By Bill Reynolds
La Conner Community News
The monthly Swinomish community dinner two weeks ago celebrated Halloween with a Christmas-like twist.
Sandwiched between a pumpkin carving contest and large feast at the Swinomish Boys & Girls Club, families were gifted colorful hardback copies of “Basket Ogress,” a book relating a traditional Native American story encouraging good behavior among children.
“Basket Ogress” was published in 2025 by the Swinomish Department of Environmental Protection and Swinomish Tribal Community. Its printing was made possible through a Washington State Arts Commission Tribal Cultural Grant and Swinomish Tribal Community funding.
The story is one told nearly a half-century ago by late Swinomish leader Dewey Mitchell. It was recorded, transcribed and translated by Vi Hilbert, the revered Upper Skagit elder and cultural preservationist who passed away in 2008 at age 90.
Jill LaPointe, director of the Seattle University Indigenous Peoples Institute, was likewise instrumental in the ultimate publication of “Basket Ogress.”
The book, part of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s “Sharing Our Knowledge” series, was illustrated by Jeanette Quintasket, the Swinomish artist who created the current La Conner School District logo.
Mitchell’s grandson, Todd Mitchell, director of the Swinomish Environmental Protection Department, distributed copies of “Basket Ogress” at the Oct. 28 community dinner,
“I am so happy to share my grandfather’s “Basket Ogress” story and also be the fourth generation of the Mitchell family with Swinomish children’s books in print,” Mitchell writes in the foreword to the book.
He continues: “I have much gratitude for my late grandfather and Vi Hilbert for recording this traditional story, which he recited only in Lushootseed. Hearing his voice as an eloquent Lushootseed first language speaker is a treasure beyond words.”
Mitchell is thankful as well for LaPointe’s contributions to the project.
The book also includes a pictorial biography of Dewey Mitchell (1898-1981), who was born near Rockport in the upper Skagit watershed and as a youth attended the Tulalip Boarding School. After completing school, he fished and worked in logging and lumber camps before moving with his wife, Winifred, to Swinomish in the late 1920s.
Shortly after his arrival at Swinomish, Dewey Mitchell was invited by a cousin, Martin Sampson, to work with him and other tribal leaders. He thus emerged as a key figure in chartering the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and served more than 40 years on the Swinomish Senate, which he chaired from 1962-1971.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
