Siletz news /, August 01, 2011, Page 15, Image 15

Courtesy photo by Tiffany Stuart
The Siletz Tribal display covers multiple tables in the central rotunda area of the National Museum of the
American Indian in Washington, D.C. Several entrances to the museum lead people to this area.
Courtesy photo by John Harrington Photography
Bud Lane and his granddaughter, Halli
Skauge (above), sing The Counting
Song in Athabaskan.
Courtesy photo by Bonnie Crawford
Siletz dancers Loraine Butler, Tiffany
Stokes, Clarinda Black, Morgan
Crawford, Tim Stuart, Tiffany Stuart,
Halli Skauge, Ashliegh Ramirez,
Rose Pigsley and Hunter Noble share
a Feather Dance at the Smithsonian
Folk Festival.
Continued from previous page
Colombian Elders, an expert basket maker,
admired a particular type of ornamental
bead made from a seed that the Siletz
people use in their regalia. Cheryl Lane
gave the Elder about a hundred of these
beautiful beads, each one of them baked,
sized and drilled by hand.
At this moment, Mr. José Montano,
an NMAI cultural interpreter and educa­
tor, appeared and warmly greeted the
guests in Spanish, a language that all
the Colombian indigenous visitors could
understand. Mr. Montano is himself an
indigenous South American from the
Aymara community and his commentary
on the NMAI exhibitions was, according
to the Colombian guests, a highlight of
their visit to the United States.
Later that day, Mr. Uldarico Matapf
Yucuna from the Colombian group
reflected on his visit to the NMAI: “That
place opened my eyes. I saw things and
understood things there that I have not
seen before. I learned more there in 45
minutes than at any other time during
my visit here. You see this hotel lobby
where we are now sitting? It has no spirit
(“alma”). But that museum, it has spirit.”
When it was time for the Colombian
visitors to leave the NMAI so that they
could be on time for the 11 a.m. open­
ing of the Festival, they expressed their
thanks and their regret that they could not
stay to watch the Siletz dance program
that afternoon. After a few minutes of
discussions, Emi Ireland arranged with
Mr. Lane and Dr. Olivia Cadaval, Curator
of the Colombia program at the Festival,
to have the Siletz dancers perform on the
Festival grounds.
As the Siletz dancers left the Festival
grounds for another commitment, the
Colombians expressed their wish to meet
again with their North American Native
relatives, whether in Colombia or the United
States. They also stated a strong desire to
further explore the col lections of the NMAI.
After hearing about how well the
Siletz have preserved their culture and
language, Mr. Uldarico Matapf Yucuna,
an Elder and ritual authority, expressed his
desire to have a filmmaker assist his people
with a cultural preservation project that
he envisions: documenting the shamanic
language of his people - a special, arcane
language that only shamans know. Perhaps
that will be another concrete manifesta­
tion of the bonds that were created on a
memorable day on the Festival grounds.
Emilienne Ireland is a research col­
laborator at the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of Natural History. For more
than 30 years, she has studied the lan­
guage and history of the Wauja, an Ama­
zonian people in Central Brasil.
Visit Mr Matapi’s Facebook page
to see a little of what their world is like
in the Amazonian part of Colombia
- facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.
php?id= 100001922671182
August 2011
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Siletz News
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