Special Meeting with Candace Wellman

You Are Invited!

There will be a special meeting with author Candace Wellman and members of the Writing Our History Project (WOHP) at 11:30 am, Wednesday, September 27th in the community meeting room at the San Juan Island Library. Candace will be talking about her new book (Peace Weavers: Uniting the Salish Coast through Cross-Cultural Marriages) as well as discussing the art of researching the stories of Native women.

This is a fabulous opportunity for anyone who wants to document the story of Native women or one particular matriarch of the island.

WOHP meetings are always available to the public. RSVP asap if you are coming. Space is limited. Thank you!

If you want more information about Candace’s book, be sure not to miss her book talk in the evening, beginning at 7 am at the SJI Library.

About Candace and Peace Weavers:

While helping researchers at the Washington State Archives, Candace Wellman discovered that about 90 percent of all marriages in Whatcom County’s early decades were cross-cultural. The husbands included nearly every community founder and official. Yet when she studied the written chronicles, only white women were mentioned as founding mothers. It seemed many historians considered the indigenous women to be unknowable, unimportant, and uninteresting. She became determined to illuminate the hidden history surrounding these relationships. Producing her manuscript required eighteen years and close to two hundred collaborators.

An expert in research methods, sociology, history, and genealogy, Wellman began re-scrutinizing old sources and searching for new ones, particularly legal cases. Focusing on cross-cultural couples, she found evidence that, except in rare cases, local and regional historians stereotyped and ignored the Frontier West’s intermarried women. Peace Weavers challenges that viewpoint and Wellman hopes that her efforts will inspire others to re-examine the historical role played by those relationships.

The strategic cross-cultural marriages in Coast and Interior Salish families played a crucial role in regional settlement and spared Puget Sound’s upper corner from tragic conflicts. The four women profiled in Peace Weavers—Caroline Davis Kavanaugh, Mary Fitzhugh Lear Phillips, Clara Tennant Selhameten, and Nellie Carr Lane—exhibited exceptional endurance, strength, and adaptability. They ran successful farms and businesses and acted as cultural interpreters and mediators. Each wife’s story is unique, but together they and other intermarried women helped found Puget Sound communities and left lasting legacies. They were peace weavers.
–Mike Vouri, author, The Pig War: Standoff at Griffin Bay

Candace Wellman holds a B.A. in Sociology from Washington State University and a B.Ed. in History/Secondary Education from Western Washington University, and has pursued graduate work in sociology. Born and raised in Washington, the Bellingham resident is a local history consultant and speaks regularly about women’s history and regional settlement.

You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.