The Gang of Four. Bob Santos
Activist.
Working together, the “Four Amigos” have been among the most influential and charismatic leaders in our community. Since the late 1960s, their activism for social justice and civil rights has changed the face of leadership in the Puget Sound region, inspiring generations. Theirs is a unique story of diverse communities working together to fully integrate minorities into the area’s social, economic and political life.
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A.K. Guy
Award Committee
The Santos family in1966, Front: Simone, John, and Robin Middle: Anita and Bob
Back: Tommy and Danny. Photo courtesy of the Santos family.
CHAPTER 4: A Proud
Bernie’s father, Julian Reyes, was born in the Philippines in 1895, and left the Philippines by boat at the age of 17, arriving in the United States in 1912. Like many young Filipinos such as Sammy Santos, he had come to America to seek his fortune. He found work in the Alaska canneries.
He lived for a time in Seattle during the 1920s but left, traveling to Idaho and Montana to find work and eventually ended up in Inchelium, in Eastern Washington.
The town of Inchelium was a gathering place for the Colville and Lakes Indian tribes. The tribes had settled there after being forced to move after the white people had taken their lands in the Colville valley and in the northern half of what is now the Colville Reservation.
Bernie Daybreak Star circa 1980s. Photo courtesy UIATF
Bernie’s mother, Mary Christian, was the niece of James Bernard, chief of the Lakes tribe. He had been his tribe’s leader for more than thirty years. Later, he would travel to Washington DC on three occasions to negotiate a reservation land base and to advocate for the rights of his tribe. He eventually died of a heart attack.
Mary’s mother, Teresa Christian, James Bernard’s sister, had died of pneumonia, when Mary was five and her father, Alex Christian, died of tuberculosis, when she was eleven.
Alex was a very revered member of the tribe. He had earned a reputation as a skilled hunter. It was said that once, while on a hunting trip, Alex had encountered a white grizzly bear and was struck by its magnificence and beauty. He refused to kill the creature and vowed never to hunt such a creature out of respect.
When the tribe learned of his noble gesture, they gave him the name of Pic Ah Kelowna or White Grizzly Bear, a name we would hear more about.
Orphaned by the loss of her parents, Mary went to live with Charles and Eliza Hall until she was sixteen when she met and married Julian Reyes in 1930. Julian was 35 years old, nineteen years older than Mary. Julian was accepted as a member of the tribe and quickly adjusted to the way of life on the reservation. A son, Lawney, was born in 1931, and daughter Luana was born in 1933.
In 1935, construction began on the Grand Coulee Dam. The structure blocked the traditional migration of salmon in the Columbia River, destroying the livelihood of the Lakes (Sin-Aikst), the Colville (Swhy-ayl-push) and other Indian tribes, which had depended on salmon as their major food source. The roots, berries, nuts and herbs, which nourished the tribes, were flooded with the raising of the Columbia River.
The construction of the Grand Coulee Dam brought change. A town immediately sprang up by the dam. Thousands of construction workers came to town to work on the project. Small frame buildings were built to house the many businesses which opened to cater to the needs of these workers --taverns, grocery stores, hotels, dance halls, and restaurants.
Julian and Mary decided to open a Chinese restaurant by the Grand Coulee Dam. But they knew very little about Chinese cuisine. As fate would have it, a Chinese man named Harry Wong, walked into the restaurant one day and ordered some food. Curious about the man, Julian and Mary Introduced themselves to Harry and found out that Harry had just come from Spokane, knew how to cook, and was looking for a job. Harry was hired on the spot!
Soon, the three worked closely together--Harry cooking, Julian washing the dishes and buying the supplies, and Mary waitressing and serving as cashier.
In early 1937, Julian and Mary decided to leave the Grand Coulee Dam area to return to the Colville Reservation. Mary was pregnant. They sold the restaurant to Harry Wong and came back to Inchelium. Needing work, they eventually were hired by the Colville tribe to be fireguards in the Gold Mountain area for the summer. The family lived in a tent near the summit to the mountain.
On September 25, 1937, Julian took Mary to the Colville Indian Agency Hospital in Nespelem, Washington. Two days later, she gave birth to a baby boy. She decided to name the baby, “Bernard,” in honor of her uncle, Chief of the Lakes Tribe James Bernard. Bernard Reyes would eventually become Bernie Whitebear.
Young Bernie grew up in poverty. He spent his childhood in Eastern Washington on the Colville reservation. His family was constantly on the move, looking for work on the apple orchards or on the railroad. Bernie spent much of his early youth, living out of a tent, accompanying his parents on their nomadic quest to make ends meet. He grew up in the shadow of the Grand Coulee Dam, a monumental accomplishment for the development of energy but which also destroyed the way of life, which Indians had enjoyed for over a hundred years.
As the summer drew to a close, their jobs as fireguards ended, Julian and Mary packed up their tent and their three young children and drove the family’s Model T toward the apple orchards outside of Omak, “white man’s territory.” Julian and Mary
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found jobs as apple pickers but were constantly harassed by young white men who drove by and shouted racial obscenities at them because of the color of their skin. Luana, Lawney, and Pickles, the family’s dog, took care of little Bernie. Julian kept a gun handy when the family slept.
After the apple-picking season was over, the Reyes family once again packed up and drove off in their Model T, back toward Inchelium. On the way back, the family stopped off at a rest stop. Pickles, the family dog, jumped out of the car. A car, with four young white men, purposely ran over Pickles. The family was shocked! They dug a shallow grave, laid their beloved family pet to rest, and drove solemnly on.
Julian Reyes spent long hours, working on a small wood-framed house, building a shed, digging a cellar, which became a storehouse for vegetables and a playground for the three children. But while Julian solidified the foundation for the family home, his marriage to Mary began to crumble and she suddenly left the family in the spring of 1939. Maybe it was the age difference--Julian was forty-five years old, Mary was twenty-six years old.
Little Bernie was left in the care of his older sister Luana. Luana was only six years old and she tried her best. She washed her little brother,