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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2012)
Ranger district shows Indian students options in natural resources careers SVECA and Chemawa students join others at Detroit Ranger Station the role Native people play in living in balance with the natural world. He also emphasized the Tribe’s interest in encouraging American Indian youth to pursue careers that allow them to care for the land in the traditions of their Elders. DETROIT, Ore. - Native Tribes that inhabit Western Oregon initiated a human-landscape relationship that contin ues to help guide management of public lands in the National Forest System today. Students rotated between five career stations that included natural resources, archaeology and cultural resources, recreation and wilderness management, forestry and fire management. On April 6, the Detroit Ranger Station hosted a special event to acknowledge the shared responsibilities of the agency and Tribal governments in promoting a land ethic for today’s youth. The fourth bi-annual American Indian Student Education Enhancement Day ( AI-SEED) was designed to inspire Tribal youth to think about pursuing careers in natural resource management. The event was attended by approximately 40 high school and Job Corps students from Che mawa Indian School, Siletz Valley Early College Academy (SVECA), Willamina High School, Connections Academy, Angell Job Corps and Timberlake Job Corps. Tribal youth leaders and Elders also participated in the event. Bud Lane, Tribal Council vice- chairman for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, provided an invocation. He then offered a Tribal perspective on Grady McMahan, Detroit district ranger, and Steve Bobb, Grand Ronde Tribal Council member, closed the event with words of support for the students. Students also received a certificate of par ticipation from the Willamette National Forest and a small gift courtesy of the Tribal Councils that supported the event. Through everyone’s efforts, it’s hoped that seeds of appreciation for natural resources and the continuation of tradi tional practices used in caring for the land were planted with the students and that those seeds will continue to grow as they pursue various career paths. The Willamette National Forest, Detroit Ranger District extends special thanks to the Siletz, Warm Springs and Grand Ronde Tribes for their contribu tions to AI-SEED. The stations featured presentations by both Tribal and Forest Service natu ral resource professionals. Presenters described the roles and responsibilities related to their professions and high lighted the various types of employment opportunities available with the agency and Tribal governments, including sea sonal and permanent positions, co-op pro grams, internships and apprenticeships. Students had the opportunity to sit inside the cab of a fire engine, use forest measurement equipment and learn about traditional materials used in making baskets, clothing and tools. Participants later enjoyed a lunch sponsored by the Siletz Tribe, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Engine crew members from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the U.S. Forest Service provide students the opportunity to experience a day in the life of a wild land firefighter. Courtesy photos District Ranger Grady McMahan welcomes approximately 40 Job Corps and Tribal students to the Detroit Ranger Station. Census coming for farms, ranches The USDA - National Agriculture Sta tistic Service, Census of Agriculture 2012 needs American Indian agricultural opera tions to participate in the upcoming census. This includes retirement/lifestyle farms and ranches that grow a small amount of plants or crops or keep only a few animals, up to the largest of operations and everything in between. Landowners who only have income from government programs also are counted as farms. This census helps determine the fund ing rate for USDA and other programs within your respective states. It will help state programs receive funds to meet Tribal range and agriculture program requirements/requests. This census also is used to provide information to Congress and federal agen cies for funding programs in Indian country. The National Agriculture Statistic Service would like names and addresses for this census. All information provided is confidential. Census forms will be sent out in December 2012 and January 2013. For more details - nasts.usda.gov/ counts, 800-892-1660, NRCS Tribal con servationists and BIA agencies. Tooth Talk: Culture Camp and Chickletize - Did you look for the definition? By Mary Ellen Volansky, EPDH, MS Culture Camp is next month and I’d like to review oral health aspects of cul ture as I know them. In the past, I have reviewed plants that have been used by Tribes of the Pacific Northwest and North America. There have been discussions of how one plant could be utilized for many very different treatments depending on the Tribe using the plant. One author suggested this mul tiple use for a single plant pointed toward the spiritual aspects of Indian medicine. My favorite topic was sharing the documentation of the lack of cavities and periodontal disease that Indians of North America experienced less than 150 years ago. Or maybe it was the surprise that dentists of the time expressed at finding this to be true. My surprise was fueled by my dis tain for the dental professionals of that time (mid- to late-1800s) as I read the language they used when writing about Native people. 14 • Siletz News • New this year is a webpage from the University of Michigan in Dearborn, Mich. It has listings for hundreds of plants, the Tribes that used them and the purposes for which they used these plants. As I reviewed this webpage, there appeared to be more listings for oral health care than I have found at other sources. This is surprising as the curator of this webpage is Daniel Moerman, the same man who compiled the book I have mentioned many times - Native American Ethnobotany, 1998. This book lists and cross references more than 3,000 plants and their uses by Tribes of North America. If you have any interest in this subject or medical ethnobotany, give this web page a try at herb.umd.umich.edu. It has a great search engine. You can type in a word, in my case “teeth,” and the engine will find entries related to that word. For teeth, I was presented with 57 matches; for tongue, there were 37 matches; and for sore mouth, 50 matches. Here are some of the plants and their oral health use I found on this webpage: June 2012 • • • • • Oceanspray (rosaceae) was a Lummi drug used as a “poultice of leaves applied to sore lips.” Smooth sumac (anacrdiaceae) was a Sanpoil drug, mashed leaves rubbed on sore lips. Okanagan and Thomp son people chewed the roots for a sore mouth or tongue. Woodland strawberry (rosaceae) and Virginia strawberry were utilized by Okanagan-Colville people as a “leaf powder dusted into a baby’s sore mouth.” Twinberry honeysuckle (caprifolia- ceae) was used by Quinault people for sore mouths by chewing the leaves. Kinikinnick (ericaceae) was used in the form of an infusion, a mouthwash for cankers and sore gums, by Black foot people. They also utilized green milkweed root; someone chewed the root and then applied this to a nursing baby’s sore gums. I will have a handout of more of these plants and their uses for oral health care at Culture Camp (July 10-12). I even found a citation for chewing “hard” tree sap to clean teeth. This I knew because of teacher Joe Scott, who had his students try it. We use fluoride varnish in our clinic each time you come. I apply it to the teeth of Head Start students 3-4 times per school year to prevent cavities. Fluoride varnish is made from either pine tree rosin or a chemical copy of it. Besides tasting like tree sap, fluoride varnish has a history of which it can be proud. Now, what you have all been waiting for - the definition of chickletize and who is the winner of a new Sonicare. Sadly, we will have to wait. This article is written before the due date I gave for sending in your answer(s). So I had to wait until May 15 and you’ll have to wait too. If no one gives a correct answer, I’ll run another question or definition in July. Just remember, you can look up the answer. As you can see, I’m very fond of the web, so enjoy your search. My e-mail address (for your answer) is maryellenv@ ctsi.nsn.us. See you next month at Culture Camp.
