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Oregon icon who fought conventional wisdom
C.E.S. Wood - A documentary reveals a multi-faceted man who supported
unpopular causes

Saturday, February 09, 2008

TED MAHAR
The Oregonian

C.E.S. Wood might be more famous if he had succeeded in fewer endeavors and
influenced fewer powerful men.

Wood helped create Portland as it existed for decades, but his name does
not adorn streets, monuments, parks, buildings or statues. His effects were
powerful but diffuse, often just a bit too far behind the scenes. His
principal fame was as a writer, the kind that often dies with the author.

Wood couldn't have cared less, but several of his descendants, biographers
and scholars eagerly tell his tale in John de Graaf and Laurence Cotton's
Oregon Experience documentary, "C.E.S. Wood." It is a tale replete with
paradox and engaging ambiguity.

Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852-1944) was an honored West Point graduate
who became a vocal pacifist. He was a key staff officer in several actions
-- which he began enthusiastically -- but ended as one of the most
effective advocates the defeated Native Americans had.

He was a friend and admirer of his commanding general but campaigned
against U.S. Army policy. He also was a friend of one of the Army's
cleverest adversaries, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, becoming Joseph's
eloquent advocate and patiently securing meager justice for his tribe and
better treatment than they would have had without his dogged struggle
against government policy and blithely institutionalized bigotry.

Wood's greatest fame came from Joseph's surrender. Joseph gave in to
pursuing Army forces just a few miles short of refuge in Canada. In their
long fighting retreat over hundreds of miles, with women and children,
Joseph's tribe had embarrassed the Army. But they were exhausted and out of
provisions with winter beginning to bite.

The nation still reviled native peoples in the aftermath of Custer's Last
Mistake (1876), but Wood's translation of Joseph's surrender speech
fomented an improbable sympathy in the conquering culture:

"From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

Did Joseph really end a short, eloquent speech with that line worthy of
Shakespeare? Or was it translator/reporter Wood's sympathetic spin?

Wood's granddaughter and great-granddaughters flatly say their forebear
would never have embellished the truth. Other historians tell the camera
that Joseph's public statement was little more than one sentence. However,
they say, Joseph did say pretty much what Wood related so thrillingly, but
in conference with his chiefs just before surrender and with Wood just
after. Wood seemingly rearranged a few facts to tell a larger truth.

Despite a total reversal of sympathy, Wood soldiered on in the Army before
retiring to become a lawyer in Portland. He represented powerful clients,
including the Great Northern Railroad, and rubbed finely clad elbows with
the richest and most powerful in the solidly entrenched establishment.

Even so, he patiently but steadily evolved into a radical. He was an early
conservationist when natural resources still seemed infinite. He advocated
women's suffrage and eventually left the bar for its refusal to include
black lawyers.

Charming and charismatic, he was persuasive in both public and private
utterance. He continued to be a subtle but strong influence on powerful
people and people who would become powerful. Some of his accomplishments
shone in the accomplishments of others.

All this time he lived comfortably from his income as a popular writer of
history, fiction and satire. He was also a poet and artist, his art
generally supporting his social agenda. He was a co-founder of Portland's
first library and art museum. He promoted public art, including the
Skidmore Fountain, which bears one of his quotes: "Good citizens are the
riches of a city."

In later years he created scandal, falling in love with a younger woman,
divorcing his wife and moving to California -- where he continued to
agitate in his genteel way and be a friend and supporter of other
progressives and artists, including Ansel Adams and John Steinbeck.