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DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
148TH YEAR, NO. 133
$1.50
CORONAVIRUS
Port
eyes
Pier 2
repairs
Hope for inclusion in
infrastructure bill
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
The Port of Astoria’s best option for fi x-
ing a slumping seawall on the west side of
Pier 2 will cost an estimated $17 million.
The Port plans to ask that the project be
included in the American Jobs Plan, Pres-
ident Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure
bill.
Hundreds of workers with Bornstein
Seafoods and Da Yang Seafood in the Pier
2 warehouse take in catch from boats at a
dilapidated dock 800 feet long. The metal
sheet pile seawall holding the pier is only 8
feet out from the western edge of the ware-
house, causing the two load-bearing walls
to bow out, risking failure.
Matt McGrath, the Port’s deputy direc-
tor , told the Port Commission on Tuesday
that the most viable option is to move the
seawall 60 feet out into the water to the
See Port, Page A6
Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Family members gather around a photo of their ancestor, William Henry Menz, of the Lakota Sioux, who served in World War I
and attended an Indian boarding school as a child.
Boarding school exhibit
illustrates complex history
A concentrated eff ort to
eradicate native cultures
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
MORE INSIDE
County to remain at high risk for virus • A2
County reports new virus cases • A2
Lawsuit
fi led over
road district
Lewis and Clark residents
question use of funds
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Concerned Friends for Clatsop
County, a group that formed to challenge
plans to relocate the public works facil-
ity to Lewis and Clark, is now suing the
county.
The group, in a lawsuit fi led in Cir-
cuit Court in April, alleges the county
has misappropriated funds received for
Clatsop County Road District No. 1 and
intends to use the money for unpermitted
purposes.
The c ounty declined to comment on
the suit .
Mike Sargetakis, a Portland attorney
representing Concerned Friends for Clat-
sop County, said the group fi led the law-
suit in an eff ort to fi nd answers .
S
allie Thurman felt like she better
understood her mother after she
learned about the American Indian
boarding schools.
To Thurman, it explained the dis-
tance, the anger. Thurman’s mother, a
woman of Lakota and Dakota descent,
had told her children about attending
boarding schools, but not the context
and purpose of the schools — off -reser-
vation institutions created by the federal
government in the late 1870s to force
cultural assimilation on n ative children.
Thurman only learned about the
schools later while researching her
family.
Now, Thurman thinks, “OK, I was
raised by boarding school tactics. ... I
was raised by this woman but I never
understood her until I started doing this
research.”
The boarding schools are the sub-
ject of a traveling exhibit, “Away
From Home,” on display at the Clat-
sop County Heritage Museum. Though
the few schools still in operation are run
much diff erently now, the early ver-
sions were part of a concentrated eff ort
to eradicate n ative cultures through edu-
cation after “government offi cials found
it was less expensive to educate Native
Americans than to fi ght wars (against
them),” according to materials provided
at the exhibit. The founder of one of the
schools stated a philosophy to “kill the
Indian and save the m an.”
Thurman, who lives in California,
and other members of her family trav-
eled to Astoria to see the exhibit in
ABOVE: Sallie Thurman discusses the ‘Away From Home’ exhibit, which features
several of her ancestors, with McAndrew Burns, the executive director of the Clatsop
County Historical Society. BELOW: Beaded moccasins, a tobacco bag and a woman’s
purse were contributed to the exhibit by Thurman’s family.
ilies today.
The original “Away From Home”
exhibit debuted in Arizona in 2000.
It’s had years of audience interaction
and undergone several updates, but it is
still new information to many, even to
Native Americans .
A change in direction
April. Family members had contributed
stories and items to the exhibit: beaded
moccasins, a tobacco bag, a woman’s
purse, photos — including a photo of a
trio of siblings, one of whom died after
being taken to a school and who was
buried in an unmarked grave.
The schools and the policy that led
to their creation was “a war waged on
children,” according to exhibit materi-
als, with repercussions still felt by fam-
For the Clatsop County Historical
Society and the m useum, the exhibit
is part of a change in direction that has
been underway for a while, as the insti-
tution reexamines whose stories it tells
and how.
“Museums have an obligation to
accurately tell stories and help explain
complicated ones,” said McAndrew
Burns, the executive director of the h is-
torical s ociety.
See Exhibit, Page A6
See Lawsuit, Page A2
A quiet steward of Seaside sports
Community remembers
a dedicated coach
By GARY HENLEY
The Astorian
To the many athletes and follow-
ers of high school sports in Clatsop
County, he was the guy at the scor-
er’s table in Seaside who always
wore shorts.
To Seaside, Dennis “Denny”
Vaughn — who died at 77 just over
a week ago — was much more.
On the surface, you can fi nd his
name on the list of Seagull booster
club members and in the school’s
Hall of Fame, plus all the work he
did for the Astoria Golf & Country
Club and the county’s junior golf
program.
But, “that was all just the tip of
the iceberg, as far as Denny was
concerned,” said longtime Seaside
student-athlete, parent and fan Mark
Truax. “He wasn’t a teacher or a
coach to me, but he certainly was a
mentor. He did a lot more behind the
scenes — stuff he didn’t want credit
for.”
Vaughn began his teaching career
at St. Mary, Star of the Sea School in
Astoria, then moved to the Seaside
School District and taught for 30
years, retiring in 1999. He coached
freshman girls basketball in addi-
tion to boys golf, and was inducted
into Seaside’s Hall of Fame for mer-
itorious service as an educator and
coach.
He took the boys golf team to the
state tournament 12 times.
He “left me a great program, and
See Vaughn, Page A6
Longtime scorer’s table teammates, Alice Olstedt and Denny Vaughn.