In February 1939, the representatives of the Port Gamble band of the Clallam (now S’Klallam) people invited a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter and photographer to come to their village south of Hansville on the Olympic Peninsula. Chairman of the tribe’s governing committee Benny George, along with his aid Jackson and Rev. Karl Leonard of Bremerton, had been in contact with the Bureau of Indian Affairs asking for aid to help with unsanitary conditions in the village, with no success. During the trip, George and Jackson led the visitors around the village of 114 tribal members, showing the lack of food and the poor living conditions. In the article written after the visit, the reporter outlines how treaty promises are not being met, and that while a reservation was created in 1936, homes with proper sanitation and access to clean water promised on the reservation still have not been built.

This image shows two boys carrying a bucket of clams at Point Julia. The boy on the left is Claude "Skip" George and on the right is Benny Anderson, Claude's uncle. The dog is George's dog Skipper. Skip George (1930-2011) was raised at Point Julia by grandparents and great-grandparents who spoke the S’Klallam language and passed on memories of S’Klallam culture from the mid-19th century. George went on to become a historian who preserved and passed on knowledge of S'Klallam history and culture.

Written on negative: Claude George, Benny Anderson

Caption information source: “Indian Group in Dire Need; Asks U.S. Aid,” by Walter Rue, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 26, 1939.