The Hop-Harvest Pilgrimage
Indigenous families return to Shelton after their seasonal work in the Puyallup hop fields.
The Indians, or a great many of them, returned from the Puyallup hop fields with hi-yu chickamin. The families usually come in wagons, and it reminds one of prairie schooners of the early days, to see the wagons covered with a sheet on four poles, to keep the load dry. This may not be pleasant journeying, but the tourists do not seem to mind it much. Their annual pilgrimage to the hop fields nets the Indians money enough to exist the remainder of the year.
“Their annual pilgrimage to the hop fields nets the Indians money enough to exist the remainder of the year.”
This note documents the crucial economic role of the hop harvest for Indigenous families in the region, a practice that sustained livelihoods against the pressures of dispossession.
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