Lawney Reyes

Lawney L. Reyes (born c. 1931 in Bend, Oregon) (Sin-Aikst) is an American Indian artist, curator and memoirist based in Seattle, Washington.

Lawney Reyes was born c.1931 to Mary Christian, Sin Aikst (now known as the Sinixt). Historically her people were known as the Senjextee and also as "the Lake"; they now make up one of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation). His father was Julian Reyes, a native Filipino who largely assimilated to an Indian way of life after his marriage. Lawney's maternal grandfather, Alex Christian, was known as Pic Ah Kelowna, (White Grizzly Bear); his great-uncle (brother of his maternal grandmother) was Chief James Bernard, a Sin Aikst leader in the early 20th century. Lawney's siblings included Luana Reyes and Bernie Whitebear.

Reyes' early childhood with his family was largely lived on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. In 1935–1937, during the period of construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, his parents had moved to the Coulee and started a Chinese restaurant, even though "[n]either of them could prepare Chinese food except for simple dishes such as pork fried rice, egg foo-yung, and chop suey". They soon acquired an ethnically Chinese partner and cook, Harry Wong; Wong bought them out of the restaurant in 1937. His parents separated in 1939 and subsequently divorced; his mother later worked again for Wong in Tacoma, Washington. She and Wong eventually married.

During their time based at Grand Coulee, the 4-year-old Lawney became a reasonably competent player of the ukulele. He and 2-year-old sister Luana toured for a brief spell with their father on the Eastern Washington vaudeville circuit performing Hawaiian music.

From 1940 to 1942, Reyes was a student at the Chemawa Indian School, a boarding school five miles north of Salem, Oregon; he would later write that his consciousness of being "Indian" was largely formed through his conversations there with other students. The rest of his childhood and youth was spent living with his father, variously on the Colville Reservation and in Okanogan, Washington.

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