Book review: 'The Ravaged Forest, A Native Woman’s Journey to Justice'

“The Ravaged Forest, A Native Woman’s Journey to Justice,” is a self-published book written by Olympia author Sandra A. Crowell. As implied by the subtitle, the book tells the life story of a Native American woman, itself a much-neglected subject. This book is important for this reason alone. But it is much more than that. 

Crowell’s book is written in a style that may be grating to some readers. It’s personal and chatty, with many quotes from characters interspersed in the text. Thus, it is an easy-to-read story. Some who prefer a more analytical approach to history might be put off by this, but I urge you to persist. Important and poorly documented historic themes await discovery here.  

Helen Sanders was born in 1927 and raised on the Chehalis Indian Reservation located in Thurston County’s southwest corner. Crowell’s book gives the reader insight into what life was like for the Sanders family beginning before the 1930s and continuing to the present day. Thus, it’s a valuable contribution to our understanding of our neighbors, who are often almost invisible in our county’s history.  

The first one-third of the book relates the history of the coming of American settlers and Indian treaties through the lens of what these events meant to one family. It illustrates an important theme very well. These Indians were not then separated into what we now call tribes.  

Rather, they lived as interrelated extended families; the Sanders family had kinship and cultural links throughout all of Southwest Washington, from Willapa Bay to Quinault to the Nisqually River. And these familial ties are not something of the past; they play out today through family reunions, weekends dinners, ball tournaments and elder exchanges between reservations. 

It is indicative of this inter-connectedness that Helen Sanders, a lifelong resident of the Chehalis Reservation, becomes enrolled in the Quinault Tribe and rises to a leadership role, including election to the tribal council. From there she enters the national sphere of Indian politics and contributes to a major U.S. Supreme Court decision. 

The last two-thirds of Crowell’s book are devoted to something vital to all Indians — the land. It relates how in the mid-1880s, through the General Allotment Act, reservation land was divided into parcels, allotted to individual Indians’ ownership, and then held in trust for them by the United States, acting through its Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).  

The Quinault Indian Reservation, established by treaty in 1856, is located along the Quinault River between Lake Quinault and the Pacific Ocean. Since there was abundant open forested land on this reservation, portions of it were allotted to Indians that had not received land elsewhere. Helen Sanders' ancestors were included in this allotment. 

“They Tried to Cut It All: Grays Harbor--turbulent Years of Greed and Greatness,” is a 1981 book by Edwin Van Syckle. It tells the story of the six decades of runaway timber harvests with no planning for the future. Crowell’s book adds an important addendum to this story — what this “timber rush” meant for Quinault Indians and allotment owners and what role the BIA, the Indians’ trustee, played.  

Here Helen’s story enters two new areas — the rapacious timber industry and the federal political arena. After 60 years, much of the available timber in Grays Harbor had been harvested. Now the mills turned their attention to the vast timber resources of the Quinault Reservation, and in particular the timber allotments. Crowell relates the great worth of this timber resource, both its ecological value and its timber (that is, cash) value, and the failure of the BIA to properly manage it. This, over time, turned a pristine wilderness into a “ravaged forest.”

Sanders started a small-scale logging company to compete with others who were, with the BIA’s indirect support, under-bidding to harvest reservation timber. She also got involved in the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), serving as both secretary and treasurer for a time. The NCAI, with Helen involved, was in battles to force the federal government, the BIA, to be accountable for implementation of treaty rights and proper land management. Sometimes the battle was fought out in the courts.   

Twice the legal question of the BIA’s responsibility to properly manage Quinault Indian forest allotments wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court — the cases are United States v. Mitchell I (1980) and United States v. Mitchell II (1983).  

The “Mitchell” in each case was Helen Sanders, having filed under her married name of Mitchell. Crowell tells of Sanders’ leadership in fighting to address the BIA’s failures. A vital element of leadership was Sanders’ ability to recruit attorneys that were willing, at their own expense, to argue these issues before the Indian Court of Claims, and then to the Supreme Court — twice. 

The second of these Mitchell decisions has had far reaching impacts. The Supreme Court held in Mitchell I that the federal government legally had no trust responsibility to manage Indian timber resources. It was an initial loss, but they fought on.  

In Mitchell II, the Supreme Court again addressed the BIA’s responsibilities, but the results were very different. First, the court reaffirmed that the BIA had no legal requirement to manage Indian-owned timber resources. But it also ruled that, should the BIA choose to undertake these management actions, then it was required to act responsibly and to the benefit of the Indian landowners. Should the BIA fail in these responsibilities, including caring for the proceeds of timber harvests, the Indian landowners had a proper and legal claim against the United States for losses and damages. 

This is the story that this small, self-published book has to tell. A woman, Helen Sanders, raised in economic poverty but possessing the strength and resilience she inherited from her ancestors, leads a fight for justice that results in a monumental Supreme Court decision. Today, the Mitchell Decision forms the backbone of legal support for Indians nationwide to pursue claims against the federal government over mismanagement of Indian lands and resources.  

Self-published books are sometimes difficult to find. There are multiple copies of “The Ravaged Forest” available at the Timberland Library. Also, you can find them for sale at Browsers Bookshop and Orca Books in downtown Olympia, and through online retailers.