Chetco, con’t from page 1
said Crookes. “Great care is being given
to historical accuracy. Expert and authori
tative sources are being sought, used and
the copy is being vetted.”
All board members are private citi
zens who are committed to volunteering
their time and energy to this project. The
consensus of the group was that “there is a
near absence of history in the Brookings-
Harbor area about the Chetco Indian
people, the earliest known inhabitants of
the Chetco River Valley. Most people who
live in the region today are completely
unaware that the area had once been the
Chetco Indian’s aboriginal lands and that
they were removed to a reservation.”
“Our team started this project because
there is a minimal amount of history
about the Chetco Indians in the Brookings-
Harbor area. If you visit the local museum,
you will find information about the pio
neers settling in the area, but very little
history about the Chetco people,” said
Crookes. “In fact, if you ask most local
residents today, you will discover that
they are completely unaware that the
Chetco Indians were the original inhabit
ants of the Chetco River Valley and that
they were removed to reservations.”
The design stage of the memorial was
funded by a grant from the Siletz Tribal
Charitable Contribution Fund.
The memorial will sit on a landscaped
site, which will include indigenous plant
species representing nature. The water
effect will be a scale representation of
each of the microcosms, from the head
waters of the Chetco River to where it
enters the Pacific Ocean, from the springs
and upwelling at its source to the rapids
and spawning pool of the mid-river to the
metaphoric return to the ocean.
This open system will pump water
from the boat basin that will be aerated
as it enters the top of the cascading pools.
This aeration will continue as the water
cascades down into the salmon pool,
through the rapids and again as it falls
back into the boat basin.
Three educational story lines will be
told along the pathways to the memorial
grounds. The placards will be color-coded
to make the story easy to follow.
The first continuum along the path
will tell the story of the land and the river.
The second will tell of the plants and
animals indigenous to the Chetco River
Valley and how the Chetco people used
plants and animals in their daily life.
The third and last will be the history
of the Chetco people themselves and their
journey through time. A big part of this
story will be told through the metaphor
of Lucy Dick’s life. She was bom into a
relatively isolated culture, lived as one
with nature, saw the first white settler,
experienced relocation to the reservation
and lived long enough to return to the
land of her birth, where she was laid to
rest in 1940.
The project will be lit for esthetic and
safety purposes. It will have fencing and
guardrails to control access to sensitive
areas and for safety. It will be designed
for disabled accessibility and will have
benches throughout.
Sculptor A. Vincen “Rusty” Talbot,
a fifth-generation descendant of Idaho
pioneers, has strong emotional ties to
the American West and its rich cultural
heritage. She is a disciplined historical
researcher who insists on authenticity
and detail in her sculptures and paintings
of American Indians. Over the years, her
works have been added to many private
collections around the world.
An article in the Curry Coastal Pilot
on June 25, 2011, entitled Digging up
the past: Tsunami repair work uncovers
Indian artifact, followed the March 2011
tsunami damage at the Port of Brookings-
Harbor. While repair work was being
done, Indian artifacts were unearthed
during drilling. This slowed down the
work and representatives from engineer
ing companies, the port and historical
organizations promptly visited the site.
Dr. Dennis Griffin of the State His
torical Preservation Office (SHPO) was
quoted as saying, “It’s not very often
you can see such an extensive village site
intact. It is pretty important.”
Help Tribal youth by becoming a
volunteer for Prevention Program
If you are interested in volunteering with the Prevention Program, here are
some specific guidelines:
•
Apply to be a Tribal Prevention volunteer at Human Resources. This will
include agreeing to a criminal background check and a drug screen.
•
Attend an orientation with Prevention staff to learn about ethics and program
policies and procedures. A volunteer training program will be developed.
•
For those with previous problems of alcohol/drugs, at least one year of
living a clean and sober lifestyle is required.
•
Participate in making a prevention video/DVD.
•
All people to be filmed must sign an agreement to be filmed.
•
The Tribal general manager and Tribal Council must approve of the final
cut before it’s released for public viewing.
Any question regarding this process, please contact Jenifer Metcalf,
Prevention coordinator, at jeniferm@ctsi.nsn.us or 800-600-5599 or
541-444-9618.
'
...............................
File photo
Nicholle Kessinger of the Siletz Tribal Charitable Contribution Fund (left) presents
a grant check to Lynda Timeus, Adrienne Crookes and Karen Crump of the Chetco
Indian Historical Memorial Committee.
Crookes said that Dr. Griffin suoports
the Chetco Indian Memorial project. The
article is available at www.currypilot.com.
It’s been said that, “Those who for
get the lessons of the past are doomed to
repeat them.”
“This monument is intended to
remind us of these lessons and point to a
brighter future for us all. This beautiful
memorial will serve to educate thousands
of visitors and create a renewed sense of
awareness for the history of the area. The
Chetco Indian Historical Memorial will
be a resource of which the Brookings-
Harbor community and the State of
Oregon will be proud,” said Timeus.
The group currently is working on
two grant applications and fundraising
activities, and is preparing to install a
pre-monument informational sign on site.
If you would like to donate, please
visit chetcoindianmemorial.com or con
tact Timeus at 541-661-4178 or Crookes
at 541-510-0355 for more information.
Calvin L. Van Pelt -1924-2011
Calvin L. Van Pelt, 87, of Portland,
Ore., died Sept. 25, 2011, at Legacy
Emanuel Medical Center in Portland.
A private family graveside service was
held at Forest View Cemetery in Forest
Grove, Ore.
Bom Sept. 4,1924, in Alsea, Ore., the
son of Roy and Gertrude (Sapp) Van Pelt,
he was raised in Waldport, Ore. A veteran
of World War II, Calvin joined the U.S.
Army in June 1943 at Fort Lewis, Wash.,
and served for 214 years. He landed on
Utah Beach and was part of the Northern
France, Ardennes and Rhineland cam
paigns. Calvin received his discharge in
December 1945 at Camp Plauche, La., at
the rank of technician 5th grade.
After the war, Calvin returned to
Oregon, where he graduated from Pacific
University in Forest Grove in 1949. That
same year, Calvin married Phyllis Asbury.
Calvin subsequently attended Thunder
bird Graduate School of International
Management and upon graduation, he and
Phyllis returned to Portland, where they
raised their four children.
Calvin began his career as an export
trainee with Jantzen, Inc., in Portland
and eventually became the manager of
its international division. Later, he held
executive positions at Columbia Exporters,
White Stag, Sea-Pac International and
Martin Sales International.
He also worked more than 20 years to
establish the World Trade Center in Port
land and served several years as honorary
consul to the Republic of South Africa.
He served on the Pacific University
Alumni Board of Directors, as an Elder
for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indi
ans and several other community-based
boards, foundations and committees. In
Calvin L. Van Pelt
June 2007, Pacific University bestowed
a Lifetime Achievement Award to Calvin
and five other graduates.
In 1983, he was united in marriage to
Loris Close in Portland. They enjoyed 28
years of travel, music and sports.
Calvin was preceded in death by his
parents, Roy and Gertrude Van Pelt. Sur
vivors include his wife, Loris Van Pelt of
the family home in Portland; his children,
Nita Van Pelt and Ken Van Pelt of Port
land, Paul Van Pelt of Bermuda, Lawrence
Van Pelt of Newport Beach, Calif., and
Craig Close of Chicago; sister Kathleen
Forster of Siletz, Ore.; and grandchildren
Blair Ana, Kellen and Hugh.
The family suggests remembrances
be contributions to the Scholarship Fund,
c/o Pacific University, 2043 College Way,
Forest Grove OR 97116, in his memory.
Fuiten, Rose & Hoyt Funeral Home in
Forest Grove handled the arrangements.
December 2011
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Siletz News
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