inaudible, crosstalk]. Mm. 
 
Mildred Pickett  11:57 
Because [?White?] and I-- We were usually together when we watched you kids. She would 
watch because her house was down a little farther, and she'd make sure no one went past that 
corner. And then if you kids were swimming, we'd always, one of us would try to be there. 
Where Mom would, you know, she wasn't really that-- She didn't really worry about us that 
much. And I think we did some pretty hair-raising things. [They laugh.] When I think of it, we'd 
row up the river, and we'd swim up there, and do things that-- Even when we were small, she 
seemed to let us have a lot of responsibility. Well, I think--I think for one thing, too, Nona, one 
thing about--like, when Grandma was raising us, she didn't have cars speeding around the block, 
either. 
 
Winona Weber  13:10 
Unh-uh. She didn't have to worry about that.   
 
Mildred Pickett  13:11 
And we couldn't, you know, if we wanted to run off, we certainly couldn't hitch a ride. 
 
Page 9 of 20 
 
Winona Weber  13:16 
Oh, yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  13:17 
If we wanted to hitch a ride, we'd probably stay out there for two hours before a car would go by. 
So we--that hitchhiking was out. We didn't even know the meaning of the word.  
 
Winona Weber  13:26 
Was there very many horses?  
 
Mildred Pickett  13:26 
And then when you kids were-- then when you kids were small, there weren't really that many 
cars yet. There were, you know, a lot more cars, but not as much as there is today, where, like, 
um, you would be stricter with Nikki than I was with you. I think because of the mobility of--of 
everyone. 
 
Winona Weber  13:52 
Maybe so. Just maybe more about population crush. 
 
Mildred Pickett  13:56 
Right. I think so, too. 
 
Winona Weber  14:03 
Did Grandma Bum do any basket work or anything like that? 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:05 
Grandma, Grandma-- I can't remember her doing any basket work. It always seemed to me when 
I reflected back on Mom, on, on things that happened about Mom, it all seemed like she was 
more outgoing and-- 
 
Winona Weber  14:24 
She was more interested in getting out of the house.  
 
Mildred Pickett  14:30 
She was more interested in--in being away--not away from the house, but out of the house. 
 
Winona Weber  14:36 
With people. 
 
Mildred Pickett  14:38 
With people. She didn't do any basket weaving. 
 
Winona Weber  14:41 
Mhm. Because Aunt Irene talks--What she remembers of Grandma Caroline, is that during the 
winter Grandma Caroline worked on her baskets. And she would-- And Papa worked on his nets 
Page 10 of 20 
 
and things like that. And then during the summer, they were just really busy with fishing and 
everything.  
 
Mildred Pickett  14:59 
Think so.  
 
Winona Weber  14:59 
I was wondering was it-- Was it seasonal like that? Any kind of real busy--busyness. Was it 
seasonal or not?  
 
Mildred Pickett  15:08 
Well, um, I can remember being in the--going to the berry fields in the summer.  
 
Winona Weber  15:16 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  15:17 
But Mom and Dad didn't go to the berry fields as much as Aunt Irene did. And then we would 
have to go with Aunt Irene. But, um, I can't remember. Mom just didn't seem like--she wasn't 
interested in cooking. She seemed like she was really ahead of her time, she was kind of a 
liberated person. That's the way it seemed to me. And when I think back on what kind of a parent 
Mom was, she was, she was fair, she was strict. But she, she wasn't strict in a sense of, um, of us 
having any kind of a real structured schedule, like we'd have to get up at a certain time and we'd 
have to do this or that. She wasn't strict like that. But she was strict in the fact that we had to be 
respectful of our elders. And when people came to visit us, which wasn't very often, but if they 
dropped in, you know, we couldn't even go to the table. 
 
Winona Weber  15:39 
Yeah.  Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  16:22 
Our visitors were the first ones fed. And they always took the chair, occupied what chairs we 
had. 
 
Winona Weber  16:30 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  16:31 
Or we took a backseat to everything, and our visitors had priority. And that's just the way it was. 
We were to understand that. And that's the way that I say she was strict. We had to always be 
good to our grandfather. Of course, we were always, we were good to him anyway, we really-- 
 
Winona Weber  16:52 
[Inaudible question.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  16:53 
Page 11 of 20 
 
 Yeah. 
 
Winona Weber  16:54 
Did you ever call him that when you were growing up?  
 
Mildred Pickett  16:56 
No. I called him Papa all the time. That was the name-- Myrtle and them called him [?Me-ah?]. 
But I called him Papa because that's what Aunt Irene and, and Grandma Bum called him. 
 
Winona Weber  17:10 
Well they wouldn't have called him [inaudible], because that's "grandfather." 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:13 
I know that they called him--no, they called him Papa.  
 
Winona Weber  17:16 
Yeah, I know, but they, they wouldn't have called him-- [Crosstalk.] 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:18 
Yeah, that's right, too. Right.  
 
Winona Weber  17:19 
You know, the grandchildren. Did you--did you get--was English the primary--  
 
Mildred Pickett  17:26 
English was the primary language.  
 
Winona Weber  17:29 
--language when you [inaudible cross talk]-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  17:29 
Papa talked Indian to us. But we didn't answer him. We answered him in English. If he would 
tell us to go and get him a drink or, or he would tell us to--he would never-- He never was gruff 
to us. You know, if he'd tell us just to behave, we'd--maybe we were getting too noisy or 
whatever, someone was there--he'd always tell us to simmer down. He'd tell us in Indian, and we 
understood him. 
 
Winona Weber  17:52 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  17:53 
And we wouldn't answer back, but any other little requests or anything-- [sound interrupts]. 
 
Winona Weber  17:58 
Oh, boy! Can I have one? I'm mooching off of everybody's [inaudible]. 
 
Page 12 of 20 
 
Mildred Pickett  18:04 
We'd always understand that, uh-- We'd understand him, but we'd never talk--answer him in 
Indian. 
 
Winona Weber  18:14 
Mm! [Sounds in the background. Person talking.] How--what did Grandma Bum think about him 
speaking nothing but English?  
 
Mildred Pickett  18:22 
I think at that time, Nona, I think that people were still being discouraged about speaking their 
language. Because Papa was--he worked among the white people, and he worked for a white 
man and, and all of his, um, associates were white people. 
 
Winona Weber  18:45 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  18:45 
Except for his sailing crew, and they were white and Indian mixed. And just no one proper 
would talk. He would talk Indian among his kids. What seemed like I can't remember them 
talking Indian get back to him. They'd always answer him-- 
 
Winona Weber  19:02 
In English 
 
Mildred Pickett  19:03 
--in English. 
 
Winona Weber  19:06 
Oh. That's very-- I suppose their English was just as good as any white person's. 
 
Mildred Pickett  19:12 
Well Papa's was-- Yes, their English was real good. Because Papa, when he was, um-- When 
Papa was fighting for the rights of trying to retain his Indian fishing rights, you know, he'd go 
right up to Olympia and lobby with those legislators, and they all know--knew him real well. 
And he was--he was a well -known and respected person. 
 
Winona Weber  19:37 
Yeah, that's the feeling I got, that he was a really well-- 
 
Child (Nikki)  19:39 
Mama, where's the sugar? Oh, found it. 
 
Winona Weber  19:40 
It's up in the cupboard. 
 
Mildred Pickett  19:46 
Page 13 of 20 
 
Yeah, he was really a well-known and respected person. And he had a lot of friends, political 
and-- but he just, um. He was fighting for rights at the wrong time, when the Indian people-- 
 
Winona Weber  20:01 
Yeah, definitely [inaudible]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  20:01 
They were definitely-- 
 
Winona Weber  20:04 
My Indian Studies professor, she talks about, you know, hills and valleys. 
 
Mildred Pickett  20:11 
Mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  20:11 
During the, during the '70s the Indians were up on a hill like this, because we were getting our 
fishing rights, and the water rights and things like that. Now we're starting to go down, and you 
can see-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  20:25 
It's starting to go downhill now? 
 
Winona Weber  20:26 
Mhm. Starting to kind of get the repercussions of your, of the fishing rights and [inaudible]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  20:33 
Mhm. That's right.  
 
Winona Weber  20:34 
Were you in on the, uh, on the trading, on the Columbia? I hear you [inaudible] on the Columbia 
to trade with other Indians.   
 
Mildred Pickett  20:47 
No. Trade. What would they trade?  
 
Winona Weber  20:51 
Oh, they'd trade smoked salmon-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  20:53 
Oh, no, we didn't. But I got in on a little trading with Grandma Jackson. 
 
Winona Weber  20:57 
What did you trade with Grandma Jackson?  
 
Mildred Pickett  20:59 
Page 14 of 20 
 
Grandma Jackson would go to town with her baskets. 
 
Winona Weber  21:02 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  21:03 
And I can remember going to this one lady's house, and she had a great, big house. And she had 
a lot of clothes. And Grandma Jackson would barter with this old gal for her clothes.  
 
Winona Weber  21:15 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  21:16 
And when I think of it now how Grandma Jackson got ripped off, but you know, at that time, 
Grandma would have these real fine baskets because Grandma Jackson was a real--her baskets 
were real fine work.  
 
Winona Weber  21:31 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  21:32 
You know, they weren't raffia baskets. They were regular baskets made with, um-- 
 
Winona Weber  21:38 
Cedar and sweetgrass-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  21:38 
--with cedar and no, not sweetgrass. She made her baskets with cedar bark and mountain grass. 
 
Winona Weber  21:44 
Mountain grass, yeah, [inaudible]. 
 
Mildred Pickett  21:47 
And she made her designs and everything, but this lady's name was Mrs. Cole and I--that's all I 
can remember. Going with Grandma to-- Grandma Jackson to Mrs. Cole's place, and Mrs. Cole 
would haul out all these clothes, boxes of clothes or dishes or whatever, and she'd trade Grandma 
Jackson for, for clothes and whatever she had for Grandma Jackson's baskets.  
 
Winona Weber  22:13 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  22:13 
And Grandma Jackson was really a shrewd bargainer herself. I'd be kind of thinking, "Geez, 
Gram, you gotta grab while you can." 
 
Winona Weber  22:22 
Page 15 of 20 
 
Yeah! 
 
Mildred Pickett  22:22 
But not her, she'd go for another coat or another--[laughs]. 
 
Winona Weber  22:27 
Gosh, I bet she'd really do good value with her baskets. Oof! 
 
Mildred Pickett  22:32 
Well, she was, um--the last I can remember of Grandma Jackson's baskets. She had underneath 
her stairwell. Once in a while, I'd sleep with Grandma Jackson when we'd stay with Aunt Irene 
and Uncle [?Deb?], you know, down in Taholah. 
 
Winona Weber  22:46 
You talked about Alice-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  22:47 
Alice Jackson. 
 
Winona Weber  22:48 
Just making sure. 
 
Mildred Pickett  22:49 
And she had a lot of baskets and a lot of basket-making material under her stair--under her 
stairway. 
 
Winona Weber  23:06 
[Talking to someone else?] --Strawberry, uh, blackberry there in the [inaudible]. When--When 
did Grandma Jackson die? 
 
Mildred Pickett  23:12 
Grandma Jackson died-- [Pause.] Grandma Jackson died probably in the late thirties and late-- 
[Cross talk.] 
 
Winona Weber  23:25 
Cause that would be-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  23:25 
--thirties I think.  
 
Winona Weber  23:27 
Is that the [?Che-uh?] that Irene [inaudible]?  
 
Mildred Pickett  23:28 
Yeah, that's [?Che-uh?]. That's, uh, that was, um, my Uncle Malcolm's grandmother. No relation 
to us at all.  
Page 16 of 20 
 
 
Winona Weber  23:38 
Huh! 
 
Mildred Pickett  23:39 
But just relative by marriage, but she was--she was a person that--I think she had a lot of impact 
on my life, too, because we learned a lot from old Grandma Jackson. We learned a lot like about 
camping because we camped with her in the summer up to Quinault Lake.  
 
Winona Weber  23:58 
Mm. 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:00 
And she took care of Alice a lot, and that's how come I was with her, you know, like in the 
summer because I'd have to help with Alice, too. And Grandma would--she would smoke fish, 
and she showed us how to cut deer meat for drying, and--and she showed us. Well, she didn't 
exactly show us, but we watched her when she'd make Indian bread and put it underneath a fire. 
And is it ever delicious?  
 
Winona Weber  24:34 
Is that--was that the bread you'd-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:35 
That's what you call. 
 
Winona Weber  24:36 
--put it in the sand? 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:36 
Yeah. You put it in the sand. It's, um. Tt's called buckskin bread. 
 
Winona Weber  24:41 
Yeah, buckskin bread. That's what it is. 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:43 
It's--it's does good. It has very little shortening in it. 
 
Winona Weber  24:46 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  24:46 
And just enough soda or baking powder to raise it a little bit, and she'd wrap it up in a clean 
dishcloth. [Crosstalk.] 
 
Winona Weber  24:53 
[Inaudible] all water. 
Page 17 of 20 
 
 
Mildred Pickett  24:53 
She put it underneath the coals, and, and when it would come out, I'm telling you, we could eat. 
One of those great big browns. 
 
Winona Weber  25:02 
[Inaudible.] Suquamish? Made it some genius way. But it was salmon--She used-- 
 
Mildred Pickett  25:10 
No, Grandma would put hers in a dish towel. 
 
Winona Weber  25:13 
Yeah. Well, someone else talking about wrapping it in newspaper, paper. Another one talked 
about wrapping it real good in flour, and that way, when you took it out, you brushed all the flour 
off. 
 
Mildred Pickett  25:24 
Brushed the flour-- Well, Grandma would put hers, and hers wasn't sandy or anything, she just 
put her dough in this dish towel and she'd have a place cleared underneath, you know where the 
coals were. She'd stick it under there and cover it up, and--and it would cook. That's the only 
bread we had. We didn't shop, you know, get to go to the store and shop. 
 
Winona Weber  25:35 
Yeah.  When you were little, was--was Grandma Bum working? When you were really little? 
Who--Who did you stay with when--? 
 
Mildred Pickett  25:59 
Well, we stayed with Mom and Dad. When we were real little, I think she--I don't know. What I 
can remember, when we were real small, was Mom worked for Papa on the sailing ground.  
 
Winona Weber  26:14 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  26:16 
And she worked as um, a cook's helper, and she'd like help set the table, because they had to feed 
their sailing crew three times a day. And it was just a hustle and a bustle in that big mess hall. 
You know, they'd have to set the tables and wash the dishes and reset it. That was three times a 
day. And they had to--plus they'd um, make big pots of coffee [coughs] and sandwiches and 
pastry and then one of the gals would take a little sled with a horse and take it down to the men 
so they could have like a coffee break. They wouldn't exactly have a coffee break. But if they 
had a chance, you know, in between [inaudible], they'd come in and have a cup of coffee and a 
sandwich or whatever. 
 
Winona Weber  27:11 
Did you have any things that you had to do when you were out there? [Inaudible crosstalk.] 
 
Page 18 of 20 
 
Mildred Pickett  27:16 
I was so small, all I did was just to watch Buzz. [They laugh.] That was a full-time job. But I had 
to watch him all the time. That was just understood that I was to take care of him. And I didn't 
mind it. Not one bit. I just--you know, I thought he was an okay little kid. 
 
Winona Weber  27:48 
Have you always-- Well, you've always been around non-Indians. 
 
Mildred Pickett  27:53 
Right. 
 
Winona Weber  27:55 
What was the first experience of--of a white person? Black person? Whatever? 
 
Mildred Pickett  28:03 
First experience with a white person, I think probably was, um, being aware of the fact that I was 
an Indian and-- I don't--I don't know that I ever made such a distinction. 
 
Winona Weber  28:25 
Mhm.  
 
Mildred Pickett  28:26 
The only thing that I know--the one thing that I know is when we first went to start at the school, 
our teacher was white. And we rode to school wit, uh, our milkman and his name was Mr. 
Dibkey. He was from North Cove, and he was a white man. He delivered milk to our house. And 
he had a little old car and he'd give us a ride to school in the morning. We didn't have a school 
bus. 
 
Winona Weber  28:52 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  28:52 
So we rode with him on the back of that little funny track and then we walked home from the 
schoolhouse every day.  
 
Winona Weber  28:59 
Did you have any--did you have any non-Indian friends there? 
 
Mildred Pickett  29:03 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  29:05 
Did you ever go in their houses? 
 
Mildred Pickett  29:09 
Page 19 of 20 
 
I'd like to tell you about my non-Indian friend. Her name was Sylvanne Olson, and her dad was a 
successful, successful fisherman, and her house is still standing there in Tokeland. Right there by 
the Coast Guard base. And she invited me to come to her house. 
 
Winona Weber  29:31 
Uh-huh.  
 
Mildred Pickett  29:32 
And I was a little bit-- I had two minds about it because I had to come directly home from school 
every day. 
 
Winona Weber  29:40 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  29:41 
And that was, uh-- that was what my mom laid the law down but I just, I disobeyed, and I went 
down to my friend's house because she told me that she had a new doll and something else and 
she wanted me to go down there. And so I walked down to her house after school, and that was 
the first time I ever compared my own home with a white person's home. 
 
Winona Weber  30:07 
Mhm.  
 
Mildred Pickett  30:09 
We went into this kitchen, and it was just painted, and it was everything was so pretty, I thought. 
I just looked around at that house. It had curtains, and it had a shiny white stove and all the 
cabinets and everything was so nice, and I went into--I went into Sylvanne's bedroom, and she 
had her own bed, and she had her dolls, and she even had a little, um, Victrola. That's what it was 
called in those days. And she had little, like, little Mother Goose records, and I couldn't believe 
that anyone who lived like that-- [Crosstalk.] 
 
Winona Weber  30:54 
He must have been a very well-off fisherman! 
 
Mildred Pickett  30:55 
She was! That, her dad was, um... He was a fisherman, and, and he-- There was just two girls, 
there was Sylvanne, and then she had an older brother, older sister and I think her name was 
Eileen and she'd be about Hazel's age. Sylvanne was my age.  
 
Winona Weber  31:10 
Yeah.  
 
Mildred Pickett  31:11 
And I got to go to Sylvanne's house maybe two or three times, but I couldn't go anymore. 
[Chuckles.] Mom wouldn't let me go down there. Because we were supposed to come right 
Page 20 of 20 
 
straight from home--right straight home, and there was Sonny and [?Huda?] and I that walked, 
and Harold Hansen was a white kid. 
 