Karen M. James papers, 1980-2015

Karen M. James (1939-2016) was a cultural anthropologist who led a prolific career as a consultant for Native American tribes and other communities of the Pacific Northwest. She specialized in the areas of ethnographic and historical research, focusing on environmental issues in the Puget Sound area and Indian treaty rights. She also designed and implemented demographic studies and community surveys, and provided technical assistance to educators, planners, and consultants regarding the use of historical and archival materials. Her work is notable for its scope, depth, and application to areas of major cultural and economic importance for contemporary Native Americans. She worked with Pacific Northwest tribes, intertribal groups, community organizations, cultural leaders, and government agencies, often collaborating with professionals from diverse fields to integrate cultural and historical context into the consideration of complex issues.

Victor Martino was a friend, colleague, and business partner of Karen James since the early 1970s. He has had a significant role in the development of the Karen James Papers, both as a primary author of many of the documents themselves and as a curator of the archival and reference materials contained in the collection. Martino began his own collaboration with Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest in 1971, when he volunteered with the AmeriCorps VISTA program following his graduation from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where he earned his master’s in business administration. As a VISTA he helped the Skokomish Indian Tribe establish a central government office, develop programs and services, and initiate reservation economic development programs. He later embarked on an independent consulting career, continuing to work predominantly with the Skokomish Indian Tribe. His efforts were centered on planning, management, economic analysis, and historical research, with an emphasis on environmental issues.

James and Martino were frequent collaborators on a large number of projects from the early 1970s to the 2010s. They met while Martino worked as a VISTA on the Skokomish Reservation and quickly became friends and then colleagues. In 1975 they started a consulting company for the Skokomish Indian Tribe, with their research and planning enterprise centered in the areas of water resources, economic development, health and social services, land management, organization, information systems, and demography. They completed one of their first landmark projects in 1978 when they worked with the Skokomish to draft a new tribal constitution. They also conducted research projects in the areas of fisheries and land resources. The studies involved anthropological and historical research regarding the Skokomish Tribe's claim to tidelands bordering their reservation. Another of James and Martino’s major works began to take shape at this time, as they studied the impact of the Cushman hydroelectric dams built on the North Fork of the Skokomish River and their impact on the Skokomish Reservation and its treaty fishery.

From 1981 to 1991, James and Martino operated their namesake independent consulting agency. While the Skokomish Indian Tribe continued to be one of their main clients, they consulted with other Pacific Northwest tribal and non-tribal communities during this period. Examples of their efforts include drafting a 1982 report on the cultural history of the Haida people, an ethnic group native to Kasaan, Alaska. In 1983 they researched the Native American use of the Columbia River, particularly The Dalles Reservoir, and the impact of the 1957 flooding of Celilo Falls. They co-authored a report funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that outlined Native Americans’ use of Grays Harbor, Washington, in 1986. In this vein, they continued to study traditional use of land and water resources by the Skokomish and the Suquamish Indian tribes. James researched and prepared material for proposed litigation and served as an expert witness in litigation pertaining to Indian fishing rights in the Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She served as a consultant to the Skokomish, Suquamish, and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes, as well as the Bainbridge Island Japanese-American community, regarding the identification and preservation of historical materials for community archives and libraries. She was also a member of a research team studying traditional ways of dispute resolution in three Native American communities in the Puget Sound area.

From 1992 onward, James and Martino separated their consulting practices, yet continued to collaborate. James’ enterprise focused on providing legal counsel to Pacific Northwest Native American tribes with regard to a variety environmental and treaty rights issues. In separate projects throughout the 1990s, she produced reports on Native Americans in the Puget Sound drainage basin, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Grays Harbor, lower Columbia River, and Columbia Plateau. She worked as a consultant for the Point No Point Treaty Council and Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission on cultural resource issues, and for the Snohomish Indian Tribe in preparation of a report relating to their request for federal recognition. In the early 2000s, she researched material and served as an expert witness for the Port Gamble S’Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam, Elwha Klallam and Skokomish Indian Tribes in litigation pertaining to Indian shell fishing rights in the Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She spent the last decade of her career doing research and interviews to document the history of the Muckleshoot Indians, completing and delivering her manuscript to the tribe in 2013.

Martino’s consulting firm worked predominantly for the Skokomish Indian Tribe after 1992, where he continued to assist with the tribe’s intervention in the federal licensing proceedings for the Cushman hydroelectric project, which had developed into a nearly six billion dollar lawsuit against the City of Tacoma and United States government. From 1992 to 2001, Martino’s firm produced a total of 12 reports in support of the Skokomish Indian Tribe’s litigation. James continued to serve as a consultant in the issue, doing research and reports as an expert witness.

A major joint effort of James and Martino during the mid-1990s was their work for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation, in what became known as the “Colville Tribes History Project” (see Colville Book series). They were contracted to produce a comprehensive history of the reservation, beginning with its tribes’ pre-colonial history, going through the periods of colonization, reservation enrollment, and allotments of land, to the development of an independent tribal government and its contemporary economic and environmental battles with the United States government. By 1996 the project had resulted in several drafts, and involved the collaboration of a number of correspondents, including University of Washington historian emeritus and longtime friend of James and Martino, Alexandra Harmon. The manuscript was completed and delivered to the tribe, but it never saw publication.

James and Martino made their careers as incessant advocates for the rights of underrepresented and historically marginalized peoples in the Pacific Northwest. Martino, the donor of the Karen James Papers, has retired and lives on Bainbridge Island, the center of his consulting business for nearly 50 years. James’ obituary noted that she “was known for her lifelong commitment to social justice, women’s rights, peace, and preserving the natural environment.” She and her family established the Evan David James Endowed Fellowship to assist University of Washington graduate students in Anthropology. Her family had strong ties to Washington, with her ancestors being among the earliest pioneer settlers in Washington Territory (see the James family papers, 1841-1986, PNW Collection). The scope of Karen James Papers, named in her honor, is only a part of her legacy and the impact she made in the Pacific Northwest. It nevertheless is a testimony of her multidisciplinary reach and mastery of archival and anthropological research methods.