April 15, 2021
V E R N O N I A’ S
Volume 15 Issue 8
free
reflecting the spirit of our community
VHS Runners Shine
at Cross Country
State Championship
See full story on page 12.
Jamboree Scheduled
to Return This Year
Plans are currently underway to revive the Ver-
nonia Friendship Jamboree on the first full weekend of
August.
At their April 5 meeting, the Vernonia City Coun-
cil approved a request from the Jamboree Committee for
use of numerous city properties on August 6-8. Jamboree
President Roger Smith told the Council it is still unclear
exactly which events will take place, but the group did
request use of the Anderson Park Horse Arena, Hawkins
Park where the logging show is held, along with Spencer
Park where vendors and the car and motorcycle shows
have been held in past years.
The Jamboree Committee is schedule to meet vir-
tually on Monday, April 26 at 7:00 pm.
Vernonia School
U.S. Bank to
Permanently Close Board Candidates
seven seats on the Vernonia School
Vernonia Branch Board are Six up of for the election
on May 18. Normally either
After shutting the doors to their Ver-
nonia office for much of the COVID pan-
demic, U.S. Bank has announced they are
permanently closing the branch, located at
905 Bridge Street.
In a letter sent to current custom-
ers, signed by District Leader Cassandra
Voelker, U.S. Bank explains that, “...cus-
tomer’s banking preferences and behaviors
are changing,” so they are, “...adapting how
and where we operate.”
There is no mention in the let-
ter about whether U.S. Bank will continue
to operate the ATM machine located at the
branch. Customers with safe deposit boxes
received a separate letter instructing them to
collect their property before June 22. For
customer “convenience” the letter does in-
clude a map with other nearby branches
in the region that are still open, including
Banks, Scappoose, Clatskanie, and St. Hel-
ens.
three or four of the seven positions come up for elec-
tion every two years, but during the last four years, three
Board members resigned and one position went unfilled
when no candidate ran for the seat, forcing the School
Board to make appointments to those positions until the
next election.
Three candidates are running unopposed. Three
of the seats will have a contested election, although Leslie
Seeberger, who is running for seat #3, thought no one was
running for the seat when she applied and is encourag-
ing everyone to vote for her opponent, Amy Cieloha, who
currently holds the position.
Columbia County elections will not distribute
a Voters Pamphlet for this election, so Vernonia’s Voice
asked each of the candidates to provide the following in-
formation to help voters familiarize themselves with the
candidates:
• Past pertinent experience, boards or committees you
have served on, community groups you’ve been involved
in, or any other professional, personal, or volunteer expe-
rience that might be relevant.
• Please tell us why you are running for the School Board
and what you hope to accomplish if elected.
Each candidate’s total response was limited to
250 words and are published as provided without edits.
continued on page 6
The ‘Slow-Motion Genocide’ of the Chinook Indian Nation
Federal recognition provides
tribes with critical healthcare
and education. What happens
to the tribal nations that the
U.S. refuses to recognize?
By Anna V. Smith
High Country News
Artwork by Greg A. Robinson
Before the pandemic, the cedar
plankhouse called Cathlapotle would
have been full of stories and fire. Ev-
ery winter, the Chinook Indian Nation
and neighboring tribes hold their annual
gathering here, on their ancestral lands
inside
10
New Mural at
El Amigo Bakery
11
Easter Egg Hunt
12
State Cross Country
Championship
on a Columbia River floodplain, where
red-winged blackbirds sing from the cat-
tails and yellow-and-orange-eyed sand-
hill cranes strut on stilted legs. It’s not
far from the remnants of a village also
called Cathlapotle, a major Chinookan
trading town established around 1450
that once held as many as 16 plankhous-
es.
On sunny days when Cathl-
apotle is in use, the cedar beams glow
warmly in the shafts of light streaming
through the roof’s smoke holes. People
gather round the fires at the center, with
a row of chairs for elders and children.
The air echoes with talk and songs, and
the smell of sweetgrass filters in from
outside. But this winter, Cathlapotle
was silent, nestled in untrodden green
grass and fog, its doors closed.
Like other communities, Chi-
nook tribal members have had to
adapt to pandemic-induced isolation.
Though scattered throughout the Pa-
cific Northwest, people have recently
gathered most Thursdays on Zoom,
joined by members of the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and
others.
One Thursday afternoon in ear-
ly March, a group of Chinuk Wawa
language teachers, basket-weavers
and storytellers called in from their
homes on the Grand Ronde Reserva-
tion, in Portland, Eugene and Willapa
Bay, to share ikanum, or traditional
stories. In consonant-heavy Chinuk
Wawa, they caught up with each other
and read aloud an ikanum translated
from the Kathlamet dialect of Chi-
nook. It recalled a time of hunger on
the edge of spring, when the salmon
people went up the Columbia and
Family by Greg A. Robinson
met with their aunties, the big and little
wapato, and their uncles, the skunk cab-
bage and the rushroot.
The stories are important for
cultural continuity and the way they
bring people together. “It really defines
the whole way we look at the world,”
Tony Johnson, chairman of the Chinook
Indian Nation, told me outside tribal
headquarters in the tiny town of Bay
Center, in southwestern Washington.
“Every landform here, every creek, ev-
ery inlet has a connection to these sto-
ries. So if you know these stories, you
see this place in a very different way.”
For over 120 years, the Chi-
nook Indian Nation has been trying
to prove its sovereignty to the United
States government by seeking formal
federal recognition. Official status ac-
knowledges the tribe’s sovereignty and
continued on page 8