C. B. Suzen Timentwa papers, 1893-1999

C. B. Suzen Timentwa was born in 1883 in eastern Washington on the Colville Indian Reservation--the same reservation that the famous Nez Perce leader, Chief Joseph, was sent to in 1885 to live out the remainder of his life. Timentwa was thus born during an age when western Indians were very mobile, when traditions were prevalent, and when the United States government was still trying to contain rebel groups of Indians who refused to be cofined within the artificial cordons of reservations. Timentwa absorbed time-honored traditions while also adjusting to interaction with Anglo society. Although he received no formal education, he learned to read, write, and speak English in addition to his native language. English was not the only element of Anglo society he absorbed, he also assumed the Shaker religion. In fact, Timentwa provided land on his own allotment for the construction of the Colville Reservation's Shaker church. Little is known about Timentwa during the first twenty-five years of his life other than that he was known as Kinamilt, and not C. B. Suzen (Timentwa also signed his name once as Cow Boy Sh-sahna). In 1900 it was rumored he had a vision in which he saw people flying in the air and traveling on land much faster than could be done with a horse and buggy. The earliest record of Timentwa's activities dates from 1912, when he was sentenced to six months in jail for living in adultery with a woman named Lucy whose husband had been jailed for stealing a horse. When pressed to answer for his actions, Timentwa responded that he had to stay with Lucy to care for her three children. In 1914, Timentwa once again ran into trouble with the law when he was found guilty of drunkenness. By this time, Timentwa had earned himself an unsavory reputation among some, including the Colville Superintendent, who unflatteringly described him as a "chronic complainer," who gambled, drank, and participated in unprogressive activities such as protesting railroad construction, allotments, and the right of Anglos to purchase surplus tribal lands.

Although unpopular with the superintendent, Timentwa had no trouble finding support among his own tribe, and in 1919 he succeeded Charley Swimpkin as chief of the Methow Tribe. As a critic of young Indians and half-bloods who scorned tradition, Timentwa acquired the reputation of being bigoted and unreasonable. Timentwa, however, believed he was working for the betterment of the tribe. He believed that Indians were the original citizens of America and thus had original title to the land. According to Timentwa, Christopher Columbus had established an agreement with the Indians in 1492 which recognized the Indians' rights to all lands. Timentwa respected this legend as legal verification of his own claims and fought to preserve the integrity of Indian land holdings by contesting land sales to whites and the government's program to terminate the reservation. Timentwa also sought to preserve traditional hunting and fishing privilege and lobbied to establish fees for Anglo hunters who wanted to hunt or fish on the reservation. Along these lines, Timentwa wrote numerous letters in which he demanded the government compensate him and other Colville Indians who experienced decreased fish yields after the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. Timentwa also fought policies that allowed Indians to serve overseas in World War Two because he thought Indians should only defend their home soil and should not be required to risk their lives for a country that had taken so much from them.

Timentwa's good intentions could not obscure his bad behaviors, and in 1928 he was jailed for gambling. The following year, a group of younger Indians challenged Timentwa's chieftainship, claiming he was elected by Canadian Indians whose votes should not have counted. Younger Indians triumphed over Timentwa in 1937, when the Colville Reservation established a constitution and tribal council known as the Colville Business Council. The council challenged the authority that Timentwa could wield. The tribal council became the official governing body of the tribe. Timentwa preserved some of his power, however, by getting elected to the tribal council. Timentwa rarely attended the meetings and appears infrequently in the meeting minutes. His absences were often because he was bed-ridden. In fact, Timentwa's health was poor throughout the 1940s and he frequently mentioned his health in the letters which he continued to write up to his death in 1949.