The Sad Tale of Willie Keil
You never know what you’ll find on the trail. Heading down from the Palouse country of Eastern Washington, I happened on the grave of one Willie Keil, a fellow who had one of the longest and strangest journeys to final rest that I’ve ever heard tell. Young Willie died right before his father was to lead a wagon to the Promised Land. Reluctant to leave his son behind, he put young Willie in a coffin, covered him with whisky, and headed west with Willie at the head of the wagon train. Story goes that Willie saved the lives of the party several time when the group encountered Native Americans. They laid Willie to his grave near the town of Raymond, Washington on the way to a town called Menlo. Some years later, his father moved on with his people, leaving Willy alone in the end. He’s still there.
Partners, you may not be inclined to believe me. So here’s the best account of this most remarkable tale:
http://www.beacon-christian.org/WeidumKeilArticle.pdf
That same day, I heard about another journey about to take place, perhaps not as amazing as Willie’s, but resonant in the American West right now, where oil prices mean lost jobs and severe economic hardship. This circumstance has some folks heading back in the direction from whence their people came.
Came to know this tale when ordering up some food in a local diner. I asked the waitress how gas prices were affecting the area. Real bad. Lost jobs and housing foreclosures. She said that oil to heat her house had gone to $500 a month. She and her husband abandoned the house and moved to her folk’s place. Next month they’re driving to Montana where they’ve heard there are jobs. I’d imagine she’s in her mid-twenties.
Left a big tip. Wished her good luck. Headed to my 4x4, the one with the Obama 08 sticker on the back, and hit the trail. Didn’t see a single Obama sticker up in that neck of the woods. Talk up there is about how McCain is going to drill right away in Alaska and gas will get back to 2 dollars in a year. I wish I were making this part of my tale up, but I ain’t.
The story is quite fantastic and a wonderful read. How did you find the grave? I hope you are joking about having a 4x4 gas guzzler, considering the end of your piece.
June 30, 2008 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a Subaru, but a 4x4 also. I was looking for the grave of a Black pioneer by the name of George Washington Bush. There's a cemetery in that area called the "Bush Cemetery." I noticed the Willie Keil grave in the standard Atlas Map Book. Took the drive and found the grave.
June 30, 2008 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the post and the link. The story actually reminded me of the Lonesome Dove saga.
June 30, 2008 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fascinating tale, Donner. Thanks for that.
June 30, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, donnerpass. I love Westward Movement stories.
June 30, 2008 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
If he weren't anonymous, I'd tell him I was glad to see him again.
June 30, 2008 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hello boys. Walking real trails a few days ago and finding this poor fellow was very real. Made me think if us all.
June 30, 2008 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
You were right. Superb storytelling.
June 30, 2008 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
These pioneer sagas are both personal and epic at that same time. Easy to get swept into them. And why not? They are part of the story for all Americans past and present.
July 1, 2008 1:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks to anyone that stopped by tonight. If you're out in the Northwest, or plan a trip to our region, you can find Willie Keil about an hour's drive north of Astoria, Oregon. Here's a picture of his grave.
http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5453
History seemed so powerful to me last Saturday. Breathing real air on this trail. The one grave only, the others having gone on.
June 30, 2008 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great story, Donnerpass. I'm more interested in George Washington Bush though. Always have been. My whole family is interested in him. I'll be in OR wed of next week for a vacation and to see family - Salem, Eugene, Portland and Hood River. Then to Spokane and then Seattle to see my spouse's family. Sure, gas prices are high, but we are driving once we get into Portland. Easier that way.
July 1, 2008 12:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hear you about GW Bush. One account has it that when he got to Fort Vancouver and found that he couldn't go south because the new government of Oregon had banned free blacks, that he went north. The other account I've seen says that he always knew that he's settle on that side of the Columbia having been there before as a guide and trapper.
Anyway, since my trek on Saturday, a friend of mine has come up with the link to his real grave.
http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/historicalunionpioneercemeteries.htm
I'm going to visit it in the next few weeks.
I've been most interested in Moses Black Harris, whom I suspect would know if you follow these fellows.
I'm traveling both sides of the Columbia River these days. I'm interested in how the decision to ban both slavery and free blacks from Oregon (like Moses Harris, a mountaineer who led many folks into Oregon), while what is today Washington state
was open to free blacks, played out in history. Some of that is quite evident in Oregon, as you know, a state that to this day has remained mostly white.
July 1, 2008 12:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
a bit of a P.S. My mother's people settled in the Spokane region in the 1880's.
July 1, 2008 12:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, Oregen is mostly white. I not only lived it but felt it, while growing up there. I'm Blackfeet, Chinese, Irish mix on my mama's side and Gullah, Nez Perce, Russian and French on my pa's side. Needless to say, we all came out rather on the dark side and very visible in a place like OR. Spouse is a gringo through and through. We hope to move back soon, some day.
I'm aware of Moses Harris. I'm also interested in America Bogle ne Waldo. What has always amazed me about this group of people is how generous they were and how they got along with their community and also how successfull they were. I do wonder about the ones who were excluded from society and therefore never made it into the recognized list. I too am interested in that time and how that decision played out in that region. Any suggestion as to what you are reading that you find interesting? Care to share?
July 1, 2008 1:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
oh yeah, forgot to mention another interest - william livingston.
July 1, 2008 2:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cricket. The only book that comes to mind is a short bio on Moses Black Harris. It's a monograph really. I don't have the name at my fingertips, but when I come across it, I'll find you online and give it up. I run constant searches on EBAY find matieral there. That's how I happened on this "book." The materials I've been working with have been internet entries, original source materials (marriage records for example) and many interviews. My work includes Native Americian Tribes in Oregon and Washington, so in that sphere there are many books. Interviews also. The internet remains the best entry for research as it leads to so many sources and the volume of new entries grows each day. I also have the luxury of a research person. I've been working on-and-off in this area for about 5 years. This area is one in a greater set of concerns for my work, but I do have the luxury of having periods devoted completely to it.
An important source are the oral histories at WSU:
http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/xblackoralhistory.ht
The Bogle/Waldo material is found there.
Daniel Waldo is of interest to me as a participant at the Battle of Abiqua, an encounter hidden by the participants for most of their lives because of the killing of women, childred (Native American)at the encounter. This is all internet based though it include two published "confessions" from newpaper accounts.
So, the material is known (what can be known) from a multitude of many sources. My work in this area is background for yet another project, and my sources (with links) should be online in a year or so. Any specific questions you have, you are welcome to send to me at TCARPMAN@Gmail.com. I may not have more than you on any one question. On the Boogle/Waldo stories someone will have to do some poking around in original records. I haven't done that, but it's on my list.
People pursuing the material usually meet up online. Some share, some don't. I do, believing that history belongs to us all.
And finding it is a community effort. I consider all searchers to be historians.
You certianly should check out the posts of R. Goins here, since several deal with his research into his mixed race family starting with slaves and Native Americans circa 1830 in the Virginias.
donnerpass
July 1, 2008 6:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
LINK wrong, sorry
WSU Oral history link for Bogle/Waldo material.
www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/Holland/MASC/finders/cass2.htm
July 1, 2008 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
crickcrick, what's more important now, that you worry about which character spoke, or that you have the link? What would you say if I told you I wouldn't have the damn link, and many, many others without my actors? If pissed, don't click on the click. If really pissed, click on it girl, and get on with your magnificent journey of discovery. Come back and tell us what you've found.
July 1, 2008 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
What matters about history --especially radical history -- is that you find a way to restore the names that have been forgotten. Benign methods of that transmission, as I have done at TPM, and particularly with the history of the civil rights movement, is find ways to make an impact, and, also to make the communication of history a but fun.
One of the ways history and ideas have been best remembered are through purposeful written dialogue between two characters. Written by one hand.
History is a universal voice that has forgotten many of its speakers, although their words are right before us. Trying to get history right is tough. Trying to get people to read it and remember what they know is tougher. Trying to restore the names of all those who have been purposefully forgotten is, perhaps, the hardest task of all.
July 1, 2008 9:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
While history is a matter of getting facts straight, by nature of communication it is also mythic. The most important events are mythic, and the deeper the myth, the greater the chance for doing good or ill.
Before print, myth and history were communicated in song and its fine sister, poetry.
July 1, 2008 9:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've often wondered about this, levi. On one hand, to have it on the pages is to have a record of it for generations to come. On the other hand, it loses its ability to grow and evolve, as it can when passed down in the verbal tradition. And, we've come to live in a society that takes verbal stories with a grain of salt but treats the written histories as "reliable sources." Are they?
July 1, 2008 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well I would say that you have it exactly right.
The great read on that for the relationship between the oral tradition and the exactitude of print is Marshall Mcluhan's "Guttenberg Galaxy. The most important scientist/artist for relieving the terrors of getting things wrong was Claude Lévi-Strauss.
Joseph Campbell has done a fine job in reasserting what was realized by the end of the 19th century in the West, yet had been known by humanity from the beginning- that artists and shamans, because of the ability to sense change and then communicate that change before others were aware, have always predicted what is to come, especially what will terrify.
July 1, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Communicating ideas these days requires some new combination of humor and anger. Except for the focused interest on something that relates immediately to the reader, most people are not interested in the broad arcs that make history, and, indeed that have made us.
Why does it take such drama? I'm thinking that history has become encrusted through sheer accumulation of facts, many of them wrong or zapped to remove context, and that new ways to get stories across are the name of the game. Ultimately, like myth itself, history is just storytelling.
The greatest challenge for me, is to find the mythic characterizations within myself to break down my own sense of that encrusting, and reassemble new stories that are true in both ways-history in the modern sense and mythic in the universal sense.
The actors are unimportant. Respect them, hate them, that is of no consequence. It mattered not whether you like donnerpass or
cypher or levi. What mattered is that you remember some of what they said, and perhaps their attempts to unlock either humor or anger on a path to somewhere else.
All of us are actors. Many of us have been made to forget how creative we are as characters in the world. Creativity thrives in chaos, conflict, charm and anger. In grows also through adoration, as the various love affairs with Obama and Hillary have shown. Rejected lovers have a tough time. Takes a while to breath again. The choice is most often, close down and don't be hurt again, or open more raw and ready for the next myth. Since all is illusion, the end game is to kill desire through desire. To get to a place of rest before your last breath so you can breath a bit utterly free and sing some wild song of what has happened to you and your kin.
As you change this stage to keep your group small and confine
them to some official script, you have closed down your theater and made it something else. That is what the Soviets did. And the results were mostly grey. In America we made a new theater.
New songs, too. And damn good ones.
Peace
July 1, 2008 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd say that the characters do play a role. Aren't we more likely to remember what someone said if we aren't indifferent to that person?
History just storytelling. Seems like that's what the aim should be, but is too often not. Rather, it is approached as an accumulation of fact. Why the need for drama? Well, great parts of history are indeed dramatic. To leave out that bit is what dries it up. Makes it boring to so many. The best stories simply are dramatic. We so easily remember the literature that moves us, or lyric that moves us, but so easily forget the histories that are learned in a rote manner. Drama stays with us. Be it tragedy or comedy, history is a story of the people. To take the people out of it, is to leave it without the foundation, without the backbone.
July 1, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've gotta agree with you here. What's true anyway? Stories I get from meeting people across the land always have a better ring to them than half the stuff you get outta the pages.
Plain folks. The best stories. Usually quite a bit under what seems like a regular Joe. Family histories usually the best. How they got here. What they did. Where they traveled, what they saw. All people need to get into them is a friend with a good ear. Hell, sometimes they even surprise themselves with what they remember.
July 1, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a question for you Drifter, the hobo. Can you get those stories only on the internet or do you have to hop a train? Illegal by the way, as is vagrancy in general.
July 1, 2008 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess some of them are out there on the Internet now. Some sites better than others. Lotta people getting into family histories now that so much can be found without doing the old-style legwork it used to entail.
But, it still goes without saying that sometimes you gotta hop a train to get the best stories, the ones that aren't on the internet cause they ain't been found yet.
You miss a lot on the Internet. The musty smell of the old libraries. The lines on the old courthouses. People you meet traveling the same path but lookin for different answers. In those places, you really feel history. Kinda become a part of it.
Those old attics and trunks have the best stuff of all. Trunks that crossed the oceans, traveled the rails, filled with relics of times past. That's the kinda stuff that fills the gaps on the stories you find online. Can't do it any other way.
July 1, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Illegal, yes, but the risks are worth the costs. The cops can never keep up, but you gotta watch out for those bulls.
I'm headin out to Iowa end of summer. Always a good time in the Jungle. Campfires. Stories. The spirit. You'd like it, Donner.
July 1, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Iowa. No mountains, but all that corn-touched land and farm folk.
Sounds good. 'Bout three months by wagon I suspect from the Cascades. But if I caught a box car that would be quicker, though I'd have to put up with the hobos.
What's gas going for out there? Is that bio-fuel thing going good?
July 1, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where has this guy been in the last months? You should be working this up for a post !
July 1, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
People discussing radical history on reader blogs at TPM?! Wow, what a fab thread! Too bad my blogtime is up.
My work now is drastically different from what I used to be interested in and studied, namely radical history and to collect oral histories and take history out of Archivistan. Myths and oral story telling are the counter-memory to the logocentric Archivistan. Some of the authors of late on TPM books have been tangentially dealing with this stuff too.
I wish you would post more often. Have you posted before? I don't remember you. That's not saying much though since I skip over so many of the reader blogs.
This is way cool! I'll look for your posts in the future. Please post some more.
July 1, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems to me that you are someone to post now. You have it exactly right in my view. Bring it on. I'll read you.
July 1, 2008 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, donnerpass has been around for a while. Mostly commenting.
Good to see you again, Ms. ex-Zebra. Have you ever looked into the treatment of history in former communist countries, where much of history - and especially recent history - was systematically and deliberately suppressed or altered, with oral or underground sources being the only alternative?
July 1, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Code,
I just got a message for you flashing on my screen. Is it flashing on yours?
Watch it ! We know where you code. We'll throw your leader out a window if you're not careful. We're not done yet.
July 1, 2008 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not funny at all donner. You're trying to crack a joke about the KGB showing up? Should have been just, hello, KGB calling.
July 1, 2008 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
How cool is the word and land of "Archivistan?"
July 1, 2008 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
History is full of half-forgotten stories.
For example (and it is just an illustrative example) a while ago I came across the very interesting story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre
A friend of mine who grew up in a Mormon family had never heard of this story... for perhaps understandable reasons.
And that makes me wonder. If there are so many almost forgotten or suppressed stories, how many are there waiting to be rediscovered? How many stories are forgotten for good and will never be heard or read again? We'll never even know.
July 1, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Half-forgotten. A good way to put it.
For everyone remembered, thousands forgotten. But the re-telling of what is half-forgotten or unknown, and writing it in this new way possible in an interconnected world, and with all the possibilities of greater context, we remember the forgotten though a kind of intellectual but mythic monument. The tomb of the unknown soldier seems one to me, though it has a real body as the starting energy of its myth.
I don't want to stir up anything as I head out, having accepted the closing of this theater for my bunch, but could someone claiming to be the spirit of America's unknown soldier post at TPM without scorn?
July 1, 2008 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Very true, Codegen. I've been fascinated by the layers of history throughout even our relatively young country. The national history loses history on the state level, which loses history on the local level. So many stories that the locals know that never make it to the books. Or, from those who were there and never have a venue to tell their stories.
July 1, 2008 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Come Back Code ! It's never fun without you !
A thread is just an island without a fountain !
July 1, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Code, The Mormons are interesting in many ways. First off, if they could follow important laws about children, I'm not sure that the constitution doesn't allow them their freedom for plural marriage.
But the other idea, is that following the Mormons gives the chance to experience the wonder of the beginning of a religion, and to read about it and see it as it grows, regulates its myth, and gathers power through violence and commerce. IN other words, the story of most religions.
The demonization of the Mormons as a cult by Christian America is an attempt at cultural genocide, the very kinds of oppression that Christians and Jews came to America to escape. Of course I speak as a person involved in kinds of multi- personal relationships, so I may be biased.
July 1, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, this looks like a conversation I'm sad I seem to have missed.
Tales from a fellow traveler. Always new things discovered on the road.
Anyone still around?
July 1, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Always for a drifter. What's on you mind?
July 1, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Still here also. This is one of the more fascinating conversations I've had here recently.
July 1, 2008 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can you expand on what you've been thinking in your process, and where you might go with it? Also, can you remember some special instance that caused the questions to begin, or has it been a gradual emergence or some combination?
July 1, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is this question directed at me or Drifter? The ambiguity of the comment software...
July 1, 2008 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
For you actually.
July 1, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
A good question, one I'm not sure I have an exact answer to. I suppose it has been a gradual emergence. A confluence of factors, I suppose.
Some of the things would be observing cultural differences in the various geographical parts of the country as they are today, and discovering the roots of those differences. Following my own family history, as well, has led me to various places, both in America and abroad. I've made it a habit of mine to stop in bookstores in various towns and cities that I visit, as they usually have a local interest section containing local history that is entirely absent in other areas of the country, as well as on a national level. In finding those, I am often amazed at the stories one simply has never heard of before. To get together with friends who live across the country and share local stories and histories is a conversation that could easily span weeks.
Its a phenomenon that's quite understandable, as the longer we exist on this planet, the more history is compiled. How much can we actually teach and learn? Choosing one specific geographical location, a state or a town, with a rich and deep history, can lead you to months if not years of research.
Another point of interest for me is the different ways that history is taught depending on where it is being taught. For instance, are there, if any, differences between how the Civil War, slavery, and/or civil rights are taught between the North and the South? Or outside of America altogether? What differences are there in understanding American history between the East Coast and the West?
Another interesting comparison to be made is the difference between families that traveled west in the pioneer days and the ones that remained in the east. Examining the reasons for the travel and how it affected the family, or still affects the family, is a most intriguing question.
July 1, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Everything you say here is vividly realized, and your methods as you travel right on from my perspective. Each of your points seems a departure for exploration. All interest me, and I'd hope that you'd post them. I'd have to hope also that the pieces would be recommended. But it's always worth a try.
I think that the great travel writers are a model for what you're thinking. V.S. Naipaul for one, the great novelist whose travel pieces are amazing. I like Robert Kaplan's work from the 90's very much, though he's dismissed on the left as a neo-con and has been put on the most recent Stalinist list of banned books. I've mentioned him on TPM a number of times and been burnt alive by people who have not read him --always such an uplifting dialogue.
Interesting with both these writers, is how their political beliefs affect their rendering of events past and present as they travel.
July 1, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
A caution on a particular site for Black Pioneers.
This site has a lot of info on Black Pioneers. It also has some stuff about the early migrations and language in the Americas. As best as I see, those are really quite wrong, and fanciful.
The issue of what can use from the internet for careful scholarship is demonstrated here. Ya gotta check things out....the source.
Yet you may find good links here also.
http://ftp.wi.net/~maracon/lesson5.html
July 1, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
A good link to begin a journey of restoring forgotten names of non-White pioneers to the history of the West:
http://www.endoftheoregontrail.org/blakbios.html
July 1, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
You should check out the story of Ray Leonard. Tough lady, that one.
July 1, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
link?
July 1, 2008 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's one that's pretty good -
http://www.geocities.com/niftynats/raeleonard.html
Can't remember where I first heard about her now.
July 1, 2008 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great history. You should post this for discussion. That would be a good one !
July 1, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a link that shows the process of rediscovery, restoring names and HONOR.
http://www.salempioneercemetery.org/fop_event_detail.php?id=6
July 1, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
A wonderful site with lists of who was on certain wagon trains, and also the presence of G Bush among whites on the trail.
http://www.peak.org/~mransom/a2m.html
July 1, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Another fascinating aspect of his travels west were his actions once he got there, in welcoming new arrivals as well as his relations with the local tribes.
This is one case where the Wiki doesn't do him justice. ;)
July 1, 2008 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tell more, if you will. You beat the Wiki every time.
July 1, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Donnerpass! Good to see you posting again, friend.
July 1, 2008 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hello Hilary. I'm really going this time, you know. My old pal Billy Glad and I have had enough, some reasons the same, others not, and our trails now diverge. He stays on in a new role. I head out.
But he's been my pal, and a loyal one. And damn funny. I'll miss him on the trail. You've been a pal too.
But we have a last chance to sit by the fire. Cold at the beach?
July 1, 2008 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
hmmm...hmmm...hmmm..
July 1, 2008 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
He's doing that three-fold Hindu hum again, reducing the world to sound, reminding me to get on with it as time is an illusion. This is the kind of fellow that can be trouble on a wagon train, but can get you out of trouble also, as he's good at the chanting shaman routine. Good with the other tribes. They sing as much as the speak.
July 1, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
As we tidy things up here today, just some words that are very true. I've made my way through this place by speaking with what I consider a very strong and truthful voice. I take my crew with me, and I'm leaving no one. If it ain't me and the boys, it ain't me. Mrs No Pic too. That's the truth. Especially for Billy who recognizes a true voice when he hears one. If donner comes back down the line, that's him. Any silence inbetween is total silence from my trail.
July 1, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I enjoyed the story. Thx for posting it.
July 1, 2008 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for reading.
July 1, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great to catch this. Thanks Donner.
July 3, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink