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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2022)
March 3, 2022 free VERNONIA’S Volume 16 Issue 5 Reflecting the spirit of our community VHS Winter Sports Report: Loggers Go To State! Wrestlers take 3 rd place, Lady Loggers fall in opening round Wrestling – The Vernonia Logger wrestlers placed 3 rd at the 2022 State Championship, the highest finish for a Vernonia team in the history of the tournament, and a tremendous accom- plishment for first year head coach Ian Rogers and his squad. “It’s a great feeling, that’s for sure,” said coach Rogers. “Finishing in the top 5 at State has been a goal from the beginning of the season. It’s the expectation I set for myself as a coach and for the team. Every practice, every drill, every sprint that we do, it’s all going to- wards that goal.” Tournament host, and perennial cham- pion, Culver High School once again won the team title on February 26 with 182 points, Il- linois Valley finished 2 nd with 101.5, and Ver- nonia scored 80 points; Toledo with 72 and Lakeview with 65 rounded out the top five teams. The Loggers qualified seven wrestlers for the State Championship, after finishing 2 nd at the District Tournament on February 19. Every one of the Loggers contribut- ed to the team score, with all seven wrestlers winning at least one match with a pin during the tournament. Senior team captain Brandon Depue took 2 nd place at 120, sophomore Trevor Wolf took 3 rd at 126, and freshmen Leo Cosce at 120 and Isaiah Naeve at 285 both took 4 th place, and brought home individual medals. Rogers pointed out that the team won a total of 15 matches across the tournament, 14 of those by pin. “The way tournament scoring works, you get two extra team points for every pin,” explained Rogers. That added up to 28 extra points and helped secure the 3 rd place fin- ish. “That’s just how we’ve wrestled all year. We wrestle to pin, and it paid off at State.” Rogers said Vernonia set the tone from the very start of the day. Freshman 106 pounder Isaiah Johnson wrestled in the open- ing match of the tournament, and won by fall in 1:29, followed by a win by fall for Depue at 120 and another win by fall by Naeve at 285. “That was a great start for us,” said Rogers. “I credit a lot of our success on the day to the way we started and Isaiah John- son getting that first pin.” Johnson was unseeded at 106 and won that opening match before losing to the #1 seed in the bracket and then fall- ing in his first consolation round match. Depue was the #1 seed Top: The Vernonia Loggers Wrestling team brought home the 3 rd place team trophy and the defending State Cham- continued on page 3 from the State Championship. Bottom: The Lady Loggers basketball team won the District title and earned a spot in the State Playoffs. “Tribal Perspectives on Water” at the Vernonia Library By Scott Laird Talking with Rose High Bear is like having a chat and a cup of tea with your most favorite, fun, and interesting aunt – she’s curious about you, positive and encouraging, sweet and funny, and quirky and engaging. But most of all, she’s full of wisdom and knowledge she would love to share with you. Vernonia will get a chance to St. Patrick’s Day Parade is back this year! Thursday, March 17 All Are Welcome Starts at Vernonia Napa at 5:00 pm meet Rose High Bear on March 9 at 6:30 pm at the Vernonia Library, where she will make a presentation called “Tribal Perspectives on Water” part of a series that is sponsored through the American Library Association’s, Libraries Trans- forming Communities, Small and Rural Libraries Grant. High Bear has dedicated her life and her work to lifting Native American Peoples and honors their connection to the natural world. She is an accom- plished and respected leader in not just the Native community, but also in business and governmental affairs, who excels at building relationships and partnerships. She is the founder of, and currently runs, Elderberry Wisdom Farm near Salem, Oregon. Born and raised in McGrath, Alaska, a remote subarctic Athabascan village on the Kuskoquim River, High Bear attended Oregon State Univer- sity, and upon graduation, co-founded Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. in Portland, Oregon. As the Executive Director for 27 years, she dedicated herself to de- veloping diverse and culturally-tai- lored multimedia and learning models focused on Native cultural sustainabil- ity, health and wellness resilience, and habitat restoration. She has been the Executive Producer of numerous films, educational curriculum, and televi- sion and radio programing. She is the founder of Wisdom Workforce Devel- opment, LLC which provides habitat restoration jobs for low income Native Americans working under contracts on public lands and natural areas. In 2004 she formed the Northwest Native Storytellers Association and worked on the American Indian Oral History Col- lections from 1990-2019, recording the stories of 450+ Native American elders, oral historians, environmental scien- tists, and cultural leaders. In 2019 she retired from Wis- dom of the Elders and moved to rural Marion County where she formed El- derberry Wisdom Farm, a 20 acre Na- tive American nonprofit offering hor- ticultural and farming career pathways and microenterprise opportunities for Native adults interested in restoring lo- cal ecosystems. She is also currently the editor of an independent research proj- ect highlighting the life and teachings of Wisdom of the Elders founder, the late Lakota medicine man, and Rose’s hus- band, Martin High Bear. I asked High Bear what we could expect when she visits Vernonia and makes her presentation on March 9. “We have a very large Native American community across the country, there are more than 570 Federally recognized tribes and many others that are no lon- ger recognized, so it’s a huge commu- nity,” she begins. “And every commu- nity is different and every individual is different. So whenever I speak on any- thing, I always like to say that it’s my personal opinion. It’s important to say that I don’t speak for anyone else. In the Native American world, our voice is extremely important to us. And we stand strong on certain things.” In a world where there is so much discord and negativity, High Bear is a breath of fresh air. “My perspec- tive is always to be positive. I’m into race reconciliation, and peace and har- mony – the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, the oneness of mankind. It should eliminate all conflict, but it sure doesn’t.” So, with that being said, what does High Bear have to teach us about water? “My perspective on water is to look at the sacredness of water and be positive about it,” she explains. “The world is troubled about the quality and quantity, particularly with drought, about water today. There are many mes- sages out there, and people can tune into them and check up on them as much as they want to, with all the negative sta- tistics. My thing is I like to be uplifting at all times, so my feeling is to give the community a perspective from Native elders who value the spirit of the wa- ter, and what it symbolizes, and what it means to us. Because we can’t survive without water.” continued on page 3
