I recently (finally) finished a story about Lucy Romero for the North Coast Journal. It is an important story and I am thankful to Thad Greenson, their editor, for working so long and patiently with me to get it done.
There is one point I failed to include though and so want to share it here. This is from a post I did years ago, but it is just as important to remember now…
In the western movie, Broken Trail , there is a scene where Robert Duvall struggles to learn the names of five Chinese girls under his care. They speak no English and growing frustrated, Duvall’s character points to each one in turn and names them, “One, Two, Three, Four… “. The girls accept the names, because they have no choice.
The same thing happened here. When the white settlers arrived, they re “named” the native people. Smo-Wa became Henry Capell (he was from the village of Capell). Corn-no-wish became Weichpec Oscar. Zo-wish-wish, a Wiyot woman related to Lucy’s daughter, Annie, was also known as “Rose”.
Lucy, the woman I write about, was only one of many “Lucys”.