Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre

by Ana Maria Spagna

Overview

A personal investigative journey into the so-called Chelan Falls Massacre of 1875.

“The particulars of the crime, Spagna’s work suggests, matter less than understanding how something awful can change a place and its people. Pushed is a compelling true crime book that explores issues of race and justice in the American West.”

—FOREWORD REVIEWS, starred review

Amid the current alarming rise in xenophobia, Ana Maria Spagna stumbled upon a story: one day in 1875, according to lore, on a high bluff over the Columbia River, a group of local Indigenous people murdered a large number of Chinese miners—perhaps as many as three hundred—and pushed their bodies over a cliff into the river. The little-known incident was dubbed the Chelan Falls Massacre. Despite having lived in the area for more than thirty years, Spagna had never before heard of this event. She set out to discover exactly what happened and why.

Consulting historians, archaeologists, Indigenous elders, and even a grave dowser, Spagna uncovers three possible versions of the event: Native people as perpetrators. White people as perpetrators. It didn't happen at all. Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre replaces convenient narratives of the American West with nuance and complexity, revealing the danger in forgetting or remembering atrocities when history is murky and asking what allegiance to a place requires.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948814690
Publisher:	Torrey House Press
Publication date:	02/07/2023
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ana Maria Spagna is the author of nine books including the young adult novel The Luckiest Scar on Earth and most recently the poetry chapbook Mile Marker Six. Her work has been recognized by the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize, the Society for Environmental Journalists, the Nautilus Book Awards, and as a four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award. A former backcountry trails worker, Ana Maria now teaches in MFA programs at Antioch University, Los Angeles, and Western Colorado University.

Editorial Reviews

The particulars of the crime, Spagna’s work suggests, matter less than understanding how something awful can change a place and its people. Pushed is a compelling true crime book that explores issues of race and justice in the American West.”

—FOREWORD REVIEWS, starred review

"Pushed is a mystery, a personal investigation, and an attempt to de-mythologize the American West. Spagna's dedication to locate the real people at the heart of this tale is a moving reminder that the West was settled not only by white colonizers, but also Chinese miners, railroaders and sojourners: people who survived and thrived in America and can't be imagined only as victims. Pushed is as personal as it is historically informed, and a lively reminder that the American history we teach ourselves can be as much fantasy as fact."

—PAISLEY REKDAL, author Appropriate: A Provocation

"A solid history of Western expansion, a powerful refrain against xenophobia, and a celebration of those who resist."

—KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Spagna’s book could be paired with Mae Ngai’s The Chinese Question, the Bancroft Prize–winning scholarly book that supplies an in-depth look at how exploited Chinese labor fueled a worldwide boom in gold extraction."

—LIBRARY JOURNAL

"In her quest for answers, Spagna explores how xenophobia shaped US history, particularly in the American West. A thoughtful, well-written addition to any history collection."

—BOOKLIST

"Spagna brings a storyteller's gifts to bear in unearthing the truth of a tragic event mostly forgotten...if it happened at all. The larger story relates to the treatment of a people most western mythmakers would prefer we forget, prefer we not engage with and rectify. Pushed is Spagna's heart-full effort in making certain this injustice will not be overlooked."

—CHRIS LA TRAY, author of One-Sentence Journal

"Spagna sets out on the trail of what may or may not have been a Chinese massacre in Chelan Falls, Washington, in the 1870s. The records are scant and the stories contradictory, but Spagna embraces the ambiguities of her adventure. What she finds is not so much the definitive truth of this history, but rather the deep stories behind Chinese exclusion, Indian campaigns, and Manifest Destiny, an emotional terrain that undergirds the xenophobia of our times."

—TEOW LIM GOH, author of Islanders

"Pushed grounds us in a landscape, and then explores—in vivid detail through the eyes and heart of a compassionate and curious narrator—what the land holds: the history, the questions, the bridge of shared references, and the silences. Spagna masterfully lets the reader experience an unfolding mystery alongside her, providing an in-depth snapshot of a particular place she loves in Washington State that holds a complex historical conflict among Indigenous residents, white settlers, and Chinese immigrant laborers, as she turns and turns the story to trouble the nature of 'truth' and ask what remains."

—SONYA HUBER, author of Supremely Tiny Acts: A Memoir of a Day

"Spagna takes us on a surprising twist-filled journey as she explores different versions of an unknown story: What was the Chelan Falls Massacre? A massacre without survivors, without a written record, without bones? That mystery is fascinating unto itself, but this gorgeous book is more than the story of one event—it is a retelling of history that has been wildly incomplete, and by filling in some of the gaps, she helps us see place with renewed clarity and understanding. Again and again, Spagna has proven herself to be one of our country's most thoughtful nonfiction writers, and this new book is no exception."

—LAURA PRITCHETT, PEN USA winner and author of Stars Go Blue

"Spagna takes us sleuthing to uncover the facts surrounding the story of hundreds of Chinese miners being killed in late 1800s Chelan, Washington. We read of her adventurous traveling for interviews, examining microfilm, finding newspapers, looking at survey maps, and there is even grave dowsing as we are brought yet closer through artful speculation to the more complex truth of massacres and the xenophobic history of the Pacific Northwest. Spagna crafts this investigation with great care; all of this becomes a recounting of the highest order."

—ALLEN GEE, author of My Chinese-America

From the Publisher

01/01/2023

This book, much like Michelle McNamara's 2018 I'll Be Gone in the Dark, is about the author's unfinished, obsessive search for the truth about a crime. Spagna (Mile Marker) engagingly recounts her visits to small towns in northeastern Washington State, where she interviews local experts and scours records for clues about an 1875 case that left as many as 300 Chinese gold miners dead at the bottom of a cliff. Details about what happened remain murky, but the likelihood is that they were pushed. Spagna offers three theories—no conclusions—about who the perpetrators were. For many readers, the quest to find answers is the most interesting part. Spagna's book could be paired with Mae Ngai's The Chinese Question, the Bancroft Prize-winning scholarly book that supplies an in-depth look at how exploited Chinese labor fueled a worldwide boom in gold extraction. VERDICT True-crime fans will enjoy the puzzle of an unsolved mystery but might miss having a concrete conclusion.—Harry Charles

Library Journal

2022-11-15
A history of the tense relationships among White settlers, Chinese miners, and Indigenous peoples of the American West in the late 19th century.

When Spagna set out to write about a possible massacre of Chinese miners in the Columbia River Gorge, she confronted countless obstacles to her research. She could only find a single original record of the so-called Chelan Falls Massacre, an 1892 newspaper article about the killings that read more like a pulp novel than scrupulous reporting. Furthermore, nearly everyone she spoke to in the region offered conflicting accounts of what happened. According to some, nearly 300 Chinese miners had been pushed off a ledge by a group of Indigenous people in the area, while others said that the murderers had been White people dressed as Natives—a not-uncommon practice that conveniently denigrated both groups. Still others believed that it hadn’t been 300 people massacred but 300 feet that they fell. In her quest to uncover the truth, Spagna provides a thorough and insightful depiction of what Chinese immigrant life might have looked like in the 1800s. This history is overlooked despite the fact that by the late 19th century, Chinese immigrants “were doing the lion’s share of work in the West,” including up to “three quarters of the farm labor in California.” The author creates a poignant and damning narrative of discrimination and exclusion integral to the formation of the modern West. Blatantly xenophobic legislation—e.g., the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—expelled many immigrants from the region, while many others faced violence. How a historian chooses to narrate a particular history is significant in countless ways. Spagna is insistent in her efforts to “tune our imaginations to empathy rather than exploitation,” and she succeeds in demonstrating that “when given the opportunity to listen, we should.”

A solid history of Western expansion, a powerful refrain against xenophobia, and a celebration of those who resist.

Kirkus Reviews