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Topic: People's Histories

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Dorothea Nordstrand's Green Lake (Seattle) Memory: The Fish and the Vietnam Vet

In this People's History, Dorothea Nordstrand (1916-2011) recalls an early morning encounter between two Green Lake neighbors taking an early morning walk during the mid-1970s, a Vietnam Vet, and his ...

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Dorothy Graybael Scott Remembers Fire, Wind, Snow, and Floods at Cedar Falls, 1922-1940

This excerpted account of man-made and natural disasters at Cedar Falls (east King County) was originally recorded on June 15, 1993, as a part of the Cedar River Watershed Oral History Project. Doroth...

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Dr. Henry Smith's Letter from Snohomish County (December 1863)

Seattle physician Dr. Henry A. Smith (1830-1915) figures prominently in early Seattle history as a doctor, a writer, and a farmer. He has been credited with transcribing Chief Seattle's famous 1854 sp...

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Dr. Mom by Dorothea Nordstrand

In this People's History, Dorothea (Pfister) Nordstrand (1916-2011) recalls what "family medicine" meant at a time when professional health care was often not available.The Pfister family homesteaded ...

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Dr. Samuel Goldenberg recalls the campaign to liberalize Washington's abortion laws

Dr. Samuel Goldenberg (1921-2011), a Seattle psychologist, organized the Citizens' Abortion Study Group after being unable to help two of his patients obtain legal abortions in 1967. The group, later ...

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"Dream of a Devotee of Fashion": An essay for the Woman's Century Club Magazine by Emily Inez Denny (1899)

Emily Inez Denny (1853-1918) wrote this tongue-in-cheek essay on the perils of women's clothing to be read to fellow members of the Woman's Century Club. A daughter of Seattle pioneers David (1832-190...

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Drumheller, Daniel (d. 1925)

The writer of this article on Daniel Drumheller was Norman Bolker, a retired physician in Spokane who was interested in Western history. This story of one immigrant's battle with disease originally ap...

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Durham: A King County Coal Mining Town

This reminiscence of childhood in the King County coalmining town of Durham was written by Nina Elizabeth "Betty" (Morris) Falk in 1990-1991. Betty Morris (Falk), was born on March 26, 1920, in Tacoma...

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Edith Wilson Macefield: A House Is Your Home

When someone refuses to sell property while everyone around her does, it is known as a holdout. In China, holdout houses that remain while developments are built around them are called "dingzihu" or "...

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Elementary Level: Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle's parents were from tribes on both sides of Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River. He lived during a time of change for his people and the Puget Sound region. He welcomed the Collins and De...

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Elementary Level: Fort Walla Walla

Between 1818 and 1910, there were four outposts named Fort Walla Walla. The first Fort Walla Walla was established as a fur-trading post by the North West Company. The next two were built to house U.S...

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Elementary Level: Horses Change Life on the Columbia Plateau

Hundreds of years ago, the Native Americans who lived in Washington's Columbia Plateau region had no means of traveling on land other than walking. That all changed when local Indian groups began to a...

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Elementary Level: How the Land in Washington Was Formed

Land formations in Washington and the Pacific Northwest were a result of millions of years of changes in weather conditions and the environment. Glaciers and other geological forces created islands, m...

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Elementary Level: Kennewick Man

The skull and bones of a man who lived more than 9,000 years ago were discovered in 1996 near Kennewick. Archaeologists realized that these remains were very rare. Some wanted to have the opportunity ...

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Elementary Level: Legends from Washington State Tribes

For thousands of years, Native Americans preserved their history in a special way. They passed down their traditions and culture to the next generation by means of oral tradition -- or storytelling. A...

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Elementary Level: Makah Whaling

The culture and lifestyle of the Makah Indians is based on the sea. Their homeland is on the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington, along the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the coastli...

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Elementary Level: Marcus and Narcissa Whitman -- Missionaries of the Walla Walla Valley

Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were missionaries who came to the Walla Walla Valley from New York. They wanted to teach Indians about their religion. They also wanted the Indians to change the way they w...

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Elementary Level: Marmes Rockshelter

The Marmes Rockshelter was a very important archaeological find in Washington. Tools, human bones, and a cremation hearth more than 8,000 years old were discovered there. But scientists had a big prob...

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Elementary Level: Mount St. Helens Erupts

Mount St. Helens once was the fifth-highest mountain in Washington. Now, because of a huge eruption on May 18, 1980, it is only the 30th highest peak in the state. There were many signs that the mount...

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Elementary Level: Olmsted Parks of Seattle

By 1903, Seattle had five major public parks but city officials wanted more. They hired the Olmsted Brothers, a landscape architecture company from Massachusetts, to help create more parks. John C. Ol...

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Elementary Level: Prehistoric Animals in Washington

Over the past thousands of years, many varieties of mammals lived in what is now Washington. Several important fossils of prehistoric mammals have been discovered in different parts of the state. (Thi...

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Elementary Level: Princess Angeline, Daughter of Chief Seattle

Kikisoblu, the daughter of Chief Seattle was a friend to early Seattle pioneers. One of the pioneer women, Catherine Maynard, thought Kikisoblu should have a name that would let everyone know that she...

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Elementary Level: The Great Fire of Seattle

Early buildings in what is now the state of Washington were mostly constructed of wood. There were no organized fire departments and not much water that could be used in the event of fire. Seattle's d...

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Elementary Level: Transportation on Lake Washington

For thousands of years, people who lived on Lake Washington have used its waters in their daily lives. In the last 150 years, the methods of crossing the lake to transport goods and people from one si...

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