$20 OFF
prescription glasses
rainbow
optics
frame & lenses
. complete ^
*n missing.
4
EUGENE
LOCATIONS
)
Not valid with any insurance plans Expires February 28. 2005
CAMPUS SUN&SPORT WESTSIDE SHELDON
ASUO NOW HIRING!
Applications Available in ASUO Suite 4
Applications Due by 5pm February 16th or until filled
Contact ASUO at 346-3724 (AA/EOE/ADA)
Specializing in the Care of
German, Swedish
& Japanese
Automobiles.
Courtesy
Van Service
Bosch Authorized
Service
ASE Master
Certified Technicians
Since 1975
EUR®,
'ASIAN
M O T I V
1917 Franklin Blvd., Eugene
www.euro-asian.com
485-8226
Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer
Dwight Souers of the Lakota tribe offers a blessing before the opening of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
History: Exhibit accents indigenous cultures
Continued from page 1
President Dave Frohnmayer and a rib
bon cutting ceremony by two Moss
Street preschoolers.
Museum Director Mel Aikens said
Knight’s predecessor may not be the
only one who hasn’t received due
credit. Aikens notes that while the
discipline of natural science is often
considered to be a Western construct,
American Indians have had an ex
tremely intimate knowledge of the
environment for centuries.
“We’re not the only ones who in
vented it,” he said. “In order to live
off the land, you need to have an ex
tensive knowledge of it. ... They
come to know effectively everything
about their natural settings.”
On Friday, about a hundred muse
um patrons, young and old, streamed
into the museum. Moss Street
preschoolers, though unable to read,
were among the most enthusiastic
and excited patrons.
Aikens, also a University professor
emeritus of anthropology, said the
museum’s content is targeted
at families.
“We’ve tried to create displays that
both children and parents can enjoy,”
he said. “We would like to have a
museum that Native American par
ents can send their children to learn
about their history. ”
The brand new exhibit is an at
tempt to provide a comprehensive
look at Oregon’s natural and cultural
history, with a special emphasis on
Oregon’s indigenous cultures. The
exhibit begins with the creation of
Oregon 46 billion years ago.
“If you go back far enough, the
land we’re standing on isn’t even
here,” Aikens said.
The rest of the exhibit is divided up
into four parts, each representing one
of Oregon’s distinct geographic re
gions and the American Indian cul
tures that thrived within them.
“We tell the story of human history
and how different people coped with
the landscape,” Aikens said.
Each of the four regions — the
Great Basin, the Columbia Plateau,
the Coast and the Western Valleys —
has a diorama that represents its re
spective natural and cultural assets.
Oregon artist Don Prechtel created
the murals for the dioramas. Aikens
said Prechtel worked to ensure that
every painstaking detail of the natu
ral setting and of the people por
trayed was accurate.
One of the museum’s highlights is
a replica of a 500-year-old cedar
plank house in the Pacific Coast dio
rama. Don Day, a graduate student
and member of the Confederate
Tribes of the Grand Ronde, said he
constmcted the house by attempting
to use the techniques one would
have used a half millennium ago. For
instance, Day used an ancient wood
splitting technique that involves
wedging pieces of wood into logs and
pounding them with a
giant mallet fashioned from a
tree trunk.
Other highlights include an au
thentic fishing net and a Paiute wiki
up, a dome-shaped structure that
served as a shelter.
The museum also features a
science workshop, called “Science
at the Core,” where patrons can
handle volcanic rocks and
participate in a range of other
hands-on activities.
“It’s basically like a classroom
more than anything,” Aikens said.
“We’ll be able to teach kids how the
science is done.”
Aikens called the response to the
museum’s opening “beautiful.” He
was especially excited about the
number of young people who came
to the opening, saying the museum
provides a unique, multi-dimensional
learning experience.
“(Schoolchildren) have the oppor
tunity to study these multi-layered
kinds of displays from which you can
draw a variety of information,”
he said.
Community member Sabin Lam
son, who was on hand for Friday’s
grand opening, could barely contain
his excitement over the exhibits.
“I’m fascinated with the anthropol
ogy and the geology of Oregon,” he
said. “I wish this museum was eight
times bigger.”
Lamson, who has traveled exten
sively around Oregon, said the ex
hibits provided him with some new
insight into the sights he’d seen.
“I’ve been traveling around Oregon
for years and years and looking at
things,” he said. “This puts together
a whole number of things I’ve
seen out in the landscape but
never connected.”
moriahbalingit@ daily emerald, com
your independent student newspaper
Stand out fromfche crowd
'a v'«v >'t; _• 4
mwMiimw a«»oo.v
A program by the
College ot Arts and Sciences
and the Career Center
Enhance your education with the
Professional Distinctions program.
Compliment your liberal arts degree with a specific
set of professional perspectives and skills.
For full information visit our website
https://uodistinctions.uoregon.edu
phone 541-346-3902; or e-mail uodistinctions@cas.uoregon.edu
o
O
Ben Sherman » Three Dots » Mi' ‘
Accessorize...
£
B O U X
541.485.4891
2827 Oak St.
.www.boux.com
‘X
10:30-5:30 Monday-Friday
U-4 Saturday ,
UWlWiSITWactTXJXITKCr
^Baker» Angela Adams * White & Warren * Mitzi Bakerl