Page 1 of 15 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Patricia Bumgarner Sanchez 
1981  
Cassette 1, Side 2 
 
 
Winona Weber  00:06 
Did you ever hear about her, though?  
 
Patricia Sanchez  00:09 
No, I never did. 
 
Winona Weber  00:10 
Mm!  
 
Patricia Sanchez  00:13 
My papa wasn't--wasn't, um, Chinook. My papa was Chehalis and Quinault. 
 
Winona Weber  00:24 
Okay. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  00:24 
It was my grandmother that was--that was Chinook Indian. Yeah. That's how we're related to 
these Haydens. 
 
Winona Weber  00:28 
Mhm. The Haydens... 
 
Patricia Sanchez  00:38 
Mhm. 
 
Winona Weber  00:39 
Oh! Yeah. It took me a second. [Cross talk] I have trouble remembering people. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  00:45 
Yeah my--my people are related to the Bens from up here in--from Oakville. 
 
Winona Weber  00:53 
Yeah? 
Page 2 of 15 
 
 
Patricia Sanchez  00:53 
We're related to them. But I don't know my--I don't know my-- I would like to. I would like to 
know who my people really are, and then when I moved to Arizona, then I lost all, all contact 
with like, with my own people. 
 
Winona Weber  01:18 
Mhm [sympathetic].  
 
Patricia Sanchez  01:19 
Just my close people. But they don't even know when I was growing up and living in Taholah, I 
would run around like Neah Bay and through there, and it was always the same thing. "Oh, that's 
your old relation, that's your old relation." I don't know how we were ever related or anything 
else, but-- but you hear--you hear all the Indians are always related. "Oh, your grandfather, your 
grandmother was my cousin."  
 
Winona Weber  01:53 
Yeah.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  01:55 
So-- 
 
Winona Weber  01:57 
Well, the taboo against--against marriage within--within your family was so strong-- 
 
Patricia Sanchez  02:07 
Strong. 
 
Winona Weber  02:08 
That they had to go. Well, I I've heard that our great-grandfather's second wife was Makah. He 
almost had to go all the way to Neah Bay just to find a woman-- 
 
Patricia Sanchez  02:22 
Just to-- 
 
Winona Weber  02:24 
--that wasn't--wasn't related to him! 
 
Patricia Sanchez  02:24 
Related. That's right, uh-huh.  
 
Winona Weber  02:26 
Who was his equal in--in the social strata. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  02:29 
Mhm [affirmative]. 
Page 3 of 15 
 
 
Winona Weber  02:33 
I think that's one reason why we--Why we--we find so many people that we're related to. 
[Chuckles.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  02:37 
Yeah, yeah. My--one of my uncles married a Makah girl. I don't remember who she was. But my 
Uncle Freddy married a Makah girl. 
 
Winona Weber  02:53 
Oh, yeah? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  02:55 
And he already had a girlfriend. But, but--that was the last of my, my grandfather. Thought that 
taking and buying somebody-- 
 
Winona Weber  03:14 
Mmm, the marriage was arranged. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  03:15 
Uh-huh. Yeah, marriage was arranged already, but he had a girlfriend, and he was a college boy. 
 
Winona Weber  03:23 
Mhm. [Clears throat.] How old were you--? Getting back to Taholah. How old were you when 
you started clam digging commercially?  
 
Patricia Sanchez  03:41 
Nine years old. 
 
Winona Weber  03:42 
Mhm [affirmative]. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  03:46 
I used to peck around and dry dig.  
 
Winona Weber  03:49 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  03:50 
But then to get--I was 10 years old the first time I ever made a hundred pounds. [Laughter in the 
distance.] Boy, that was a red letter day.  
 
Winona Weber  03:59 
Oh, really? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  04:00 
Page 4 of 15 
 
I know. So you really know when-- Once you hit that hundred pounds, you know that-- 
 
Winona Weber  04:08 
You're a serious digger. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  04:09 
Then you're a serious digger, I-- 
 
Winona Weber  04:11 
I never made a hundred pounds. That tells you how good a clam digger I am. [Hoarsely, moving 
around.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  04:16 
We were-- We was allowed because my dad was a clam buyer and my mom was right there.  
 
Winona Weber  04:21 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  04:22 
We would be able to get off the school bus when we came in from Moclips to get off, and I 
would see my dad's truck. 
 
Winona Weber  04:30 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  04:31 
And we would run down there and go clam digging because my folks always had-- My folks 
always had my boots and a pair of overalls and a shirt for me.  
 
Winona Weber  04:42 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  04:42 
Then I would just change my, change my school clothes and put my clam digging clothes on 
because I helped buy clams with my dad, and I-I drove the truck by the time I was 13 years old. I 
drove--yeah. He would stay down there and buy. Connie always helped him. I was always right 
there. 
 
Winona Weber  05:08 
Mhm. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  05:09 
I guess-- He was a sidekick [inaudible]. Time he was about 18, 19 years old and him and Dee-
Dee got married. My dad didn't lose a daughter, he gained a son. 
 
Winona Weber  05:31 
Page 5 of 15 
 
Mhm.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  05:31 
[Inaudible.] And your dad moved back to Seattle during the war, then we moved to Seattle. My 
mom worked with a drum company, and-- 
 
Winona Weber  05:41 
The what?  
 
Patricia Sanchez  05:42 
Drum.  
 
Winona Weber  05:43 
What's that?  
 
Patricia Sanchez  05:47 
Um... I [inaudible] where they just had-- I don't remember the name of the--name of the thing. I 
didn't--I remember where it's at, but I don't even remember the name of the company.  
 
Winona Weber  05:57 
Well, what did she do?  
 
Patricia Sanchez  05:59 
She worked. She painted drums, and they took the gas out of the drums during the war, they-- 
And we would have three or four gallons every evening, of gas because you used, used stamps 
for gas, to buy gas during World War Two, and we always had gas under our house in Seattle all 
the time. Because it's a-- "Well, if there's any--any gas in there, well, you can take it."  
 
Winona Weber  06:32 
Yeah.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  06:33 
So my mom would always say, "The gas!" And she had to jump, jump on a bus to go home or 
she always had her gas can. And it would be full of gas.  
 
Winona Weber  06:43 
[Chuckles.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  06:44 
She would just empty it into the big drum after she got home. And so we never did ever worry 
about gas. We always rode all around, we always-- from Seattle to Taholah. We made it two to 
three times a week-- Ah, two to three times a month. 
 
Winona Weber  07:02 
How long--? 
 
Page 6 of 15 
 
Patricia Sanchez  07:03 
Freda and Benny lived up there. 
 
Winona Weber  07:05 
Oh, really? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  07:06 
Aunt Irene. 
 
Winona Weber  07:07 
Oh, yeah, [inaudible]. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  07:08 
Lived there. Your mom and dad down on [?Graham?] Street. We lived on Connecticut Street, 
which is right--right in the foot of where the public health hospital is right now. Bailey Gatzert. 
Right there on Dearborn, right on the hill. Twelfth Avenue, Jackson, 12th and Jackson.  
 
Winona Weber  07:21 
Mm! 
 
Patricia Sanchez  07:21 
And we went to Bailey Gatzert School.  
 
Winona Weber  07:25 
To what?  Mm! 
 
Patricia Sanchez  07:36 
Then we all went back to Taholah again after the war. 
 
Winona Weber  07:43 
Did you miss Taholah while you were living in Seattle? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  07:48 
There was-- Oh, yeah. We could never wait to get back home. Seattle is-- As young as I was, and 
as many lights and how pretty Seattle was. It was really a rat race. To me, even as a child, it was 
something that I would never want to--to put up with or live in, or-- But we had to because mom 
and dad both had jobs. 
 
Winona Weber  08:18 
Yeah. [Clears throat.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  08:21 
We sure learned in a hurry how to get around Seattle. We were just young little kids-- 
 
Winona Weber  08:26 
Yeah? 
Page 7 of 15 
 
 
Patricia Sanchez  08:27 
Knew what buses to catch. And just how much it would cost us to go, go from here to there. We 
always remembered to get our transfers, which was just a little paper to get a token. Bus token. 
Just boardin' it and going, how far we were goin'. How far it was going to take us, and we were 
just kids. 
 
Winona Weber  08:52 
Well, one thing I've noticed with both mom and you is Grandma [?Bum?] always seemed to 
encourage your independence, you know. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  09:01 
Mhm [affirmative]!  
 
Winona Weber  09:01 
You'd've learned how to do things. You think that was some--common with most Indian families 
then? Do you think that most of your friends were encouraged that same way? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  09:16 
I think so. I think so. We had a lot of independence, but not to the point where it was neglect. 
 
Winona Weber  09:25 
Oh, no! No. I mean, it's just that-- Well, like, mom says that, that gram would let her have a lot 
more independence than she let us have. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  09:37 
Mhm [affirmative]. 
 
Winona Weber  09:39 
And I--and I don't let Nicole have as much independence as I had when I was her age.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  09:44 
Mhm [affirmative]. 
 
Winona Weber  09:46 
And I was just wondering if--if that independence that you did have, you know, was--was 
characteristic of Indian families then. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  09:56 
I think it was. I think-- I think it is. I know I don't allow my children to have as much, much 
freedom as I did. But I suppose my children won't want their children to have as much freedom 
as they did, either. And I know that, that I'm very protective of my children. 
 
Winona Weber  10:24 
Mhm [affirmative].  
 
Page 8 of 15 
 
Patricia Sanchez  10:25 
To the fact that I would even-- If I had to spank them or correct them in front of anybody, I do 
so. And I don't care. I mean, I do care. But I don't care if it's gonna hurt. Hurt my child or not. I 
think that it makes them, makes them realize that if I'm going to say something, I'm going to do 
it. I'm not gonna talk and talk and talk, and no--no action. 
 
Winona Weber  10:50 
Yeah. Yeah. Would your mother do that? Would she correct you in front of other people?  
 
Patricia Sanchez  11:01 
No.  It would be-- I remember Sunday after church, there would be spanking. 
 
Winona Weber  11:03 
That was just-- Uh-huh. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  11:13 
Yeah. Breakfast [inaudible] spanking. One of those kind. But it was always-- One thing my 
mother did--did with us-- She corrected us. In her way-- 
 
Winona Weber  11:28 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  11:28 
She corrected us, but if--if she had something to say to us, when you look back on it, you know it 
was-- Sure, she could, she could grab a piece of stick and holler and scream, and never hit us. 
 
Winona Weber  11:47 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  11:48 
But when she was really serious about sitting down and talking? Well we always sat down over--
over-- We drank tea, my mom would drink coffee. And she was a real coffee [?hound?]. But 
"Let's sit down and talk it out." It was never beat or beat or anything. 
 
Winona Weber  12:09 
Did she spank you? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  12:13 
Yeah, sometimes. Not, um, not as a regular routine or anything. 
 
Winona Weber  12:20 
No. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  12:24 
But she--she spanked us. 
 
Page 9 of 15 
 
Winona Weber  12:27 
I talked to [inaudible], you know. Especially the older ones that don't remember their parents 
ever laying a hand on them, at all. It was all verbal, or-- 
 
Patricia Sanchez  12:38 
Yeah, it's all--it's mostly verbal. But when--when we knew that we were doing wrong, my dad 
never laid-- not one hand on us.  
 
Winona Weber  12:50 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  12:51 
Not once, but-- But it was always-- it was always taught that I knew if my dad got mad, he only 
had to tell you once. 
 
Winona Weber  13:09 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  13:09 
Because my dad had that look. "You better do it." We never argued with him. And my dad never 
did lay one hand on us. Not once. My dad never-never came up with that German look either, 
more than once.  
 
Winona Weber  13:29 
Yeah, I know what you mean! [Laughs.]  
 
Patricia Sanchez  13:32 
So we--we knew that we had to deal with a lot. It was a great loss to the, not only to his family, 
but he was a great loss to the whole reservation.  
 
Winona Weber  13:45 
Mhm [sympathetic]. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  13:45 
Because he was, "I'm going to donate this." And "I'm going to donate that." He bought candles 
for the church all the time. He would come down with loads-- a load of fish that would be just 
donated to the Shaker Church. He donated to the Shaker Church more than he ever to the 
Pentecostal Church, which was his prerogative. You know, it was his-- It was-- I guess, I guess 
he was just that was his, too, you know. I don't remember my dad ever going to the Pentecostal 
Church. 
 
Winona Weber  14:27 
Well, the Shaker Church was sort of-of the Indian, you know. For the Indian.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  14:33 
It is--it is the Indian-- It belongs to the Indians. 
Page 10 of 15 
 
 
Winona Weber  14:39 
He was-- He always seemed so close to all the Indians that I wonder if he just felt like that was 
the right church. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  14:49 
It must have been because even--even when he passed away, that's what we had, you know. He 
had a-- He had a Shaker funeral. 
 
Winona Weber  14:59 
Mhm. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  15:00 
He had half and half, was half and half, but that half was because of my mother.  
 
Winona Weber  15:06 
Yeah. What was the Shaker funeral like? I haven't been to one since I was a little girl. Or, you 
know, to a shake. [Inaudible.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  15:19 
It's beautiful. It's really-- It's all candlelight services. 
 
Winona Weber  15:24 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  15:25 
They sing. They sing in their native tongue, in their own dialect. But, um, it's something that you 
can't explain. It's something that you would have to see for yourself to really appreciate. 
 
Winona Weber  15:43 
Mhm. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  15:43 
You know, even-- Even when I was married, I had a Shaker. I had a-- [Deep voice, creaking 
sounds, recorder moving around.] 
 
Winona Weber  15:56 
Uh-huh? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  15:56 
We was married here at Oakville. Mhm. Married right here, and, and my father-in-law, he 
jumped up two feet in the air because we had five singers, five singers from five different--
different reservations to represent us, represent me when I married a white man husband.  
 
Winona Weber  15:58 
Oh, really? Oh, yeah. 
Page 11 of 15 
 
 
Patricia Sanchez  16:24 
Yeah. We had a beautiful wedding [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  16:26 
[Small sound, perhaps from a child, recorder shuffling, Winona shuffling and speaking softly.] 
Did you have a chance to go to a lot of shakes when you were a little girl? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  16:53 
Mhm! Oh, yeah, we would go to Ne--um, Mud Bay. I remember the old--the old Shaker Church 
in Mud Bay. Yeah, we went, we had a lot of opportunities of going to the Shaker Church because 
that's where my people, my older people were. 
 
Winona Weber  17:26 
Mmm. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  17:27 
And I joined--I joined the Shaker Church when I was 14 years old in Queets.  
 
Winona Weber  17:31 
Oh. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  17:32 
And the--the Shaker Church that we had in Queets, I can see hands on the floor. And the reason I 
seen hands on the floor is because that was on-- That Shaker Church was built on top of an old 
burial ground. And they tore it down. Mhm. And it's right down there past Wallis's house. Right 
there on the turn.  
 
Winona Weber  17:59 
How come they built it on an old burial ground? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  18:02 
Because apparently, they didn't know that that's what it was. Because there was no markings, no 
nothing.  
 
Winona Weber  18:09 
Oh, yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  18:09 
Until it was all--until it was all dug up. And it was an old burial ground. So--but there was no 
markings. If it was tribal, or if it was a battleground, or what, but it was an old burial ground. 
 
Winona Weber  18:26 
Over there on Queets River, and it just-- 
 
Patricia Sanchez  18:26 
Page 12 of 15 
 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Winona Weber  18:31 
A settlement burial ground, that's all. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  18:33 
Uh-huh [affirmative].  
 
Winona Weber  18:34 
It's probably a pretty old settlement though. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  18:36 
It is. [Inaudible cross talk.]  
 
Winona Weber  18:41 
Burial grounds around here going back a couple thousand years.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  18:43 
Yeah, uh-huh. Cause I can remember sitting and-- Where we lived, there in Queets. I can 
remember sitting there and talking to. Old lady-- Grandma Sands. I don't even remember her 
name, we called her Grandma. And she was a little, tiny lady. 
 
Winona Weber  19:01 
Mhm. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  19:01 
But I was just like six, seven years old. And I was still--I was interested then in Queets because 
we lived right there in Queets. 
 
Winona Weber  19:15 
Yeah. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  19:15 
And I would sit and listen to her talk--talk to me. All the time. She lived right there on the point. 
But some--right off the main-- [Cross talk.] 
 
Winona Weber  19:26 
Was she a pre-Treaty Indian? 
 
Patricia Sanchez  19:28 
I really don't know as--because she passed away when I was like twelve. And I-- 
 
Winona Weber  19:35 
Well, she was pretty old, then.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  19:37 
Page 13 of 15 
 
She was really old. That was Sarah--Sarah [?Sodamiche's?] mother-in-law or mother [cross talk]. 
Mother. Mother. 
 
Winona Weber  19:37 
I'd say she was probably born in the 1840s.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  19:41 
Probably. 
 
Winona Weber  19:41 
Yeah, she was--[inaudible]. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  19:52 
She was old. She was really, really old. Beautiful people. I don't know if she was--if she was 
Queets Indian or if she was-- She must have been Queets Indian.  
 
Winona Weber  20:08 
Uh-huh [affirmative].  
 
Patricia Sanchez  20:09 
Because, must have been. But I've always found, found those Queets people to be very 
compassionate. 
 
Winona Weber  20:23 
Uh-huh. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  20:25 
And so are of the Quileutes. 
 
Winona Weber  20:28 
Yeah.  
 
Patricia Sanchez  20:28 
I've got so many good friends. [Winona coughs.] Real good friends that-- when I was growing 
up, that were Quileutes. I would [inaudible] in from La Push. We were always able to just make 
ourself right at home. Fit in wherever we went. 
 
Winona Weber  20:48 
Mhm. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  20:50 
There was no--there was no strangers-- 
 
Winona Weber  20:54 
Yeah.  
 
Page 14 of 15 
 
Patricia Sanchez  20:54 
--Amongst the Indian people. There's just no strangers, and to this day, I haven't found a 
stranger. 
 
Winona Weber  21:03 
Yeah, I know what you mean. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  21:05 
Just about fitting in around here. Such a big mouth, anyways. 
 
Winona Weber  21:08 
[Laughs.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  21:11 
And last Sunday, you know, when you phoned up to Wallis's place?  
 
Winona Weber  21:15 
Mhm. 
 
Patricia Sanchez  21:16 
Wallis told me, she said. She said, "Oh, Pat, you got such a big mouth--loud mouth." She said, "I 
wish you'd kind of hold it down a little bit because you sure do scare my dog." 
 
Winona Weber  21:29 
Oh, gee! [Laughs.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  21:31 
Yeah! And if anybody has a loud mouth, Wallis does. 
 
Winona Weber  21:35 
[Laughs.] I can imagine.   
 
Patricia Sanchez  21:37 
My sister--  
 
Winona Weber  21:39 
"My sister!" [Teasing] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  21:39 
My sister got a big mouth. [They laugh.] And I've even got a bigger mouth than she does, 
because she told me that her dog is scared because I talk so loud. 
 
Winona Weber  21:51 
Maybe her dog is just used to her. [They laugh.] Don't tell her I said that. I can't get into trouble 
with my Auntie here. [They laugh.] 
 
Page 15 of 15 
 
Patricia Sanchez  22:00 
He's a Pekingese, and he's just yip yip yip yip yip yip yip.  And she says, "Oh, Pat! Please hold it 
down, you've got such a big mouth that you--my dog gets scared every time you talk. 
 
Winona Weber  22:09 
[Chuckles.] 
 
Patricia Sanchez  22:11 
I said, "Oh, I'll hold it down." I said. "But it's not because your dog is scared." I said, "It's not for 
your dog." I said, "But it's gonna be a long time before I go back to Queets, too. Come up 
[inaudible] and to have my own sister tell me to be quiet because I'm scaring her dog. 
 
Winona Weber  22:24 
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's kind of odd. It was always so stressed. Oh, is that-- Were you still-- 
[recorder shuts off]. 
 