4A
OPINION
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015
Western tribes strive to keep the light alive
G
rowing up is hard enough without
having to worry about your civili-
zation going extinct.
In the s ummer 2015 edition of Gil-
crease magazine, young Cherokee Tribe
member Danielle Culp draws a quite bril-
liant metaphor about
surviving within a
maelstrom of wor-
ry about whether the
culture that defines
you is fading away.
“One of the scar-
iest things for me
to think about is the
death of a star. Some
stars are close enough
that the light reaches
Matt
us in minutes. Some
Winters
stars are so far it takes
tens of thousands of
years for their light to travel to us. Like
all things, stars die. If a star dies and it
takes hundreds of years for the light to
reach Earth we will see the light of that
star even after it has passed. By the time
that we realize it is gone it will have been
gone a long time.
“I am afraid that cultures are like
stars, that they can die too. We know they
do, even if we do not like to admit it or
talk about it. The original inhabitants of
the eastern coast were some of the first
ones to come in contact with the new ex-
plorers. There were some tribes that were
wiped off the face of the planet. Either by
disease or by the sword. Those cultures
are lost in time. There was no one left to
pass on their stories, their language, their
legacy. I equate them to close stars, for
we can see the immediate effect of their
demise. I am afraid that other cultures
have died and we are still seeing their
light in present generations, but when
we realize that they are truly gone it will
be too late to save their memory. I know
that this is not a happy thought, and if I
allowed myself, it could be too big a bur-
den to bear. Instead, I allow it to inspire
me. It inspires me to fight for my culture
to show the world that I am still here, that
WE are still here. I refuse to let our light
go out, because I want it to continue to
shine in generations to come.”
The Chinook — and
the Clatsop on the
Oregon side of the
river — continue
hoping, in the
words of the young
Cherokee woman,
to receive some
acknowledgment
that ‘We are still
here.’
Photo courtesy of the Confederated Umatilla Journal
A group of Native Americans attending a first-ever White House-sponsored event in sup-
port of tribal youth poses with the Washington Monument while waiting for the Smithso-
nian Museum of American History to open during a visit to Washington, D.C. in July.
M
y first boss was a full-blooded
Cherokee, a profoundly likable
Oklahoma man named Henry Gourd,
whose name always comes easily to
mind because he was distinctly pumpkin
shaped. Living all my life in the West, I
can’t gauge how common it is for white
Americans in general to have such Native
Americans in their lives. But certainly for
me, after my parents decided to build a
house just inside a reservation, it was in-
evitable that I’d have a stronger-than-or-
dinary interest in their fate. There have
always been some whites who cross the
line into being tribal groupies. I know
far too much about their internal feuds,
corruption, school bullying and other or-
dinary human foibles to so idolize Indi-
an life. But it would be outright sinful to
not pay attention when despair haunts too
many Indian people, good folks just try-
ing to have decent lives.
There are glimmers of hope dawning
on the horizon, much of this light com-
ing from people like Culp who aren’t de-
feated and who feel a renewed sense of
direction.
In northeast Oregon, the Confederat-
ed Umatilla Journal’s August 2015 issue
reports on six Umatilla Youth Leadership
Council members attending an inspira-
tional gathering convened by the White
House to improve the lives of n ative
Photo courtesy of Confederated Umatilla Journal
Umatilla Indian Reservation Youth Leadership Council representatives Cece Hoffman,
left, and Alyssa Farrow hurry to put on rain gear during a wet ride around the nation’s
capital aboard a tour bus during the White House Tribal Youth Gathering July.
youth around the country. Visiting the
capital ought to be a rite of passage we
arrange for every young American — this
would surely be a far better use of taxes
than most of the ridiculous ways in which
they are wasted. But for small-town teen-
agers from Indian Country, making con-
nections at the center of national power
and visiting the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of the American Indian might be
the kind of spark needed to ignite a life of
activism and political engagement.
Attendee Alyssa Farrow, secretary of
the Umatilla youth council, reports be-
ing moved by irst l ady Michelle Obama’s
speech to the 1,000 participants in this
first-ever White House Tribal Youth
Gathering in early July. And youth coun-
cil Treasurer Cece Hoffman said, “I’m
very thankful that we were able to rep-
resent our tribe and bring back knowl-
edge and ideas for the future. It was an
eye-opening experience I will never for-
get.”
Considering that it takes almost no ef-
fort at all to learn that reservation youth
are among America’s most at-risk citi-
zens, it’s head-spinning to think it’s taken
until now for it to sink in at the top level
that it was time to toss them a life ring.
But good to see anyway.
It’s also emotionally affecting to read
in the latest issue of Archaeology mag-
azine about Yup’ik Tribe wooden dolls
dating between 1540 and 1650 washing
out of a prehistoric site destabilized by
melting Bering Sea ice. Archaeologists
mounted an emergency response to in-
vestigate the mound from which the dolls
were emerging. Sometimes a couple of
hundred of these figures, along with ritu-
al masks and other well-preserved wood-
en objects, were recovered each day.
It is a strange but invigorating irony
that destruction of a place so saturated
with tribal history is reawakening local
young people.
“In part as a result of their experience
with the dig, a group of children from
Quinhagak petitioned the elders for and
received permission to form a traditional
dance group,” the magazine reports. In
2013 at an exhibition of newfound arti-
facts, these young dancers performed.
“They were welcoming the pieces back,”
the lead archaeologist said. “That was the
fist time there had been traditional danc-
ing in Quinhagak in more than a century.
It’s all part of this revival that is growing
along with the finds.”
A somewhat similar renewal of trib-
al identity happened near the mouth of
the Columbia River when archaeologists
uncovered Chinook tribal remains at the
Middle Village unit of Lewis and Clark
National Park in the run-up to the 2005
expedition bicentennial. This tangible
evidence of their ancestors was sad for
local tribal members, and yet at the same
time appeared to strengthen their passion
for asserting a right to endure and even
prosper in the tribe’s traditional home-
land.
Shamefully, this hasn’t ignited a sim-
ilar interest on the part of national lead-
ers to right wrongs against this essential
Pacific Northwest tribe. A letter-writing
campaign now in its 54th day has yet to
elicit any response whatsoever from the
White House.
The Chinook — and the Clatsop on the
Oregon side of the river — continue hop-
ing, in the words of the young Cherokee
woman, to receive some acknowledgment
that “We are still here.”
— MSW
Matt Winters is editor of the Chinook
Observer and Coast River Business Jour-
nal.
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
• CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
• DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Founded in 1873