Memorial Day Reminders

Dear Doug and Al,

            I asked my friend Doris about Indian Jim.
Doris is the cemetery director and keeps track of the
history of some of the people buried there.  Indian Jim
lived in Amity and pitched his tent where the city park is
now.  His grandfather fought in the war between the Yamhill
Indians and the Warm Spring Indians.   The Warm Spring
Indians lived in a rather harsh environment and thought the
Yamhills had it easy as they had salmon from the ocean and
river, berries and fruit from the trees.   Thus the battle
to drive out the Yamhills and the Warm Springs Indians to
take over their territory.  The Yamhills won and retained
their land.  In honor of Indian Jim's grandfather, the
veterans put a flag on his grave.   Indian Jim was a
favorite of the Amity children, who enjoyed his stories, and
he taught them to make bow and arrows and other Indian
skills.   They built a wooden fort up in the hills and the
children would play battles between the Yamhill and Warm
Spring Indians.   One morning they found Indian Jim dead
and they buried him in the "way back of the cemetery"
because he was not acceptable to the regular Amity people.
The children came and decorated his grave with colorful
rocks and feathers.   He had died several before Nancy
Hodge, so they were relegated to quarantined part of the
cemetery.  Each year some of the Amity people put flowers
on the grave.

         So, that is the rest of the story.

Mom