NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Nez Perce stage blessing ceremony on traditional homeland
By ERIC BARKER
Lewiston Morning Tribune
JOSEPH — Quincy
Ellenwood smiled as a pair
of young Nez Perce men rode
their horses across a hay fi eld
in Joseph Thursday, July 29.
Their pace — slow and
steady — quickened without
warning. Soon the two men,
one shirtless and the other
wearing a beaded vest, raced
across the grassy slope.
“There they go, look at
them. They get to do that
now,” said Ellenwood as he
fanned himself with an eagle
wing. “Can you imagine how
a whole camp was here and
boys and young men and
young ladies would ride their
horses all around. It was like
that all day, every day.”
As he spoke, other Nimii-
puu people sang, danced and
drummed in a longhouse,
celebrating and blessing the
148-acre property the tribe
purchased last December.
“The people are excited
to come back home,” said
Casey Mitchell, a member
of the tribe’s executive
committee. “When we sing
our songs and we dance,
we are letting our ancestors
know we are back and that
our love for this land will
never die.”
Known as Am’sáaxpa,
or place of the boulders, the
land is a traditional camp-
site and one of the last places
occupied by Chief Joseph
August Frank/Lewiston Tribune
Nakia Williamson-Cloud leads horseback riders on Thursday, July 29, 2021, down West Wal-
lowa Avenue in Joseph. A special ceremony occurred in Idaho on July 31 to rename a historic
collection of artifacts the Nez Perce Tribe owns.
and his band before they left
the Wallowa Valley and their
Northeastern Oregon home-
land under threat of military
force in the spring of 1877.
The Army was forcing
them to live in Idaho and
within the boundaries of a
reservation defi ned by the
1863 Treaty. At just 770,000
acres, it was a fraction of the
territory they were prom-
ised in the Treaty of 1855 and
smaller yet than the tribe’s
17 million-acre traditional
homeland.
Tribal Chairman Samuel
Penney said to this day
Nez Perce people call it the
“Steal Treaty” because few
of the tribe’s bands signed
on to the rushed agreement
precipitated by pressure
from settlers and the discov-
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
THURSDAY
WEDNESDAY
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
ery of gold near Pierce. But
in the government’s eyes,
the treaty was valid and Nez
Perce from places like the
Wallowas, the Salmon River,
White Bird and the Palouse
were forced to relocate.
Later that summer, fric-
tion over the treaty and the
forced exile led to war. A
faction of the tribe engaged
with the army in a series of
Partly sunny and
very hot
100° 72°
99° 70°
Partly sunny and
not as hot
Breezy; a shower in
the morning
Partly sunny and
nice
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
91° 67°
81° 60°
80° 60°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
103° 71°
103° 73°
95° 68°
85° 62°
OREGON FORECAST
84° 63°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
74/57
94/63
100/69
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
100/74 Lewiston
86/58
102/71
Astoria
69/57
Pullman
Yakima 100/71
87/55
102/72
Portland
Hermiston
90/62
The Dalles 103/73
Salem
Corvallis
88/57
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
95/66
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
94/58
96/64
99/65
Ontario
99/67
Caldwell
Burns
97°
69°
94°
60°
104° (1965) 44° (1987)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
92/60
0.00"
0.00"
0.01"
1.93"
1.66"
5.15"
WINDS (in mph)
95/64
96/55
0.00"
0.01"
0.02"
4.37"
8.63"
8.33"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 91/62
93/60
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
100/72
99/71
97°
66°
91°
60°
107° (1898) 40° (1897)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
85/56
Aberdeen
96/68
97/71
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
82/59
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
102/68
Wed.
SSW 4-8
NNE 6-12
WNW 4-8
NW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
93/52
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
5:41 a.m.
8:21 p.m.
1:07 a.m.
5:05 p.m.
First
Full
LA GRANDE— Forty-
fi ve miles of trails are again
available to hikers, mountain
bikers and horseback riders
in the western Grande Ronde
Valley.
The Mount Emily Recre-
ation Area opened for day
use on Saturday, July 31,
for nonmotorized activities
after having being closed
completely the previous 10
days because of high fire
danger due to hot and dry
conditions.
T he Un ion Cou nt y
Board of Commissioners on
Wednesday, July 28, made
the decision to partially
reopen MERA via a 3-0 vote.
No motor vehicles of
any kind are now allowed
at MERA under the partial
reopening rules, and smok-
ing, campfi res and overnight
camping still will be prohib-
ited. Smoking and campfi res
are banned under Oregon
Department of Forestry
regulations.
Mountain biking, hiking
High 115° in Thermal, Calif. Low 38° in Stonington, Mich.
Aug 8
Aug 15
Aug 22
Aug 29
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
and horseback riding are
among the nonmotorized
activities people can enjoy
at MERA.
The commissioners voted
to partially reopen MERA
after receiving emails from
hikers and mountain bikers
asking for it to be reopened
for nonmotorized use.
Commissioner Paul Ande-
res said mountain bikers and
hikers campaigned the hard-
est to get MERA partially
reopened.
Anderes, who proposed
the partial reopening, said
the input did not infl uence
his decision. He said his
decision was based on infor-
mation he received from
the Oregon Department of
Forestry, the U.S. Forest
Service and county offi-
cials. He said the guidance
provided from them made
proposing the partial reopen-
ing of MERA appear to be
the right move.
The decision the county
board made to close MERA
completely on July 21 also
was proposed by Anderes,
who helps oversee MERA in
his position on the board. He
said his decisions to recom-
mend the complete closure
of MERA and then its partial
reopening were very diffi -
cult.
“They have been the hard-
est I’ve made since becoming
a commissioner,” said Ande-
res, who joined the Union
County Board of Commis-
sioners in 2019.
Emails read at the July
28 meeting said the MERA
closure was hurting tourism
in La Grande because travel-
ers who would normally stop
to visit MERA were travel-
ing through the area and
going elsewhere.
Other emails supported
reopening the recreational
area to motor vehicles. One
stated that most wildfi res are
started by lightning and that
only a small percentage are
ignited by motor vehicles.
Sean Chambers, Union
County parks coordinator,
said since MERA was closed
July 21 he knows of only one
person who tried to use it.
“People have been very
respectful,” he said.
IN BRIEF
Last
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
and being able to walk on our
homelands and take back our
culture,” said Gabby Lewis,
23, of Spokane.
The short, 1-mile ride and
walk was a symbolic nod to
the heartbreaking trip Joseph
and his people made as they
left the scenic valley framed
by towering peaks.
“There was a point where
our elders turned back and
thought they would never
come back to this place and
many never did,” said Nakia
Williamson, director of the
tribe’s cultural resource
program. “As our people
left on horses, we wanted to
return on horseback.”
It was also a day for heal-
ing. Some of the diff erences
and rifts — brought on by
those who signed onto the
1863 Treaty and those who
didn’t, those who prac-
tice traditional religion and
those who follow Christian-
ity — have persisted. The
nontreaty Nez Perce were
sent to Oklahoma and later
to the Colville Reservation
in northeastern Washington.
“Our people are buried
in diff erent areas, but this is
where they are from,” said
Jewie Davis, a Nez Perce
man who lives at Nespelem
on the Colville Reservation.
“Those of us descended from
Nespelem and those from
Lapwai and those from Pend-
leton — there needs to come
a time and a day when there
is healing between all of us.”
MERA open for nonmotorized uses
By DICK MASON
The Observer
Hazy sunshine and
very hot
battles that stretched nearly
1,200 miles across Idaho
and Montana. Chief Joseph
eventually surrendered in
the Bear Paw Mountains. He
and many of his people were
never allowed to return to the
Wallowa Valley.
Despite the offi cial exile,
other Nez Perce people have
been coming to the valley for
more than a century to prac-
tice their religion, visit grave
sites, hunt, fi sh, dig roots and
pick berries. For decades
they have participated in the
Chief Joseph Days Rodeo
that is being held this week.
But the purchase gives them
a place to stay, to be more
than visitors in their own
homeland.
“We are resilient people.
We were forced out of here,
but now look, we’ve come
back,” said Ellenwood, also
a member of the tribe’s exec-
utive committee. “We never
really left but now it’s in
black and white. It’s ours.”
A few hours earlier, tribal
leaders on horseback headed
a procession of riders and
walkers from Joseph High
School west along Wallowa
Avenue, following the tribe’s
traditional Imnaha Route to
the property. Some wore
traditional dress while others
stuck with modern outfi ts.
Among the crowd were
elders, toddlers and every
age between.
“I think it’s really cool
seeing all of us come together
OCA seeking
donations to support
farmers aff ected by wildfi re
SALEM — The Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association is seeking donations for its Wild-
fi re Stewardship Fund to support producers
who lost profi t as a result of recent wildfi res.
In 2020, 15 farmers impacted by wildfi res
requested over $258,000 from the associa-
tion, which was able to distribute $45,000.
This year, requests are expected to be
even higher because of the drastic eff ects of
the Bootleg Fire, according to Robyn Smith,
communications director of OCA.
“It’s really important because they’re
going through so much this year, with
drought conditions and insects and pest
issues because of the high heat,” Smith said.
“Any help would be valuable. It’s going to be
a tough year.”
The organization also is accepting supply
donations, such as medical supplies for cattle,
nutritional supplements and fence material.
Grange Co-op has pledged to match up to
$5,000 in relief funds donated by customers
at any of their Oregon locations.
Donations can be made online at orcat-
tle.com, or mailed to the association at 1320
Capitol St. NE, Suite 150, Salem, OR 97301.
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