Janet McCloud, 1934-2003: Indian activist put family first By LEWIS KAMB
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERYELM -- Listen: "The woman who talks" has passed into the Spirit World; meeting death so quietly, but carried by loud rhythms of love all around her. Death's approach for weeks silenced the voice of Janet McCloud -- or, "Yet-Si-Blue" -- an Indian word for
"the woman who talks" -- as she was known here, and all around the world.


HOWARD STAPLES/P-I/1968
Janet McCloud experienced a vision and traveled the world to spread her message of Native spirituality.

McCloud, a prominent figure in this state's "fish wars" of the 1960s and '70s, which led to precedent-setting federal law and guaranteed half the salmon and steelhead catch for Washington tribes, died Tuesday evening. She was 69.

Bedridden and muted by complications from diabetes and high blood pressure in her final weeks, she was joined by family members at her home hours before her death.

For the master orator, prolific writer and political activist -- a woman who helped shape state history, resurrected Indian spirituality for many and empowered the civil rights movement of native peoples worldwide -- silence seemed an ironic finale."When she spoke," daughter Barbara McCloud said Tuesday, just outside the bedroom where her mother died only hours later, "everybody listened."
But even McCloud couldn't have told a better ending.Surrounded by family and friends in her final hours, here, at Sapa Dawn Center -- her home and a spiritual center for so many native people for so many years -- the void left by her failing voice and body was filled with sounds of love.

Pots and pans clanked, babies cried, phones rang, doors opened and closed. Footsteps paraded across floorboards as her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren joined a veritable Who's Who in Indian country to gather here over the past two months and accompany "Yet-Si-Blue" on her final journey.

"She taught us so much about life," Barbara said. "Now she's teaching us about dying. ...
We're all here to tell her, 'It's OK to make the transition into the next life. Don't be scared.' " Janet McCloud rarely was.

A life of challengeBorn on the Tulalip Reservation on March 30, 1934, Janet Renecker, the oldest of three girls and a descendent of Chief Seattle's family, lived a nomadic childhood marked by poverty and alcohol abuse.

Throughout her early years, she and her family moved often -- from Tulalip to Taholah on the Quinault Reservation and, later, to Seattle's International District. Her stepfather drank and had trouble finding work.
She often took refuge in churches and foster homes, spending much of her formative years in the city -- mainly out of touch with tribal customs and traditions, family members say.

"She thought taverns and drinking was the only way in life," Barbara McCloud said. She married and divorced young before meeting a Nisqually tribal fisherman and electrical lineman named Don McCloud in the early 1950s. The couple soon married, and together would parent eight children -- six girls and two boys.


HOWARD STAPLES / P-I/1976

At a 1976 news conference, Janet McCloud and rights activist Dick Gregory call for an investigation at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Then, with the onset of the 1960s -- about the time the family had settled on a rural plot near the Nisqually Reservation in Yelm -- McCloud would be awakened to Native civil rights and spirituality.

On Jan. 6, 1962, dozens of state game wardens stormed a group of Indians fishing the Nisqually River, arresting five men, including some of McCloud's relatives, for illegal fishing. The conflict was nothing new: Despite tribal treaties with the federal government that dated back more than a century and guaranteed fishing and hunting rights to Indians in their traditional tribal lands and waters, state agents periodically squared off with Native Americans.

But as salmon and steelhead numbers began dwindling in the 1960s, the state began exerting more authority over tribal fisheries, attempting to conserve the catch for the commercial- and sport-fishing industries. Injunctions were issued allowing the state to regulate tribal fisheries, and the state Supreme Court upheld them.

Indians began mobilizing. The McClouds founded the activist group Survival of American Indians Association. And, in defiance of court orders, members began staging demonstrations dubbed "fish-ins."

Joining her husband; his stepbrother, Nisqually tribal member Billy Frank, Jr.; Puyallup Indian Bob Satiacum; and others, Janet McCloud helped organize the protests at the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers, into which tribe members cast traditional nets deemed illegal by the state. Invariably, the "fish-ins" would lead to raids and arrests at the hands of game agents. But the events drew worldwide attention.

Indian elders and activists converged on Washington. Actor Marlon Brando and rights activist Dick Gregory came here, joined fish-ins and lent their celebrity to the cause. And the Black Panthers stood side-by-side with Indians in protests at the state Capitol.

All the while, Janet McCloud documented the struggle as editor of Survival News -- a newsletter that presented the natives' side of the fish wars. She found an old mimeograph machine at a local thrift store, brought it home and recruited her children to help.

"All us kids would be all right here, sorting and stapling all the papers together, late into the night," daughter Sally McCloud recalled.

Janet's children also stood on the battle lines.

During one famous fish-in at Frank's Landing on the Nisqually on Oct. 13, 1965, a boat carrying several native fishermen, including Janet's husband and two sons, set a tribal net in the river as game wardens lay in waiting. "From the other side of the river shouts were heard: 'Get em! Get the dirty S.O.B.s!" McCloud wrote later. "In the twinkling of an eye, three big powerboats emerged from the underbrush, were quickly launched and used to ram the Indians' boat."

Her son, Jeff McCloud, not yet 10 and a non-swimmer, was dumped in. A scuffle broke out on the shore, where native women and children had gathered peacefully to watch the demonstration. They pelted wardens with debris, while game agents wrestled and beat some of the protesters.

"If Mom knew that was going to happen, she would've never brought us there," daughter Nancy Shippentower Games said. Six people were arrested, including Don and Janet McCloud. She served six days and refused to eat while incarcerated.

Eventually, the Indians' efforts paid off. On Feb. 12, 1974, U.S. District Judge George Boldt ruled in favor of 14 treaty tribes, upholding the language of their treaties that entitled them to half the salmon and steelhead catch in Washington.

A callingAlong with catapulting her into the status of civil rights leader, the fish wars brought Janet McCloud in touch with her native spirituality. One time, while her husband was jailed for a fish-in, McCloud, who had been a practicing Catholic, experienced a vision at her Yelm home.

"She couldn't rely on the white man's religion; it was hurting her," her daughter-in-law, Joyce McCloud, recalled. "That's when she saw the vision: She was looking out at Mount Rainier, and she saw all the faces of the great chiefs." McCloud believed it to be a calling.

In the late 1960s, she met Thomas Banyacya, an internationally known Hopi spiritual interpreter, who taught her to search for answers in peace. She befriended Audrey Shenandoah, an Iroquois Indian and Clan Mother of the Onondaga Nation in New York, and adopted Iroquois religious beliefs on nature.

"She was always speaking her mind, not backing down for anything," said Tracy Shenandoah, who with his mother came to Yelm to be with McCloud.

During the 1970s, McCloud spread the message of native spirituality and human rights worldwide. She traveled the globe, speaking about indigenous women's rights and social justice, and she served as delegate to a national conference on corrections, urging prisons to adopt native spirituality traditions forIndian inmates.

Her uncle, Pete Henry, explained why McCloud's grandmother gave her the Indian name, "Yet-Si-Blue." "She had become a spokeswoman for Indian culture. That was the perfect name."

But it was McCloud's love of family that always brought her home. At the sprawling 10-acre homestead, dozens of native movements were born, including precursors to the American Indian Movement and the Indigenous Women's Network, family members said. "People would come here, and they'd want to touch her or hug her," daughter Julie Van Every said. "But Mom never looked at herself being a celebrity."

After Don McCloud died of cancer in 1985, Janet dubbed the homestead "Sapa Dawn Center." Meaning "grandfather dawn," Janet envisioned it as a tranquil retreat for native children to escape street and reservation life. Soon hundreds of kids whom she "adopted" flocked here, learning to live in a natural way.

For McCloud, her family -- eight children, 25 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and countless others who called her "Grandma" -- always came first. "She was the greatest mother who ever lived -- above any movement she was involved in," daughter Binah McCloud said.

At 8:11 p.m. Tuesday, with her family gathered bedside, Janet McCloud died. She had been dressed in traditional garb by her granddaughters, and wrapped in a handmade quilt.

"The woman who talks" passed with dignity, daughter Nancy said, without saying a word. She didn't need to. Her words were heard loudly in life, and they will continue to be in death.

REMEMBERING A LIFE A wake for Janet McCloud will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, at the Chief Leschi School gymnasium on the Puyallup Indian Reservation. Family members ask that donations, cards or wishes be sent in
"Memory of Janet McCloud," to Binah McCloud, 1013 Crystal Springs Road, Yelm, WA, 98597
or Nancy Games, 1187 Rhoton Court, Yelm, WA, 98597

P-I reporter Lewis Kamb can be reached at 206-448-8336 or lewiskamb@seattlepi.com

Janet McCloud: Mother, grandmother and activist, 1934 - 2003
Posted: December 05, 2003 - 11:42am EST
by: Redwing Cloud / CorrespondentOLYMPIA, Wash. - The strength of a nation lies in the honor of the people it births. Janet McCloud, born into the family of Chief Seattle in 1934 of the Tulalip Tribes has exemplified this statement throughout her life by speaking to the nations of the world about the injustices committed against American Indians and actively resisting racism.McCloud’s childhood was not an easy one. She was panhandling by the age of six in downtown Seattle. "Mom told us how she panhandled at such a young age and that that was the reason she never passed a panhandler by without giving them something," said her son, Don McCloud Jr. (Mac).Janet attended several public schools and was eventually shuttled off to a boarding school at the age of 13. Her teen years were spent cleaning houses and babysitting for a living. In 1950 she married a river fisherman, Don McCloud Sr., a Puyallup Indian. Their marriage lasted 35 years until his death in 1985.Those beginning years were about survival for the McClouds. In 1965, non-Indians opposed to Indian fishing rights jailed Janet and five others for protesting against the unfair treatment of Natives and their inherent right to fish and hunt. A net was set in the Nisqually River at Frank’s Landing and mayhem broke out as the game wardens surrounded them, beat and arrested the protesting Indians. She explained, "I didn’t mind going to jail so much until Edith, my sister-in-law, said, ‘And we’re not eating either’ … that was my first fast and we went six days without eating. They’d bring lima beans with ham, fried potatoes, and everything I loved." She could smell those good foods but wouldn’t eat them. It made the fast more difficult.These protests were dubbed "fish-ins" and eventually led to the upholding of the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854 and Washington State tribes being granted 50 percent of the salmon and steelhead catch.About this time she had a vision while gazing out her kitchen window. She said, "I heard a voice that sounded like Crazy Horse telling me not to be afraid. It said I wasn’t alone and that I was being protected. I felt the voice so strong that all my fear and sadness went away. It’s where I got my strength to face hostile audiences and all the adversity."A journey began after that revelation of trying to change the view the dominant society had created of the First People. Her fierce love for her people increased as the years went by. She was given the name Yet Si Blue in ceremony, meaning "Woman Who Speaks Her Mind."Janet founded the Survival of the American Indian Association in 1964. In 1965 she developed a cultural rehabilitation program at McNeil Island State Prison. It became a model for prisons throughout the United States called the Brotherhood of American Indians. In 1974 she helped organize the first Spiritual Unity Gathering of the Iroquoian medicine men, White Roots of Peace at Snoqualmie Falls. Soon after she helped organize the Elder’s Circle that still meets every year during the summer. In that same decade she founded the Northwest Indian Women’s Circle that assisted women in developing leadership skills based on traditional values. She was also a member of the Native American Rights Fund, a 40-member team set up to develop an Indian legal redress system. Janet was also an advocate for the American Indian Movement and considered the people her family. In 1985, she organized the Indigenous Women’s Network, a group of Native American and Pacific Islander women to help Native children have a better life.In 1989, she founded the Sapa Dawn Center to teach Native Americans self-sufficiency though gardening, food preservation, native ceremonies, prayer, arts, crafts and writing.Janet was a natural born teacher all her life and applied that skill as a professional at the Northwest Indian College in 2001 on the Nisqually Indian Reservation.Her roles of community leader, renowned activist, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother prompted Choctaw son-in-law, Jimbo Simmons of the International Treaty Council and Isadaor Tom Jr. of the Tulalip Tribes to speak to the family of a celebration honoring her achievements and compassion.Mac McCloud said, "… [Janet] was the only woman that would make the men try to do right, and sit up and pay attention. Not too many people had that kind of respect and he remembered that."Continuing Mac said, "At one time people came here for help. We were the only Indians that had a telephone and sweat lodge in the area. Mom never did anything for money and that’s why people wanted to honor her. That’s really all you have is your honor and if you don’t have honor, no one is going to honor you."The family held an honor celebration with the Puyallup Tribe for Janet on Sept.19. There were approximately 200 people in attendance. Many people spoke of her influence on their lives.Her children spoke of their upbringing during the ceremony and what their parents had instilled in them. One daughter Sally said chuckling, "They said we had to be tough and if we were going to be dumb, we had to be real tough. Janet’s eight children stood right beside her as she fought for the fishing rights of the Natives. They remember her strength and her generosity. Barbara said, "I remember my mom getting us together and making baskets to give to the poor even though we were poor and I remember her making up boxes to send to the soldiers during the Vietnam War.""People who knew Janet really got some enlightenment about law and history, got a good meal and a good cup of coffee; they were kind of tuned up to what was happening in the world and some of them went off and did something," said Mac. "Mom taught us that you have to speak up in life. You can’t sit on the side and think someone else is going to do your talking for you. If you don’t become the squeak or noise in the people’s ears then nobody is going to hear you," he said.Janet loved children and concerned herself with their welfare. Nancy, another daughter said, "She brought kids into our home that didn’t have a place to go even though she had eight children of her own."Throughout the years in speeches and actions, Janet likened life to a garden. She instructed her children to believe that whatever you put into the ground you had to take care of. She taught the people to pray, to cook, to fish, to can and that life was an adventure.This article was completed at 7 p.m. on Nov. 25. Janet McCloud began her "long home journey" at 8:11 p.m.Janet is survived by eight children, 25 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and many beloved adopted children.Services were held at Chief Leschi School in Puyallup Washington on Nov. 29. Dennis Banks, Don Hatch, Jr. and Wilmer Stampede Mesteth officiated the ceremony. Many people spoke of their love and honor for her.Mac McCloud summed it up, "Our breath is the gift our mother gave us to share with others. When anyone goes to the beyond, we are all affected because we are all connected." His wife, Joyce McCloud added these final words, "Janet’s work will live on through her grandchildren because they don’t want their children to miss what they learned from their grandma."