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Thank you.

if you remember 1976.

And viewers of this program almost certainly do.

It's been 50 years since our last birthday blowout for the good old U.S.. Now we're doing it again.

And part of it includes Ken Burns new series, The American Revolution.

We'll have a preview.

We're talking with local historian and northwest now regular Michael Sullivan, about what life was like in western Washington 250 years ago.

Representatives from the daughters of the American Revolution and the Living History Association are here to preview plans for a year of celebration.

And our Steve begins with the story of local ties to the celebration of American revolutionary history.

America at 250 is the focus next on northwest?

Now?

Music Just about every state and historical organization inside the states have been working for more than a year preparing for the celebration of America's 250th birthday in 2026.

And since we're a proud PBS affiliate, you should also know that there are several ways you can watch Ken Burns latest project, The American Revolution, which has been a decade in the making.

From a small spark kindled in America, a flame has arisen.

Not to be extinguished.

We think about independence movements of the 20th century, you know, as recognize the fact the United States actually started that the American revolutionary movement served as a model for freedom from oppression.

America is predicated on an idea that tells us who we are, where we came from, and what our forebears were willing to die for.

Collins said no taxation without representation.

The fear was, if we give in to this precedent, what will they do in the future?

Crisis changes people.

It gave different people different ideas about what they should be doing.

That gave them a space to make this democracy real.

The You can watch the full series right now for free on the PBS app, accessible on our website at Ktrk dawg.

Then, if you want to watch it over the air, you can see it over two nights Thursday, December 11th and the week later on Thursday, December 18th.

The series will also be available to members on PBS passport starting on December 14th.

To learn more about celebrations in our area and screenings of the American Revolution or related programs, Be sure to stay in touch with Kttc Dawg Slash events.

Here on the West Coast celebrating America.

250 is a little complicated.

The Revolutionary War happened 3000 miles to the east, long before Lewis and Clark, before the western expansion or before statehood was even contemplated.

But of course, local indigenous peoples were living their lives like they had for countless generations.

And the area was in the process of being discovered by people from Europe.

Let's talk about it now with historian Michael Sullivan.

Michael great to have you back on northwest.

Now we really appreciate your contribution over the years.

And I want to thank you personally and publicly for all you've done for northwest.

Now, when it comes to, matters of history, talk a little bit about what was life like around here.

Prior to 1776, which is kind of the key date we're looking at.

Yeah.

Well, you know, the maps were starting to be made and the world was starting to know about itself.

But in our part of the world, some of the last shoreline maps in the world were, were going to be made along this kind of coast from California up to Alaska.

So, very little was known outside of the geography of the Pacific Northwest.

But, at, you know, by that time there were very sophisticated, independent sovereign nations that were there were sniffing around the equivalent of the 13 colonies along our coast with distinct, indigenous groups who had their own sophisticated languages, separate languages, absolutely incredible knowledge and empirical knowledge of the world around them and languages that were developed and, and, and complexity that for societies that kept all of their memory and everything in the oral tradition, those languages carried the intellectual weight of a profound understanding of the natural world.

And who I was talking about, I thought, you're heading east, sniffing around by the major powers of the world, the Spanish and the British.

But they were starting to poke around here on this coast a little bit.

What was driving their search?

There's it's kind of the there's an enigma out there that they were looking for.

Talked a little bit about what was driving that.

Well, you get into the 18th century into the end of the 1700s, actually the middle of the 1700s.

And, there was, curiosity by the powers we were shifting from this land of kings and, and armies to an intellectual world.

We call it the enlightenment.

And there was a real curiosity about about the physical world, the natural world.

There were scientists and astronomers that were and artists, before photography that were traveling on art on this exploration.

So, for example, Peter the Great in Russia is actually puzzled by the fact.

Is North America connected with Asia.

And so we have Vitus Bering and in 1741, going up and proving, through his journey, this preceding cook and the British, but the Russians coming down from the north and beginning to map the coast.

But all the while I was pointing you at was a lot of this energy was the search for the Northwest Passage.

That was the big enigma.

That was the big the the big puzzle.

Once, once the world had been circumnavigated, the the big obstacle between the east and the West was the continents of the Americas.

And where do you get across there.

And so this, this mythic, elusive I. Yeah.

Of a of a Northwest Passage becomes just the holy grail for, for the European powers especially.

Talk a little bit about Captain Cook, his story.

He's a name that even if you don't follow history, you'll recognize Captain Cook.

You'll recognize captain.

Yeah.

You have to.

He's the great explorer.

The great, you know, the great investigator of the great, Student of the of the globe.

He just really he in three voyages all the way from England, going all the way around the world, mapping, drawing and probably filling in more maps of the world and than any other explorer of his age or even since.

And and the British were unique in that they published their maps to the world, whereas, a lot of the other countries that were more militaristic tended to keep their maps strategically kind of silent.

But cook quickly got back and, you know, a guy come goes off like on a moonshot from England and, you know, two years later, he comes back and he's for the first time exhibiting a kangaroo or talking about civilizations, you know, around the world.

And it's spellbinding.

Yeah.

To to the English people, into the world.

Really?

What?

What do we know?

Do we know what the first contact was?

Among the indigenous populations with white explorers?

I mean, do we know anything about that?

Well, we contact with the outside world, have to think about the Northwest Coast.

These are maritime people in big vessels that are blue water sailors, even though they're not using sails.

And the first contact with the outside world, probably with Asians, probably with Japanese or even Chinese that are blown with, you know, with the eastward moving weather, Europeans, we don't know exactly.

And it was probably accidental.

And it probably happens.

1213, 1400s maybe.

Yeah.

And apparently there was, you know, some confrontation with the canals.

There were there were some small skirmishes early on prior prior to, a more robust exploration.

Yeah.

And and we need to remember the Russians coming down from the north.

Spanish, once they get into the Pacific, are coming up from California, and then the English and even Portuguese and some of the other countries.

So even though this area didn't really experience the revolution per se and, and it kind of wasn't a thing out here, what are the implications of the revolution for the eventual exploration and opening up of this area, even though we weren't in that, or this area wasn't in that, it was still affected by it?

Talk a little bit about, you know, this is a bad categorization of historians, but there are those that are, political and military and kind of colonial power kind of group.

And then there are historians that look at look at history more from an environmental and a scientific way.

I think the conflict between Britain and the Americas during the American Revolution are on the East Coast are largely in that political, conflict kind of history.

Yeah.

When you think about the northwest at the same town, same time, the it's the same players, it's the Americans and the British encountering indigenous cultures, but it's more in the realm of, environment and science.

Yeah.

For the.

Yeah, this is the Age of Enlightenment, where the idea of inherited kings and empire are being kind of put aside by the scientists and the thinkers and the more information that's collected about the physical world, the more it supports the enlightenment and the amount of of new information that was delivered from the Pacific Northwest into the enlightenment is really amazing.

30 years later, we get Lewis and Clark and then the rest is history, as you might say, here comes, here come the Europeans and, the Americans after the formation, and I think my last question to you is why does 1776 matter?

What's your big thought on that?

And do you have any hopes for this coming year of celebrations?

Do you hope we come together?

Do you hope it's unifying in some way and want to put words in your mouth?

Where are you?

Well, I think we're we need to remember that not too long we become where we become part of America.

But we're, you know, our part of the world is still part of what's going on.

Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to America, to the captains in the in the American Navy saying, don't molest cook.

Leave him alone.

That, you know how you play that game is story.

And I wonder if so-and-so ever met somebody else from history.

I wonder if Benjamin Franklin ever met Captain Cook because they were contemporaries that were both in London for his times at the same time.

But but there is a connection here for us in the northwest.

There we are relevant to the to the period of the American Revolution.

So it's it, it is part, very much part of our history here in the Pacific Northwest.

And we're part of the American story during that period, our part of the world.

While the Pacific Northwest was out of sight, out of mind in 1776, as Steve King tells us now, that's not stopping local celebrations and examinations of revolutionary history.

On a country highway in Oregon's Marion County, you'll find horses grazing along the roadside.

Fewer than 500 called the small town of Saint Paul Home.

It's about halfway between Portland and Salem in the Willamette Valley.

Saint Paul is famous for its summertime rodeo and the final resting place for one of America's original patriots.

This is the only known patriot that's buried in the Pacific Northwest.

David Winter says the Oregon Sons of the American Revolution annually leaves a wreath at William Cannon's headstone inside the Saint Paul Pioneer Cemetery to honor cannon service and highlight connection to community.

They were instrumental in forcing Cornwallis to return up north.

And, it's the over the mountain men that were involved with that, are the same kind of people that were the fur traders that came to the West Coast, Wallace says.

Researchers believe cannon fought for America's independence in South Carolina in the 1780s, before joining an expedition to establish Fort Astoria in 1811.

History shows cannon then moved westward to work for the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, where his trade craft is recreated by volunteers like Balthazar.

I would have recognized this place.

He's the Forrest Gump of his time.

He managed to go through every major event of his lifetime, been unnoticed.

And and I think there's some humility there that is just speaks volumes.

Researchers say cannon settled in French Prairie near simply, where he joined a majority among pioneers voting to establish the provisional government of Oregon in the early 1840s.

That vote, later visualized in this 1923 Theodore cago painting entitled The Inception of the Birth of Oregon Near Center Frame, standing next to fellow pioneer Joseph Meek.

Viewers peer over the shoulder of the nearly 90 year old cannon, his long white hair and white beard showing his age as if Cannon's long and storied past leads us to a moment that offers a vision towards a future for the American Pacific Northwest.

This all but inevitable.

Well, fulfilling.

It tells you who you are, and what your, family went through in order for you to be where you were.

And, that's important.

In Marion County, Oregon, Steve Higgins, northwest.

Now.

Joining us now to talk more about the celebration of America's 250th birthday are Rene Krist with Tacoma, Mary ball, chapter of the daughters of the American Revolution, and Dennis Lawler and Walter Beauchamp with Thurston County's The Spirit of 76 Living History Association.

Welcome, all of you to northwest.

Now great to have a conversation about America 250.

It's going to be a heck of a celebration.

I'm glad to have daughters of the American Revolution in the spirit of 76 list.

Living History Association here for this.

Let's start with a little bit about your organizations.

Renee.

Daughters of the American Revolution, Da.

I heard it a lot growing up.

Talk a little bit about what it is and who's in it and how folks can get involved if they want to.

Well, the daughters of the American Revolution was founded in 1890.

And warehouse, actually the headquarters is in Washington, DC, right across really, really near to the, the white House.

And, when it was formed in 1890, the the women that were forming it were really concerned about us losing history and losing our, our, knowledge about the revolution and our founding of the country.

So they formed this organization and, it was it is currently 190,000 members, about 3000 chapters all over the country and some overseas as well.

And not overseas, but in other countries like Canada as well.

And in Washington state, which is really interesting.

Is that our chapter?

I'm, I'm the vice regent of the Mary Ball chapter here in Tacoma.

It was formed in 1894, just four years later.

So you think about that.

You're here in Washington, DC all the way across the nation.

We have a brand new chapter forming in Washington state.

And, we have been continuously, operating since 1894.

We have, in Washington.

The Washington State Society now has 33 chapters or 35 chapters.

Excuse me.

And, compass is about 3000 members, and the chapters are all over the state of Washington.

All of us have America.

250 chairmen.

We have committees for so many things we do within the community.

So it's not just about our.

The one thing that ties us all together is that we all are related to someone who gave aid for or did something during the American Revolution which founded our country.

So that's that's our main, our main core, but historic preservation, patriotism and education is, is our is our.

When we come back around to you and ask you about how people can figure that out, because it's not just a thing.

Hey, I'm going to sign up and do it, so we'll talk about that in a minute.

Dennis, talk a little bit about the spirit of 76 Living History Association.

Right.

So the spirit of 76 living history, we're based in Washington state.

We're a nonprofit, here in in the state where most of our members are on the western side of the mountains.

Some of us are like Walter and I are both grew up in Boston.

So we kind of have an affinity to this history.

Yeah, but, there's a strong I mean, if you look and talk to citizens in the, in the area, there's a strong interest in this history.

Not not even with the 250th, but just in general.

And, granted, we don't have any colonial river or forts or British encampments that we could I mean, British actual history.

We have later history, but there is a strong, strong interest.

Yeah, in our area.

Walter, how do folks get involved?

I'll let you on the organizational side, talk a little bit about how people can learn more.

How can they get involved?

I don't think you have to do the genealogy you have to do for Da if you want to be a re-enactor.

Right.

Pretty much a re-enactor is anyone who is willing to do the effort to acquire the uniform.

Join us.

Come out.

We'll train you in the period drills and things like that.

I know that because I'm the British sergeant.

Normally in my 43rd uniform, but I dressed up a little.

You're always losing the war, Walter.

That.

Well, that must get all active.

It's all perspective.

Yeah, because in the 18th century, I didn't know I was losing.

Yeah, I was, I was the conquest.

The Empire.

Well, let's get you so you got to, you have to kind of internal.

You're actors really, aren't you.

Yes.

Frustrated actors.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But with a strong, strong interest in history and.

Yeah.

Trying to portray it, I mean, living history, that's that's what that's all about.

But I thought your comment about having to know I'm not just a guy who's losing a war.

I think I'm the empire of the world.

So when when we do our living history events, we each take on a persona.

And in my persona, I play a British soldier.

I play a noncommissioned officer.

So I go into that mindset to the little attitude, maybe.

Absolutely.

That's a lot of attitude.

I come back for some of us, but, but it's also to draw the crowd in and also to make it fun.

And while we're trying to teach history, we're not lecturing.

We're trying to show what a living history is and and how that certain aspects might have been influenced.

And also just a snippet of the time period, some context.

Yes.

Yeah.

Because we we don't have the hundreds of people like I reenacted back east.

Yeah.

In the American Revolution, as a youth and as a young adult.

And we would have hundreds to thousands of re-enactors out here.

We don't have the numbers.

So what we have to do is we have to convey as best we can to the public, and give them a sense of what things were like.

And then working back up the line here.

You guys are actually looking for people, right?

We are always looking for people that want to portray this historical era.

We help them first by introducing them to what we do.

Eventually they get their own.

We do have occasionally we have a loaner gear, but most of the time, at some point we ask them to buy their own stuff.

But your website and give that out, if you would, when you answer here.

But you said you're looking specifically I think for like camp camp support personnel, followers, some of the people you know, it wasn't just the troops.

There was this whole support system that had to move with them.

And that is completely true.

We're looking for skills and crafts.

We have a candle maker.

We have we look for blacksmiths.

We have, like, I'm working on a soap making, using, tallow, just things of the period we do cooking.

My wife, who's is in the in in there, it does, cooking demonstrations.

And so we do lots of different.

We were always looking for that, that skill.

Right?

I mean, that's an interest.

That's what the people want to see.

Yeah.

Not just battle and firing muskets, but as cool as that may be, as cool as that.

Maybe.

They definitely want to see.

What were people doing in those days?

Yeah.

How did they live?

I mean, up to a point, you know, we can only do so much.

Renee, back to you.

And let you talk a little bit now about becoming a member of Dar.

It's not just, hey, I've got this.

This sounds fun.

And a nice group of ladies may be true, but it doesn't mean you're getting in.

So talk a little bit about how that works and how somebody can figure that out.

Well, you you do your research in your, through your ancestry.

And if you can find a direct line back to a patriot that has been proven and, recorded, as a patriot, that or they, we call them patriots, but they can be they can be soldiers.

They can be someone who gave aid.

Who who gave, supplies.

But you need some paperwork or you need some paperwork, but you do you direct your line back to that person, through your lineage, and and then you apply.

It's, we have an incredible genealogy group of women that do the research.

Some of them are professional people that that look at our, our applications at the end and certify it.

So, so we all are certified and in our last two minutes here because I want to make sure we get this in, talk a little bit about what's coming.

We're we're taping this here in the fall of 2025.

Talk a little bit about what the calendar looks like for each of you.

In our last two minutes, coming into 20 2026.

Yes.

And this isn't new for us, by the way, we've been working on.

Oh, yeah.

All of this.

Yeah.

I mean, it's every year we do this kind of thing.

We've been working on the America 250 celebration for about five years now.

We're in our fourth year getting into it.

So it's going to be ramping up every year.

We have been doing things we just finished up doing.

My chapter did, we're at the, Washington State Fair doing four days there on America.

250 in history.

And, we, we even dressed up in colonial gear at some time.

But, there is so many things happening throughout the state.

And the best way to find out what's going on, because there's 35 chapters, every single chapter is working on something in the communities and is to go to, a Da Dawg.

That's our state organization.

They have the list of chapters on that website, and you can find one in your neighborhood.

You can find one in your town and find out what they're doing.

Dennis, I imagine you guys are probably doing 364 out of 365 days next year, right?

We're killing time.

Definitely trying to figure out how do we do this correctly and celebrate.

I mean, we're already this would be 250 1775.

Yeah.

So if you think back through history, what happened before true, the Declaration of Independence, we're building that.

Yeah, that's the major event.

But to to form the country.

But there's all kinds of stuff going on 250 years ago today.

Right.

For the next year, though, how do things look like they're rolling out, Walter?

Do you or is it monthly?

And where can folks go to find out if they want to look at with see what you guys do?

So we are finalizing our calendar right now.

Okay.

But it will be posted on the website, which is spirit of 76 Living History Association.

If you Google that, you will find Google is an English term.

New York, it came from London or so I don't know if you will find there.

Hey, I got to do what if the Brits have Google?

Yeah, but, but no, you'll you'll find all the information.

We're very transparent about what we put up there.

We we, you know, try to keep communications open and available to everyone at all times.

You know, we've lived through worst times.

87 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, President Lincoln was at Gettysburg and asked that we honor the Civil Wars dead by ensuring that, quote, government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth.

The bottom line we all have to fight for the middle ground and somehow cling to the idea that there is more that unites us than divides us.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking.

You can find this program on the web at kbtc.org, stream it through the PBS app or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

That's going to do it for this edition of northwest.

Now until next time, I'm Tom Layson.

Thanks for watching.

They.