Portland Observer
Chiloquin’s flame claims Klamath land
(Stephen Most, a playwright, writing
In s tru c to r and long-tlase s tu d en t of
Native American cultures, is aa asso­
ciate editor o l P N S who writes fre­
quently on Indian affairs.
He is the
author of a soon to-he produc«<d play on
the Indian Modoc wars-l
C H IL O Q U IN . OREGON (P N S ) - On a
hilltop above Chiloquin, Oregon. Edison
Chiloquin, grandson of a Klam ath chief,
threw hay, a pinecone and willuwsticks
into a firepit and set them ablaze.
From his pouch he sprinkled a mix­
ture of kinni kinnick (Indian tobacco),
berries and seeds into the fire.
To
participants in the ceremony he itaid the
fire was sacred and will keep burning
until the land of his grandfather's peo
pie is restored to them.
Edison Chiloquin is the only Klamath
to refuse payment for tribal territory
liquidated since the 1964 Termination
Act. A check for 1108,000 waits for him
in the U.S. National Bank of Portland;
Chiloquin leaves it there.
“To me the land is sacred, the money
can't replace it," he explained.
Of the 1.3 million acres acknowledged
as Klamath country by an 1864 treaty
signed by his grandfather. Chief Tsela
kin, Chiloquin wants a 640 acre parcel
"put back in the statua of the original
treaty lands to be recognized as Kla
math Indian land for all time to come."
That parcel, known as the Arrow
head, is bounded by a three and a half
mile bend of the Sprague River and
represents what was once the center of
the Plaikni (Klamath) Nation. I t was the
site of his grandfather's village, Ktai-
Tupaksi (Standing Rock),
Told of the perpetual fire there, Ro
bert Mezger, forestry management ex­
pert for the U.S. National Bank, re
marked, “They'll have a long time to
wait."
A N ID E A L FOR EST
Chiloquin, 52, has already waited a
long time. The Termination Act gave
all Klamatha listed on tribal rolls before
1954 the choice of individually selling
their claim to part of the reservation or
retaining land under a trust arrange
ment.
Twenty two percent of the Klamatha
eligible chose land instead of caah; Chief
Tselakin's grandson was among them.
When U.S. National became trustee
over the remaining tribal lands fifteen
years ago it announced plans to develop
an "ideal forest over a th irty year
period," eventually yielding as much aa
40 million board feet annually.
The ahareholders in this multimillion
dollar estate had no say in what the
bank did with Klamath land since the
trustees, Mezger maintained, "have to
take responsibility for what, happens."
While the bank made S92.000 a year
for managing the ponderosa forest, the
trusta's beneficiaries received less than
SI,000 a year each.
M ea n w h ile the fed eral te rm in a tio n
money was having a devastating impact
on the Klamath community. Per capita
payments of 343,000 to the 78 percent of
the tribe which had sold its claims
created b itte r resentm en ts b etw een
those born before 1954 and their young
er brothers and sisters, who received
nothing.
Intoxicated by the windfall, young
Klamatha dropped out of school and left
home. Wheeler dealers rushed to Chi­
loquin to sell refrigerators to people
whose homes larked electricity; luxury
cars and snowmobiles to a people as
unaccustomed to saving money as to
storing food.
W h ile some K lam ath a squandered
vast sums, others, receiving no pay
menls. were unable to make a living.
The murder rate among Klamatha shot
upward.
Sudden affluence proved as
destructive to Indian Uvea as infected
blankets had a century ago.
In 1969 the Klamatha who had not
sold out their membership in the tribe
voted to end the trust agreement with
the bank.
They intended to set up
another trust that would better serve
their interests by putting the profitable
management role in the hands of the
shareholders, rather than the bank.
VW MMK . O A r f f f / V
P a ’ â T N Î I
Mrs. H arriett Eckman, third grade teacher and Mrs.
Virginia Yount, second grade teacher at Faubion will be
honored. Both are retiring at the end of the school year.
Former students, teachers and friends are invited.
Special “Memory is Survival" Bicentennial salute continues
at Jewish Community Center, 6651 S.W. Capitol Highway.
Special slide-tape presentations Saturday and Sunday only at
7:30 p.m.
Admission 33.50 Saturday, May 15th program
hosted by Neighborhood House. Failing School Alums and
Ex-Newsboys Association. Sunday, May 16th host is B'nai
B’rith Lodge. Both evenings open to public.
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SPECIAL GROUP OF
MISSES, JR. FORMALS
Edison Chiloquin sprinkles kinni kinnick (Indian tobacco) into the perpetual fire.
(Photo by Charon Duncan.)
Instead of money Edison Chiloquin
wants the Arrowhead parcel - now
owned by the U.S. Forest Service -
maintained perpetually as Klamath land.
His plan is to "preserve the culture of
my tribe by re-creating my grandfa­
ther’s old village of my people at Ktai-
Tupaksi (Standing Rock). I want tra d i­
tional Indian people to be able to live
there in the traditional way while the
knowledge of the old ways is still in our
mind and heart."
Chiloquin refuses to buy land with the
now 3108.000 held in his name because
by doing so he would waive treaty
rights to government funding for health
and educational services.
Major Pierre L'Enfant.
Another painting shows a Black on
his knees as an A m erican g en eral
shares his meal w ith a British officer
during the Revolutionary W ar, and a
portrait of the Boston Massacre depicts
Crispus Attucks with a stick in his hand
attacking a group of armed British
soldiers.
“As a Black American, I am shocked
and terribly offended that the building
symbolizing the democratic government
of the American people is without art
works properly recording the achieve­
ments of Black people throughout our
ONLY
Bob Chadwick of the Forest Service
told the press he likes the idea of this
land being a "living Indian museum,"
but his conditions - that there be a
governing body and public access roads
- ensure that the ancestral lands would
become a tourist attraction beyond con­
trol of traditional leaders.
In keeping with his museum concept
Chadwick insisted that 640 acres would
be more than required. A few acres for
buildings and a parking lot are as much
sacred land as the forest can spare.
But the Chiloquins are confident they
can obtain the land legally, if not by an
exchange then by a congressional bill
promised by Representative A l Ullman
(D.-Ore.), should all else fail.
As the only Klamath who has not sold
his land and treaty rights. Chiloquin
says he will live to be a hundred if
necessary to preserve his claim.
To
dramatize his purpose, he and his sup­
porters have set up tipis and lit a fire.
They plan to keep it' burning until they
receive title to the land.
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Rangel, former chairman of the Con­
gressional Black Caucus, has also ex­
pressed his concern in letters to the
chairman of the Congressional commit­
tees administering the Capitol's collec­
tion of art works on American history.
“I t is particularly embarrassing that
d u rin g the B icentenn ial ce leb ratio n ,
those visiting the Capitol are unable to
see the important contributions of Black
Americans to this nation properly rep­
resented," Rangel said.
“The thousands of people of all races
who will come to Washington this year
should not be left with the impression
that a deliberate effort was made by
their government to exclude portrayals
of Black Americana from the walls of
the Capitol." ✓
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nation's history," Rangel said.
The Congressman said his feelings
that the building's current art collection
is insensitive to Black Americans is
shared by George M. W hite, architect of
the Capitol. A t a meeting with Rangel.
W hite agreed that changes in the col­
lection should be made and offered his
cooperation.
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Instead he intends to work out a deal
w hereby Crow n Z ellerb ach Com pany
would accept the money in exchange for
a 640 acre parcel to be given to ithe
Forest Service.
The Forest Service
would then relinquish title of the A r ­
rowhead land to Chiloquin.
In the meantime, the National Forest
has promised the Chiloquins a tern
porary land use permit, enabling them
to put up tipis and sweat lodges but not
perm an en t s tru c tu re s such as e a rth
lodges.
Black* not represented in capitol art
Congressional officials must act at
once to correct the under representation
and offensive portrayal of Black A m eri­
cans in the art works displayed in the
U.S. Capitol, Congressman Charles B.
Rangel (D -N .Y.) declared.
After a careful review of the nearly
700 works of art on display in the
building, Rangel said he found Rlacks
depicted in only five.
In one portrait, a Black is seen with a
white member of Congress in a Capitol
foyer: another shows a Black man ap
parently about to be shoved off a row
boat during the Battle of Lake Erie; and
one depicts a Black tending the horse of
A retirem ent tea honoring two Faubion teachers ia sche­
duled for Thursday. May 20th, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the
cafeteria at Faubion Elementary School at 3039 N.E. Port­
land Boulevard.
Wards Bargain Centers
However, U.S. National responded to
the threat by exercising a little known
option in the original agreement en­
titling it to dispose of the tru st by
returning the land to the Indians or by
selling the land and paying the share
holders in cash.
W ithout consulting tribal leaderti, the
bank sold the land to various parties
including lumber companies and the
U.S. Interior Department.
The latter
incorporated parrels into the Winema
National Forest and a wildlife refuge.
E ln a th a n D avis, se c re ta ry of th e
Committee to Save the Remaining Kla
math lands, said at the time, "People
who grow up on this land feel like it is a
part of us, a mother to us. I f this land
is sold it is the end of us as a tribe -
we're lost."
The gradual destruction of the Kla
math Nation - the chipping away at- its
once vast lands - has continued since
the 1864 treaty guaranteeing them sov­
ereignty.
Under that treaty the Klamaths ced­
ed thirteen million acres of what is now
southern Oregon and northeastern Cali­
fornia to the U.S. government. Still the
Klamaths were more fortunate than
many tribes having a reservation on the
same land they had inhabited for at
least 10,000 years.
The Dawes Act of 1887 further cut
into tribal holdings by converting the
communally held land into 160 acre par
cels which individuals could sell.
By
1950 white businessmen had purchased
nearly a fourth of the Klamath reserva­
tion.
The 1954 Termination Act virtually
liquidated the reservation by paying off
tribal members who voted to receive
money rather than hold share of their
land under a trust agreement.
W ith all but 145,000 acres of land void
off by 1960, the Klamath culture -
rooted so deeply in land - had nearly
disappeared.
W hat remnants remain
threatened to vanish with the 1969 sale
of the remaining land by the U.S.
National Bank for 351.4 million.
From th at sale came the 3103.000 per
capita the bank paid members of the
trust.
A ll except Edison Chiloquin
accepted the money, and the Klamaths
were again embroiled in an orgy of
spending.
Page 3
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
The March for Afrikan Liberation Day, Saturday, May 22,
1976 will support liberation and freedom for our people in
Afrika and America.
The march will show that Black
Portlanders have not forgotten the police killings and other
injustices our people suffer in Portland.
The march will
begin at 12:30 at the corner of N. Gantenbein and N. Shaver
Street. I t will be followed by a rally at Irving Park, on N.E.
7th and Fremont Street.
The public is invited to attend the annual open bouse held
at Tucker Maxon Oral School, 2860 S.E. Holgate Boulevard
on Monday, May 17th.
Tours to observe teachers and
children in their classrooms start at 6:15 p.m. The final tour
starts at 8:30.
Open House at Tucker Maxon provides an opportunity for
the public to observe children with severe to profound
hearing losses who are learning to communicate through the
use of speech and speechreading.
by Stephen Most
Thursday, May 13, 1976
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