Tribes honor retired Moses Lake surgeon for history books

Ruby: 'It was really something'

SHELTON, Wash. — A Moses Lake resident received honors for his work with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and tribes of the Pacific Northwest.

The governing board of the confederated tribes designated May 21 as Dr. Robert Ruby Day on the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

The Confederated Tribes of Umatilla and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation paid tribute Monday to Moses Lake resident Ruby and his co-author, the late John Brown, who died in 2004, during the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians mid-year conference.

The board of trustees proclaimed the day of honor by resolution on May 14.

Ruby said he helped the tribes preserve their history, which would otherwise have been lost. He was present for Monday's celebration.

"It's kind of almost unbelievable," he said. "It was really something for them to do that sort of thing."

Debra Croswell, deputy executive director of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said Ruby's recognition came at the recommendation of the director of the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute.

"Tamastslikt has worked closely with Dr. Ruby over the past few years, and he has been not only an author, but somewhat of an advisor to Tamastslikt as they have moved forward in working on the tribes' history books," Croswell said.

Ruby also has close ties with the Colville tribe.

"We had been talking with them about a way we could honor Dr. Ruby, and this is what we came up with," Croswell said.

Croswell has worked with the tribes for 13 years, and said proclaiming a day in the honor of an individual is not done very often.

Ruby, a retired Moses Lake physician, began writing about American Indian tribal history in 1955 with "Oglala Sioux, Warriors in Transition," while he was in charge of the hospital on the Pine Ridge Reservation for the U.S. Public Health Service.

Upon moving to Moses Lake, where he established his private practice in general surgery, Ruby began a four decade-long collaboration with Brown, a professor of history from Wenatchee.

Between 1965 and 2001, the pair published 13 books focused on Pacific Northwest history. Eleven of their titles concentrated on Northwest tribal history.

Ruby and Brown produced histories of the Cayuse, Chinook, Okanagan and Spokane tribes, a book on Indian slavery, biographies of tribal elders Chief Moses and Esther Ross, chronicles of spiritual leaders Smohalla, Skolaskin, John Slocum and missionary Myron Eells, as well as "Ferryboats on the Columbia River."

The Umatilla resolution said the co-authors' "work brought attention to and provided context for incredibly important and often neglected events that have shaped the history of the United States and the lives of those who call the Pacific Northwest home."

More recently, Ruby participated in convocations and symposia with elders and students of the Umatilla Reservation, spearheading a commemorative reprint of "The Cayuse Indians." He also inspired the development of Wiyaxayxt: As Days Go By Wiyaakaa'awn," a contemporary history of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes written by the tribes.