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Victoria (Wiskikin) Wacheno Howard (1856-1930) was a Clackamas storyeller, singer, and cultural bearer. Howard's work has "intrigued scholars across disciplines, from the linguist Dell Hymes to the literary critic Jarold Ramsey." After supplying the basis for ethnographic texts published by Melville Jacobs, Howard's work has been "republished in recent anthologies of American Indian oral literature." Howard’s work also forms the basis, in part, for the dictionary of the Chinuk Wawa published by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community in 2012 under the title Chinook Wawa: kakwa nsayka ulman-tilixam laska munk-kemteks nsayka/As Our Elders Teach Us to Speak It. “Victoria Howard’s chants, stories, and creation myths have made her the subject of books and academic studies.”

Life
The birth of Victoria Howard was on the Grande Ronde Reservation around 1865. Her grandmother who is Willamette Falls dialect speaker and her mother-in-law who spoke Clackamas River dialect raised her. Victoria grew up in multilingual home. In addition to Clackamas, her languages were Molalla (her mother was Molalla), a Chinook Wawa, and English. She spoke five Indigenous languages; Clackamas, Willamette Falls dialect, Clackamas River dialect, Molalla language and Chinuk Wawa. Her grandmother spoke Willamette Falls dialect and she could speak Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon) which is spoken in her birth place (Grande Ronde Resenation) as a primary language. According to Zenk, "Victoria raised nine children with Dan Wacheno, all of whom predeceased her. The two eventually divorced, and in 1903 Victoria married Eustace Howard, a Santiam Kalapuya speaker from Grand Ronde." On September 26, 1930 she died because of heart failure..

Career as Clackamas Chinook Storyteller
In 1928, she started to work with Meliville Jacobs who was a member of the University of Washington. At that time, she used English when providing ethnographic information including songs and stories to Jacobs. Jacobs published "Clackamas Chinook Texts" as a result of this collaboration. According to the recent news report, "Howard's work is in both UW and Smithsonian collections." Melville Jacobs published "Clackamas Chinook Texts" (1985-1959). This document of native northwest Oregon storytelling data has been called "one of the richest records of the Indigenous northwest Oregon storytelling art." She is the one of the most famous narrators of Clackamas Chinook stories. Her knowledge of Clackamas Chinook culture and language was transmitted to Howard from her maternal grandmother who is native Clackamas Chinook speaker. In addition, Howard's first husband (Dan Wacheno) and his mother were Clackamas. When Jacobs worked with her, her language skills were very helpful for doing dictation of Clackamas. Furthermore, he noticed her Chinuk Wawa language skills, so he gave her opportunity to translate Chinuk Wawa Indigenous songs.