This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: ALECK Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/nZB.2ACE/339 Message Board Post: The Hood River News, Hood River, OR., December 15, 1939, page 13 INDIAN REQUESTS TO WHITES BANNED It was interesting to learn at the hearing held at The Dalles last week by the Indian office in execution of the will of the late Martha Aleck, late revered patriarchess of Hood River, that requests made by Indians to white persons are disallowed by policy, unless the person is actually of kinship. It was claimed, reports The Optimist, that a white man is entitled to a $4,500 legacy from Martha Aleck for the reason that he cared for the old woman in her declining years. Martha Aleck was a Yakima of Indian of distinguished appearance, always evidencing as great dignity as an English peeress, a patrician lady of old Rome or one of those gradame rulers of the Basque families. She had many friends among the pioneer residents of Hood River; and on occasion she may have been seen holding court, as she greeted old friends from a seat on the base stones of the old front of the story of A.M. Williams & company. Martha Aleck’s husband, who died some years before she, was a noted character of Hood River was in days when the mail to White Salmon, Washington, was delivered from Hood river. For years Joe carried the mail. It is a legend that on occasion, when sub-zero weather caused the Columbia to freeze over, that he performed his task heroically, jumping from ice floe to ice floe, in making the treacherous crossing. Indeed, the legal proceedings recalled the mid-Colombia has been losing many picturesque old Indian characters. This was posted for reference only. I am not related to, nor am I researching this family. If you have additional information about the person or event listed above, please post it as reply to this message.