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16. The Marks upon Her Body
- University of Nebraska Press
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157 16 The Marks upon Her Body Sometime in my student days I read that power makes marks upon the body and soul of those on whom that power is exercised.1 These marks made by power can be as deep and damaging as those inflicted by a bludgeon. I understood from what I studied that physical consequences come from authority and control misdirected or abused. I also learned firsthand, as many of us have, the regretful agony one experiences in a fatally flawed relationship. But I didn’t really understand how the use and abuse of power in such a relationship derives its legitimacy from the culture and society in which it is embedded. I didn’t understand how culture can offer approval of and make to seem reasonable the mutilation, punishment, and destruction that power works on lives it touches. After my acquaintance with Katie and Joseph Gale all of this was no longer theoretical. I came to understand that which had been beyond me. In October 2004 my hands hovered above a case file, a folio of papers perhaps untouched since they were first placed in an archival box many years, if not decades, ago. The Washington State Archives is located on the state capitol campus, not far from downtown Olympia, the capital of Washington State. The procedure for entering the archive is not unlike that employed by any other well-run repository for important documents. One must leave The Marks upon Her Body 158 bags, pens, and other belongings outside the main research facility. After one signs in, an attendant provides a locker and key. I usually leave everything in that locker except my laptop and a camera. I keep the camera, allowed in this archive, to take photographs of pages of text, maps, and file covers as I go through materials. Inside the main room where researchers work is a squadron of trim, glass-covered, heavy oak tables. Under the glass are territorial and state maps. Along the walls of the room, on heavy shelves, are neat rows of directories, law books, and some filing cabinets with microfilms. On one wall is a substantial clock. It is an antique timepiece secured in a wooden case with a pendulum that audibly ticks away the passing time. Incongruously, on one corner bookcase there is a statue of Confucius, a gift to the state of Washington from the Republic of China in 1972, during the period when Daniel J. Evans was governor. I sit comfortably at one of the long wooden tables, on which I can spread out files I’m studying. I take notes with the pencil and paper provided by the staff. Sometimes I type whole passages into my computer. This archives is the place I go to find official state or county documents , including legal files and tideland records from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. All of those official papers collected by courts, state agencies, and thirty-nine (current) counties of Washington eventually make their way into the Washington State Archives. These carefully stored documents may be accessed for legitimate research. Delving into the past, into people’s lives, is a serious project and no one here enters into that work lightly. The staff ’s treatment of visitors and file boxes is ritualized, almost sacralized. I like this about archives. I know what to expect. I know that at least this part of my work is predictable . When boxes are retrieved, they are placed the tabletop before the searcher. Staff provide the client with white cotton gloves. Like a surgeon, one handles the contents of boxes gently and with swathed fingers. One slips each old paper out of its file with great delicacy. One follows the rules. Anyone who loves doing historical research will tell you that at this [3.235.186.149] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 05:53 GMT) The Marks upon Her Body 159 moment, when the cartons full of numbered file folders are before you, in this state of giddy apprehension when you know you are going to discover something important, your heart is in your throat. On that day in 2004 I pulled a folder from the first box I’d requested. On the opening page of the court record in that file I read this: “[The] defendant has treated the plaintiff as a menial, has never been kind and loving to her and has repeatedly struck her, inflicting bruises and wounds upon her person, and on the...