Neighbors, Native and Otherwise

Mr. Judson would be kept away from home on occasion,working on distant parts of the farm or traveling for provisions. When this was the case, Mrs. Judson would be left alone in her home, virtually isolated, with two very small children.
She was to find that the curious native people whose land she now occupied would simply walk into her cabin in a group and sit by her fire and ask for bread, which she game them in fear of angering them.

One on guard would watch for Mr. Judson’s return, and then they would leave. Despite this strange arrangement, including the language difficulty (Phoebe took lessons in Chinook trading jargon), her attitude toward the indigenous people was open-minded: “As I became better acquainted with them, my fears were, to a measure, dissipated.”
She was very tolerant of the cultural differences, became more curious than afraid, and continued all of her life to have good relationships and close friendships with various Indians, especially Jim Yelvkanum and his wife Sallie, who helped the Judsons on many occasions. The Indian Wars put a hindrance to this for a while, but once the hostilities were over, Mrs. Judson’s Indian friends remained her friends.

Indians--Valuable Neighbors

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Phoebe's Story

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