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PORTLAND OBSERVER
Volume XIII, Number 35
June 15,1963
Section II
Leura Gloason, retiring 8th grade teacher from Boise
Elementary School, hangs on with both hands while winners of
the Observer/Goodyear annual blimp ride look for their school
and their homes below. Back row: David Stiglar, Mrs. Glosson,
Leslie Wyllie; front row: Barbara Staples and Lois Wyllie. The
students, all 8th graders from Boise, won their trip by writing
winning essays on "What I learned at Boise that will most
benefit me all of my life."
(Photos: Dan Long)
Native Americans gather at Delta Park
Pow Wow dedicated
to Margaret Mattson
Native Am erican
traditional dr««»
w om an
in
The sixth annual Delta Park Pow
Wow
offered
Portlanders
the
chance to personally acquaint our
selves with Native American tradi
lions — and several thousand peo
pie responded. Sponsored by the
Portland Inter Tribal Club, the
three day Pow Wow included several
dances, traditional prayer songs,
and arts and crafts displays.
Today's pow wow, like those of
the past, is still a gathering for sing
ing, dancing, drumming, selling A
trading. As you watch the colorful
dancers whirling and turning to the
beat of the drum which is the heart
beat of Mother Earth, you see
doctors, businessmen, lawyers and
educators who for a day or so, re
turn to a past culture to keep alive a
tradition that is America. A tradi
tion and a culture that was here
when the whileman came. Not one
that was imported.
This year's Delta Park Pow-W ow
was held in honor o f Mrs. Margaret
Mattson, a long-time Portland resi
dent and. retiree from Emanuel
Hospital where she worked as an
L P N . Margaret Mattson was born
the daughter of Judd and Edith
Wockmetooah on March 20, 1915 in
Cache, Oklahom a In 1929 she was
elected Princess o f her Commanche
Tribe. Known for her outstanding
buckskin dresses and bead work as
well as shawls, she was voted the
best dressed Indian Woman in buck
skin of 1972. A descendant of the
most famous C hief of the Com -
manches.
C hief
W ild
Horse,
Margaret Mattson passed away on
July 4th, 1982
Displayed
on
the
pow wow
grounds were the many different tipi
styles of the over thirty tribes repre
sented. Participants came from
Northern Canada to Oklahoma and
from the west to east coasts. The
largest groups present are the
Yakima Nation, Um atilla, W arm
Springs and Siletz.
The tipi is the traditional home of
many
North
American
Native
Tribes The floor is Mother Earth
and is sacred. Ils poles are the trail
to the spirit world and the walls are
the sky. These are considered links
to the Great Mysteries Waken
Taaka.
The fire is in the center o f the tipi
lie hind it (to the west) is the altar
This piece of worked-up ground
usually holds the sacred things. It
may hold burnt sage or sweetgrass
Dance ceremonies dominated the
Delta Park Pow W ow. For those of
you who missed these traditional
and evolving dances, the O bstrvrr
presents some brief descriptions
below:
War Dance — This misleading
term really is a free style method of
dancing with no set routine. It's
called a "Grass Dance" in the
Montana A Dakota area because of
the braided grass the dancers wear
to simulate scalps. In South Dakota,
the Sioux call it an "O m aha
Dance,"
The
Shoshone
and
Arapahoe of Wyoming refer to it as
a " W o lf Dance." Meanwhile, the
Ponca, O to, Osage A Pawnee of
Oklahoma call it a "Straight
Dance." Today it ’s known as a
"Fan cy”
o f "Fancy
Feather"
dance.
Costumes change with the name
of the dance and the tribe, but the
free style remains the same with
each dancer doing their very best to
display their variations. Each must
keep lime with the drum and if the
drum stops, they must stop with it.
Sometimes during competition, the
drum will do a "Stop Dance" or
"T ric k Dance." Here the dancer
must be on his toes so to speak as
any movement after the last beat
will be points lost.
Sneak-Up Dance — Sometimes
called a scout dance, it tells the story
o f scouts on the warpath. It shows
warriors looking for their enemies.
At the beginning, dancers kneel on
one knee, shade their eyes and look
for
enemies.
They
listen
for
hoofbeals of enemy horses. Some
check the wind by throwing grass
or dirt in the air. Others test their
weapons.
The drum will change to a
medium beat and the dancers will
dance a fast toe step. The drum
stops and so do the dancers. The
drum will again start a thunder beat
and the dancers will return to their
original positions and start scouting
again. This sequence will be repeat
ed four times. The last war dance
will be faster than the other three.
The story tells o f a war leader who
was wounded in battle. The words
translate as follows:
They are carrying him (fo r he is
wounded)
Behold the hero, for he was in the
thick of battle
They are carrying him.
Inter-Tribal Dance — This dance
is a social dance. All dancers move
counterclockwise in a circle At
times you will see two or more
dancers dancing side-by-side in an
easy flowing manner. Some will
joke and talk while others will dance
"F an cy " steps. This is a free style
dance On the heavy beat o f the
drum you will see dancers raise their
right hand with whatever is in it.
This is honoring the drum. Men
dancers will sometimes do a quick
turn to the right to honor the drum.
Middle-aged men
can
regain strength
Middle aged males can regain a
great portion o f the strength andfit-
ness they possessed in earlier years,
an Oregon Slate University profes
sor of health and physical education
has demonstrated.
The story o f Professor Pat
O ’Shea and "H o w I Poweri/ed M y
Body at 5 0 !" is told in the June
issue o f "M uscle and Fitness,” a
national magazine for body builders
and physical fitness devotees II has
a circulation o f 2 million.
"A g e should be no barrier to de
veloping and maintaining a high
level o f power and strength fitness,"
says O ’Shea. "Despite the factors of
aging that seem to detract from an
older person's participation in
strength sports, the over-50 athlete
can enjoy a highly physically active
lifestyle. I know. I ’ve done it ."
O'Shea was a nationally-ranked
weight lifter until his competitive
career was abruptly ended by an
injury in 1964 at age 34. The injury
resulted in a 30 percent loss of
function in the lower left leg.
" In M arch, 1980, upon turning
50, I was curious as to how much of
my former strength I could possibly
regain in a one-year period of con
centrated train in g ." O'Shea writes
in the article.
The project was prompted by
much more than idle curiosity, the
sportshealth
professor-researcher
stressed. “ Research literature o f
fered no precedent or clues as to the
effects o f long-term, power-type
strength training on a 50-year-old
male.”
Findings are being reported in
professional as well as popular pub
lications,
O'Shea
stressed.
A
technical paper was published last
August in the "Physician and Sports
M edicine" magazine, for example.
In “ powerizing" his body at age
50, O'Shea avoided some of the lifts
— snatch and clean — that he fell
most dangerous in injury recur
rence. Hut he returned to other
strength building and weight-lifting
regimes o f his earlier days.
The results were surprising even
to O ’Shea.
" A t 50, my body proved to be as
strong and resilient as it was at 3 0 ,"
he summarized A 9 percent increase
in weight was mainly lean muscle
tissue, he reported. Strength and
weight lift performance increased
markedly and the debilitated left
thigh showed major improvements.
O'Shea stressed that he was in
good physical shape before the age
50 powerizing program from jog
ging, bicycling and mountaineering
" . . M y strength training has
been put to many functional uses
over the years," he noted. " In fact
it saved my life back in 1976 on
Mount St. Helens when I was buried
under tons o f ice and snow at the
bottom o f a crevasse for almost
three hours before rescuers, who
were looking for my body, found
me alive!"